A major study by scientists has claimed that the Amazon rainforest could hit a tipping point by 2050 due to deforestation, water stress, and climate change.
The study published in Nature on Wednesday claimed that 10–47 per cent of the forest would be exposed to compounding stressors by 2050.
"The region is increasingly exposed to unprecedented stress from warming temperatures, extreme droughts, deforestation, and fires, even in central and remote parts of the system," the researchers wrote.
"Once we cross this tipping point, maybe we cannot do anything anymore," said ecologist Bernardo Flores of the University of Santa Catarina in Brazil, lead author of the report. "The forest will die by itself".
Flores has said that the time has come to declare a "red alert" for the forest, thereby, ensuring its survival.
The Amazon is the world's largest tropical rainforest. Spread across nine nations, the jungle is referred to as the "lungs of the earth," which produces nearly 20 per cent of the planet's oxygen.
It is the most biodiverse region on our planet, with millions of species of plants and animals co-existing in one place. Several studies have warned that the world needs to take drastic steps if it wants to undo the damage.
In 2020, a study warned that 40 per cent of the Amazon…