Why is the Amazon so important?

The Week -Home to three million species of plants and animals, the vast rain forest is the most biodiverse region on the planet. Some 400 billion trees absorb millions of tons of carbon dioxide every year — crucial to slowing climate change — and emit about 6 percent of Earth's oxygen. These trees also respire moisture, pulling fresh water from the ground and cycling it into the air, creating one of the atmospheric "rivers" of moisture that regulate rainfall across the planet. Rainfall in the American Midwest, for example, heavily depends upon water coming from the Amazon. Over the past half century, though, one-fifth of the rain forest — 300,000 square miles, an area larger than Texas — has been deforested. Scientists say if another 10 percent is lost, the ecosystem will reach a tipping point at which it will dry up irreversibly, converting the entire remaining rain forest into a savannah. The consequences for the planet could be devastating.