Climate Central: The lungs of the planet are drying out, threatening to cause Earth to cough up some of its carbon reserves.
The Amazon rainforest inhales massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping keep the globe's carbon budget in balance (at least until human emissions started throwing that balance off). But as a new study shows, since 2000 drier conditions are causing a decrease in lung capacity. And if the Amazon's breaths become more shallow, it's possible a feedback loop could set in,...