Warming may change Amazon, By MICHAEL ASTOR - AP

[applegrove]

Researchers: Warming may change Amazon By MICHAEL ASTOR, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 44 minutes ago
December 29, 2006

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - "Global warming could spell the end of the world's largest remaining tropical rain forest, transforming the Amazon into a grassy savanna before end of the century, researchers said Friday.

Jose Antonio Marengo, a meteorologist with Brazil's National Space Research Institute, said that global warming, if left unchecked, will reduce rainfall and raise temperatures substantially in the ecologically rich region.

"We are working with two scenarios: a worst case and a second, more optimistic one," he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

"The worst case scenario sees temperatures rise by 5 to 8 degrees until 2100, while rainfall will decrease between 15 and 20 percent. This setting will transform the Amazon rain forest into a savanna-like landscape," Marengo said.

..............SNIP"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061229/ap_on_sc/brazil_amazon_warming

[Emillereid]

1. There goes the oxygen! Maybe we'll evolve in time to breathe

CO2! NOT!