The Amazon Produces 20% Of The World’s Oxygen ?

Ted

FYI: As news of the fires in the Amazon rain forest spread, sparking international outrage and condemnation, so too did a uncited statistic: The Amazon produces 20% of the world’s oxygen. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted it. Actor Leonardo Dicaprio posted it on Instagram. CNN included it in its coverage.

The only problem? No one knows where the number came from, and it doesn’t appear to be true.

.Mathematically, it’s impossible for the Amazon to produce that much oxygen, said Jonathan Foley, the former executive director of the California Academy of Sciences and founder of Project Drawdown, a research group focusing on climate change.
.Foley thinks the number could have originated from the fact that all tropical forests (including those in Africa and Indonesia) produce 20% of the oxygen from land-based sources.

.Combining land and ocean, which also produces oxygen, tropical forests only account for 10% of the world’s oxygen. Narrowing that down, Foley estimates it’s only possible for the Amazon itself to produce 6%.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2019/08/23/as-the-amazon-fires-spread-so-did-this-unfounded-statistic/#7f8852b71ea9

davfor

That 20% statistic sounded like it was probably over the top. Another point was also made in the Forbes article. This statistic may be more accurate and significant....

In fact, the Amazon stores 25% of the world’s carbon, according to a 2015 paper published in Nature.

LewisBraham

Only 6% of the world's oxygen? Wow, lucky! Why not burn the whole thing down then?

davfor

The article suggests that loss of oxygen is not a significant long term problem from an environmental perspective because

Oxygen levels are primarily regulated by long-term geological forces, such as plate tectonics, not oxygen from photosynthesis

But the livability of the planet would be significantly impacted by loss of the Amazon rain forest because of the associated release of carbon pollutants into the atmosphere.

The more carbon that can be taken out of the atmosphere and put into forms that are more stable is a good thing, and forest vegetation is one of those good ways to store carbon

Another consideration is that some of the land "freed up" for agricultural use by burning down the rain forest will probably wind up being occupied by methane belching livestock and for use for livestock feed production....

Livestock belching, farting and manure emissions of this and other gases has been estimated to account for 14 to 18 percent of the total human-induced greenhouse gases that are responsible for climate change.

https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/456057-cows-carbon-and-climate-change