Stability of Earth's climate depends on Amazonia

The Amazon basin cradles the largest rainforest in the world, and plays an essential role in regulating regional and even global climates. Continued destruction of its tropical forests -- measured in tens of thousands of square kilometres per year -- could transform much of the Amazon into dry savannah, with massive impacts on climate and biodiversity worldwide, experts warn. Covering more than five million square kilometres (two million square miles), the Amazon's dense tropical canopy store a huge amount of carbon, roughly equivalent to 10 times the amount humanity discharges into the atmosphere every year.