Diminishing tropical forests mean climate breakdown is 'decades ahead of even the most pessimistic' models, carbon study shows

Amazon Forest.
(Image credit: Victor Moriyama/Getty Images)

As tropical forests dwindle as a result of deforestation and climate change, the Earth is losing one of its strongest safeguards against pollution.

Tropical forests can serve as something The Guardian describes as "carbon sinks," meaning they absorb carbon from the atmosphere. But those forests, including the Amazon, are diminishing and have been absorbing fewer and fewer pollutants as the years go by. They could soon completely reverse course and become carbon sources as early as the 2060s, new research has found, per The Guardian. The reduction in tropical forests will likely accelerate a climate breakdown in a manner similar to melting ice sheets and permafrost.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.