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 Brasilien Autobahn durch das Herz des Amazonas infographic
Grafik zeigt Details des BR-319 Projektes.
GN40894DE

UMWELT

Brasilianische Autobahn bedroht Biodiversität im Amazonas

December 23, 2020 - Brasilien plant den Neubau einer umstrittenen Autobahn durch das Herz des Amazonas, um die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung voranzutreiben. Umweltschützer befürchten dass die Straße, die BR-319, einen riesigen Teil des intakten Regenwaldes gefährdet.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has vowed to resuscitate the road, and his administration is working on an ambitious plan to begin reconstruction by 2021, Reuters said.

Amazon researchers said the repaved road would trigger an explosion of deforestation in Amazonas, currently Brazil’s best preserved rainforest state precisely because it has few good roads.

A study led by Brazil’s Federal University of Minas Gerais estimates the project would result in a fivefold rise in clearing by 2030, the equivalent of an area larger than the U.S. state of Florida.

Ecologists are concerned because trees and other vegetation in the Amazon rainforest remove as many as two billion tonnes of atmospheric carbon each year – acting as an important brake on global warming, and helping to replenish the atmosphere with oxygen, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 24/12/2020; STORY: Graphic News
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