ITS EDUCATION ASIA ARTICLE

Mythbuster: “Lungs” of the Earth

By Alexandra Taylor

“The Amazon rainforest - the lungs which produce 20% of our planet’s oxygen - is on fire” - President Emmanuel Macron, 2019

The commonly used claim that the Amazon rainforest produces 20% of the world's oxygen, inferring that the vanishing of the Amazon is a danger to the planet's oxygen supply, is false. On balance, it contributes practically none of it - the amount of oxygen the Amazon consumes through cellular respiration is almost exactly the same as the amount it produces (Angert et al., 2012). Misleading headlines such as these can erode the public’s trust in scientists.

This isn't to say there aren’t genuine worries about a ‘tipping point’ with the Amazon, as a result of water stress, land clearance and climate disruption (Amigo, 2020). The Amazon is home to some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth. Deforestation puts them in danger and is also terrible for the environment, since when we cut down trees we discharge carbon into the atmosphere.

References:

Amigo, I. (2020) When will the Amazon hit a tipping point? https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA626943608&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=00280836&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E49634224&aty=open-web-entry.

Angert, A. et al. (2012) 'Internal respiration of Amazon tree stems greatly exceeds external CO<sub>2</sub> efflux,' Biogeosciences, 9(12), pp. 4979–4991. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-4979-2012.