Global meat demand plows up Brazil’s ’underground forest’
▻http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2014/11/brazil-meat-cerrado-deforestation
This is a different kind of forest, hidden in plain sight and far more threatened than the Amazon. Known as the #Cerrado, it is the largest, most biologically diverse savannah region of South America, home to 5 percent of all life on the planet.
But industrial farming is fast swallowing this unique landscape. And its rapid transformation is creating a ticking carbon bomb that scientists warn could significantly affect the global carbon cycle if the current rate of destruction continues.
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The real “forest” here is underground, an enormous system of branches and roots buried deep to survive fire and search for water during long dry seasons.
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As more and more of the Cerrado gets plowed under, that underground forest is dying, releasing significant amounts of carbon, tweaking the climate in ways that increase the risk of highly destructive fires in the Amazon.