cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/29115057

• A new study conducted by a group of 53 scientists from Brazil and other nationalities revealed that preserved forest areas are increasingly harmed by climate change in the Amazon, largely due to the rapid increase in extreme temperatures.
• Between 1981 and 2023, extreme temperatures in the Amazon have risen at double the global average rate, increasing by 0.5° Celsius (0.9° Fahrenheit) per decade. The largely preserved north-central Amazon, home to conservation units and Indigenous territories, registered a rise of more than 3.3°C (5.9°F) in maximum extreme temperatures in the period.
• According to the study, the scenario provokes dry periods that lead to increasing forest fires and large-scale tree and fauna mortality, while bearing negative impacts on human access to services and health.
• Meanwhile, the fast temperature increase also demonstrates that high-emitting nations bear a strong responsibility for the changes in the Amazon, underscoring the urgent need for emission reductions and internal adaptation to save preserved areas of the tropical biome.

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The expert witnessed that in a region that had already burned in 2015 — a particularly dry year, also marked by many wildfires — with the flames climbing up young trees, about 15 meters (50 feet) tall, which had grown after that previous fire, and leaping from one canopy to another.

As someone who studies fire behavior, the researcher had often found herself helping to contain flames throughout her years of fieldwork. “But that was the first time I ran. It was the first time I was truly afraid of the fire.”