(global warming news) Drought threatens Amazon, speeds global warming: study - AFP

But a 30-year study published by the journal Science found that the world's largest tropical rain forest is surprisingly sensitive to drought, and that the resulting loss of vegetation will have a greater-than-anticipated effect in causing a sharp spike in greenhouse gases. Researchers said the total impact of the drought was an additional five billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — more than the combined annual emissions of Europe and Japan. The research from more than 40 institutions around the world was gathered during the particularly harsh 2005 drought, which had a severe impact on the flora of the Amazon. Scientists say the Amazon accounts for more than half of the world's rainforest, covering an area 25 times the size of the United Kingdom. The findings are especially sobering because climatologists predict the creation of a potentially devastating cycle in which the Amazon's hotter and more intense future dry seasons in turn lead to more greenhouse gas emissions and even more drought.

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