Amazon approaches catastrophic potential tipping point

A first-of-its-kind scientific report detailing the natural emergency unfolding in the Amazon basin was presented today at the COP26 conference in Glasgow. The Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA) Amazon Assessment Report was developed by over 200 scientists and is the most in-depth, comprehensive, and holistic scientific assessment yet made on the state of the Amazon Basin. The report warns that the Amazon is approaching a catastrophic potential tipping point due to deforestation, degradation, wildfires, and climate change. Crossing such a tipping point could result in a permanent loss of rainforest and a disastrous shift to dry and degraded ecosystems, the scientists say. Carina Hoorn, associate professor at the UvA's Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, is the leading author of the report's first chapter - Geology and geodiversity of the Amazon: Three billion years of history - and co-author of its second - Evolution of Amazonian biodiversity . 'The Amazon is one of the most important biodiversity hotspots on the planet,' says Hoorn. 'If we allow the forest to be destroyed now, it will be gone forever.'  - 10% of all known species. The Amazon Basin is one of the world's most biologically diverse areas.