Why is Brazil the "lungs" of the planet?

Question

I hear alot of people referring it to that. Is it because of the Amazon pretty much absorbing all the pollution.

Answer 1

BRASILIA, Brazil - The Amazon deserves to be called the "lungs of the world," as new projections show it is a net producer of oxygen despite widespread burning of the jungle, scientists said.


The projections show that the trees in the world's largest tropical forest are cleaning the air by absorbing carbon dioxide. The data collected indicates that the Amazon absorbs slightly more carbon dioxide than the burning spews out.
"The indication is that it is a small net supplier of oxygen," said Paulo Artaxo, a researcher at the University of Sao Paulo.

That conclusion is based on the latest projections made possible by the Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia, the world's leading study of jungle deforestation.

Experts are meeting this week in Brasilia to discuss the findings of the series of experiments, which started in 1998 and are conducted by Brazilian and foreign organizations, including the U.S. space agency NASA.

The results are based on data collected by 14 observation towers in the jungles, which scientists use to monitor carbon dioxide, wind, temperature levels and weather conditions. The full findings are not yet ready but projections are.

Scientists have long thought that the Amazon is a net producer of oxygen. The issue is politically sensitive in Brazil because it reinforces environmentalists' calls to stop Amazon burning, which hit its second-highest level last year.

"This situation can be extremely advantageous for Brazil," said Artaxo. "There is just the problem of the burning."

The Amazon, home to up to 30 percent of the world's animal and plant species, covers an area of continuous forest larger than the continental United States.

An area of 5.9 million acres, bigger than the U.S. state of New Jersey, was destroyed as loggers and farmers hacked and burned the forest in 2003. Scientists warned at the conference that rising temperatures and declining rainfall are accelerating its disappearance.

Scientists at the conference said there is additional sensitivity surrounding the Amazon's absorption of carbon dioxide because the government is expected to publish this year a long-delayed inventory of Brazil's greenhouse gas emissions.

The report is expected to show that Brazil is among the world's 10 top polluters and that 75 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions come from Amazon burning. It will be first official confirmation of that information.

Under the Kyoto Protocol to curb greenhouse gas emissions, which Brazil has signed, the country is obliged to produce an inventory of its pollution. The problem is that under the international agreement the inventory will not include carbon dioxide absorption.

Answer 2

BRASILIA - Brazil - The Amazon deserves to be called the "lungs of the world," as new projections show it is a net producer of oxygen despite widespread .
The projections show that the trees in the world's largest tropical forest are cleaning the air by absorbing carbon dioxide. The data collected indicates that the Amazon absorbs slightly more carbon dioxide than the burning spews out.

I think is because of this.......................

Answer 3

Nearly 40 percent of all the tropical rainforest left in the world is in the Brazilian Amazon. The Amazon rainforest, also known as Amazonia, is one of the world's greatest natural resources. Because its vegetation continuously recycles carbon dioxide into oxygen, it has been described as the "Lungs of our Planet". About 20% of earth's oxygen is produced by the Amazon rainforest.

Answer 4

Not because the Amazon absorbs pollution, but because of all the vegetation and trees. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen.

Answer 5

The trees of the Amazonian rainforest absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, thus "breathing" and refreshing the atmosphere for the rest of us. Because of the vastness of these forests, they are responsible for as much as half of the oxygen transfer of the planet. This is why the deforestation taking place there is a global issue; it affects all of us directly.

Answer 6

Because it is home to the Amazon Rainforest which is the biggest producer of oxygen (and absorber of carbon dioxide) on the planet!

Impressive, no?

Answer 7

they say it is because the Amazon forest but they forget to say that the oxygen produced by it is used by the forest itself: during the day it produces oxygen but during the night it takes this oxigen to convert it into co2 (or the inverse, i am not sure). The real lung of the planet, as it was said above, is the plankton in the ocean who really produces the most oxygen of the planet. Poor plankton!

Answer 8

Yep, you got it, and Brazilian people are noted to be some of the most beautiful people in the world, and well I think it's because they have the rainforest there that takes care of all the polutants that can damage, skin, hair, food, everything!

Answer 9

It is because the rainforest produces a huge amount of the oxygen we breathe.

Answer 10

well plants take in Co2 and make oxygen (the opposite of us) giving the earth air, Brazil has sooooo many plants that they are our lungs giving us air