Burning Trees in the Amazon Melts Snow in the Himalayas
Scientists have found that the Earth’s largest rainforest and its so-called third pole are connected by atmospheric currents that carry heat and rain across the planet.
A truck dumps garbage at a landfill in Brazil on Oct. 5, 2021.
Photographer: Jonne Roriz/BloombergTrees set ablaze in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest could contribute to melting glaciers in the Himalayas and Antarctica because distant ecosystems that regulate the Earth’s climate are more closely connected than previously thought.
Scientists have discovered a new atmospheric pathway that originates in the Amazon, runs along the South Atlantic, then across East Africa and the Middle East until it reaches central Asia, according to a paper published this month in Nature Climate Change. That connection, which stretches 20,000 kilometers (12,400 miles) across the globe, means that when the Amazon warms, so does the Tibetan Plateau, whereas the more it rains in the Amazon, the less it rains in Tibet.