Tropical forests and current emergencies: Climate, biodiversity and health
Simone Vieira (cE3c – ESFE)
In the coming decades, our society will face three major emergencies simultaneously: the climate emergency, the loss of biodiversity and the health crisis. Tropical forests play a fundamental role in the balance of the terrestrial system and therefore in coping with these emergencies. A biodiverse system is much more resilient to disturbances and manages to maintain a balance for different forms of life, including a huge variety of microorganisms. Recently, the deforestation of one of the largest tropical forests in the world, the Amazon, has accelerated again. Deforestation is an old problem in Brazil, but the concern about the degradation of the environment has taken on an even more serious meaning: the destruction of forests increases global warming, the loss of biodiversity, as well as the risk of human beings coming into contact with viruses hosted by animals that can cause unknown diseases.
Thursday, January 27, 2022, at 12h00-13h00 (Lisbon, Portugal time)