Global warming+Amazon

extremebogman

Hello smart people. We've all heard about the Amazon and Global warming etc. But a couple of years back I read a theory, that the Amazon basin produces huge amounts of methane from rotting organisms, enough to negate the effects of the plants taking in CO2. I can't remember where I read this...

What I'm really asking is if this theory is possible or even plausible?

(is this more of a chemistry question?)

Kevster

It's more of a question whose answer you should research yourself. You'll learn much more that way. You'll find that no-one here will give yuo a direct answer, and even if they do it'll be hotly dispted. That's the nature of Global Warming - i.e. no-one is sure about much of the theory.

I don't have a clue what you mean by negating the effects of CO2. Plants take-in CO2 and then release Oxygen. Methane comes from many sources, but I thought that they majority comes from the gasses produced from fermenting cattle manure lying in fields all across the world. What do you mean be 'negate'?

Kevin

Capt'n Midnight

Draining swamps or bog to develop a palm oil plantation releases about 100 years of CO2 measured in the amount the palm oil will save over fossil fuels.

Also the deforestation of the Amazon is a bigger problem. The western side of the forest is becoming savannah and is more likely to burn. mostly this is because of reduced transpiration which used to provide about 40% (can't remember exact figure) of the local rainfall