Response to new study on Amazon tipping point

A new study by the University of Exeter and published in the journal Springer Nature, has revealed the Amazon rainforest is reaching a “tipping point” where large swathes will begin to transform into savannah.

According to reporting by Press Association, the study found that three quarters of the Amazon is showing a dwindling resilience against droughts and other adverse weather events, meaning it is less able to recover. It also says that around a fifth of the rainforest has already been lost, compared to pre-industrial levels.

The report comes in the same week that the Brazilian government will again attempt to advance a package of laws that will further devastate the Amazon biome, and mere months after paying lip service at COP26 to a declaration to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. [1]

In January, new figures showed Amazon deforestation alerts to be five times those recorded in January 2021 and deforestation is currently at a 15-year high. 

Responding to the study, Louisa Casson, head of food and forests at Greenpeace UK, said: 

“This alarming report is fresh evidence of the desperate need for action from governments and retailers if we’re to prevent the climate, humanitarian and wildlife catastrophe that losing the Amazon and other climate-critical ecosystems would cause.

“Despite promises to stop, UK supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Aldi, are still buying from companies like JBS, a Brazilian meat giant notorious for driving destruction of the Amazon and other vital forests across Brazil. Unless supermarkets drop JBS immediately and stop selling industrially produced meat and dairy, they remain complicit in this unfolding catastrophe.” [2]