We start our A–Z journey on global warming with the Amazon

rainforest, which has an incredibly important role to play in

maintaining balance in the Earth’s climate, in ways that are only

just being understood. The Amazon is inextricably linked to the

issue of global warming and therefore a very good place to start

our inquiry into what may be the biggest threat to our existence

on this planet.

The Amazon river basin contains the largest rainforest on Earth

and covers approximately forty per cent of the South American

continent. The rainforest is located in eight countries. Brazil has

sixty per cent, with Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia,

Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana between them containing

the rest.

The Amazon forest is a natural reservoir of genetic diversity,

containing the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical

rainforest that exists. The Amazon contains an amazing thirty per

cent of Earth’s species and one square kilometre can sustain about

90,000 tons of living plants! It’s also amazing to consider that one

in five of all the birds in the world make the rainforest their home.

The Amazon basin is drained by the Amazon River, the world’s

second longest after the Nile. The river is essentially the lifeline

of the forest. It is the most voluminous on Earth and its daily

freshwater discharge into the Atlantic is enough to supply New York......

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