Nutritional Value Of A Traditional Corn Tortilla

Experts predict the disappearance of most

of Amazonian forests by the end of the century

AIDESEP March 23, 2011. Experts agree that the Amazon is the richest ecosystem and biodiversity as well as the most important reservoir of freshwater on the planet, but predicted that our forests are in danger of disappearing due to deforestation and climate change, as there are studies that determine which region would be at greater risk to become, in the coming decades-savanna ecosystem biologically poorer and less able to store carbon and produce rain.

The Amazon fulfills its function as the great regulator of global climate, due to capacity to absorb carbon (stored at 90 and 120 billion metric tons) and its ability to produce moisture and generate its own climate. However, last year, during the terrible drought that hit the region, the Amazon is no longer a carbon sink to become a net emitter, releasing more CO2 into the atmosphere that Europe and Japan combined, a very bad news for the planet, threatened by climate change.

is said that if current scenarios do not change, the destruction of Amazonian forests would significantly accelerate global warming, between 1 and 2 degrees, according to some estimates-and affect agriculture in border regions, including the valleys, dependent on the moisture generated in the Amazon.

An example of this is that the Amazon River, the mightiest of the world, for the second time in a year it broke its record low level, while some of its major tributaries like the Huallaga , the Maranon and Ucayali, were almost turned into streams.

Amazon Iquitos and other cities for several weeks suffered food shortages, gas, cement and other products from the coast, transportation difficulties water, there were also problems in water supply. In the jungle it was extreme: Tarapoto, Bagua and other cities in the northern jungle spent several months just one hour of water per day. In the central and lower Huallaga May languished rice crops and livestock with no water or for watering their livestock. The once mighty Huallaga became so low that it could cross on foot in several places.

The city of Pucallpa for several weeks was also covered with smoke, apparently coming from the burning of forests in southwestern Brazil. In the upper Ucayali and in several other areas of Loreto and Madre God, dozens of indigenous communities were isolated for several months due to extreme dry season the rivers that impeded water transport.

The situation worsened after the government announcement of a mega package for high Marañón, including hydropower and water diversion of the Amazon to the coast, so it is feared that these projects will irreversibly alter cycles of rising and ebb, and the migration of fish, which would seriously affect the ecosystem of the forest floor and the resources that communities rely on Amazon.