The Amazon Cannot Be Recovered Once It’s Gone

theatlantic.com

48 points·uptown··8 comments

> But as a store of carbon, it is fundamental to the survival of every person. If destroyed or degraded, the Amazon, as a system, is simply beyond humanity’s ability to get back: Even if people were to replant half a continent’s worth of trees, the diversity of creatures across Amazonia, once lost, will not be replenished...

Can someone elaborate on this? I thought all that matters for carbon balance is biomass, and vast majority of this comes from trees, so diversity doesn't matter as long as there is enough trees.

The amazon forest is dense. There are a lot of trees almost on top of each other. Grass and underbrush, then taller bushes and smaller trees, then middling trees, then really tall trees, and the different layers have tree crowns above each other.

To get that biomass, to get a bush and two or three tree crowns above each other, you need a lot of well-adapted species. You need compatible species of trees, and you also need enough other species to make a functioning ecosystem.

The biomass of a Forrest is more than its trees. Carbon is trapped in underbrush and in the soil. In tree farms, there is no longterm sequestration. A good book to read on this is The Soil Will Save Us - Kristin Ohlson

When what is gone?

I don’t see any Amazon that is left.

The fires are bad, but it is irrational to say that once it's gone it's gone.

It’s irrational to believe we could rebuild what took nature and evolution millions of years.

There seems to be some common misconception that humans are a smart species. We are not.

Maybe not, but please don't post unsubstantive comments to Hacker News.

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