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上弗洛雷斯塔附近晨雾中亚马逊雨林，巴西马托格罗索 Amazon rainforest with fog in the morning near Alta Floresta, Mato Grosso, Brazil (© Pulsar Imagens/Alamy)

A misty morning in Brazil

The Amazon rainforest is big. Almost unimaginably big. To begin to grasp its immensity, consider these numbers: The Amazon rainforest covers about 2% of the world's surface area, nearly 2.1 million square miles across South America, mostly (nearly 60%) in the country you see here, Brazil. It's an area that accounts for over half the Earth's remaining rainforests. The breadth of biodiversity is incomparable–nearly 16,000 different tree species, 40,000 species of other plants, 2.5 million insect species, and over 2,000 different types of birds and mammals. Incredibly, perhaps a tenth of the planet's known species call the Amazon home, many of which have not even been identified.

Yet, despite its vastness and ecological riches, the Amazon and the world's rainforests in general are in jeopardy, with large swaths of these precious environments being stripped and spoiled every day. Recent analysis has revealed some ominous warning signs that the Amazon rainforest, long known as the 'Lungs of the World,' is now spewing out as much greenhouse gas as it can store because of rampant deforestation here. If true, this is a bad sign in our battle against climate change. Hopefully, these warnings will raise awareness about the importance of rainforests, and the vital 'carbon sink' role they play in creating and maintaining the air that we breath. The more we learn about rainforests, the more we appreciate how our own future, and the future of our planet, hinges upon their health.

巴西雾蒙蒙的早晨

亚马逊雨林很大。几乎难以想象的大。要开始理解它的浩瀚，考虑一下这些数字：亚马逊雨林覆盖了大约2%的世界表面积，几乎210万平方英里横跨南美洲，大部分（近60%）在你看到的国家，巴西。这个地区占了地球剩余雨林的一半以上。生物多样性的广度是无与伦比的——将近16000种不同的树种，40000种其他植物，250万种昆虫，2000多种不同类型的鸟类和哺乳动物。令人难以置信的是，地球上大约十分之一的已知物种称亚马逊为家，其中许多物种甚至还没有被确认。

然而，尽管亚马逊地区幅员辽阔，生态资源丰富，但它和整个世界的雨林都处于危险之中，大片宝贵的环境每天都被剥夺和破坏。最近的分析揭示了一些不祥的警告信号，长期以来被称为“世界之肺”的亚马逊雨林，由于这里森林砍伐猖獗，现在正喷出尽可能多的温室气体。如果这是真的，那么这是我们应对气候变化斗争中的一个坏迹象。希望这些警告能提高人们对雨林重要性的认识，以及它们在创造和维持我们呼吸的空气中所起的重要“碳汇”作用。我们对雨林了解得越多，我们就越了解我们自己的未来，以及我们星球的未来如何取决于它们的健康。