The Amazon rainforest is at its tipping point
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- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
The Amazon rainforest – the lungs of the planet – is hanging on a knife’s edge.
New science shows that we’re only two percent away from hitting the tipping point where the Amazon could turn from a lush rainforest to a dry grassland.
With world leaders gathering at critical climate meetings like COP26 over the next couple of months, we have a unique opportunity to protect this critical rainforest and avoid a planetary crisis.
We just launched a massive new global initiative called 80x2025 Amazonia for Life, in partnership with Indigenous leaders from the nine countries in the Amazon, calling on global leaders to sign a declaration to protect 80% of the rainforest by 2025.
Together we’ll make sure that this urgent call to action is heard around the world, but with the first climate meetings kicking off in just a few weeks, we need your help to raise $5,000 to hire translators and interpreters to assist the Indigenous leaders when they take center stage at NYC Climate Week and COP26.
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The Amazon is vital for the survival of Indigenous cultures and to our fight against climate change and biodiversity loss. Home to more than 500 Indigenous nationalities and groups, it also hosts more biodiversity than any other biome on Earth.
For millennia, Indigenous preservation practices have turned this landscape into a giant air purifier for the world. Currently, over 45% of the intact forest in the Amazon is in Indigenous territories – an area larger than France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Spain combined. But over the past few decades, road infrastructure, deforestation, the agriculture industry, and fossil fuel exploration have been steadily destroying the biome.
We need an urgent, all-out push to protect this precious rainforest before it’s too late. And we’ve got a plan to do just that by pressuring world leaders to support the 80x25 initiative, generating international media coverage, and working in partnership with the Indigenous nations working to protect their ancestral homes and other important organizations in the region.
The 80x25 movement is already gaining major traction – nearly 300 groups have signed the Amazonia for Life declaration, but as a global initiative, we have to make sure all the materials – videos, images, press releases, and presentations are translated to multiple languages. And as we support Indigenous leaders at Climate Week and COP26, we need to secure translators and interpreters.
We need a comprehensive global agreement to permanently protect 80% of the Amazon rainforest by 2025, agreed to by all Amazonian governments and backed by Indigenous peoples and the global community.
Our actions in the next few years will determine the fate of our planet over the next millennia. There has never been a more urgent and timely call to action to protect this biodiverse haven. The Stand community has used our collective power to protect millions of acres of forests, shift corporate policies, and successfully mobilize to influence government policies. I know together, we can achieve a historic win.
Please consider donating — even five dollars helps! — to fuel this global movement.
Thank you for being a champion of forests, and taking action with us!
With hope, and determination,
Tyson Miller
Forest Programs Director
Stand.earth
Stand.earth challenges corporations, industries, and governments to prioritize the well-being of people, our environment, and our climate by creating long-term, effective solutions. None of this work is possible without your support.
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