Climate change: burning trees in the Amazon melts snow in the Himalayas

Scientists have discovered that when the Amazon warms, so does the Tibetan Plateau, whereas the more it rains in the Amazon, the less it rains in Tibet

The study is among the first to investigate the interaction between ecosystems at risk of reaching a climate tipping point

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A fire burns part of the Amazon jungle as it is cleared by a farmer in Machadinho do Oeste, Rondonia state, Brazil. Photo: Reuters/File

Published: 8:20pm, 27 Jan 2023

Trees set ablaze in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest could contribute to melting glaciers in the Himalayas and Antarctica because distant ecosystems essential to regulating the Earth’s climate are more closely connected than previously thought, new research has found.

Scientists have discovered a new atmospheric pathway that originates in the Amazon, runs along the South Atlantic, then across East Africa and the Middle East until it reaches central Asia, according to a paper published this month in Nature Climate Change.

That connection, which stretches 20,000 kilometres (12,400 miles) across the globe, means that when the Amazon warms, so does the Tibetan Plateau, whereas the more it rains in the Amazon, the less it rains in Tibet.

The study is among the first to investigate the interaction between ecosystems at risk of reaching a climate tipping point – a point of no return that would transform them irreversibly.

A fire burns part of Amazon jungle in Rondonia state, Brazil. Photo: Reuters/File

More significantly, the newly-discovered pathway suggests that the collapse of one ecosystem could destabilise others too, leading to a cascade of tipping events across the planet.