Amazon droughts could impact climate change as much as deforestation

Over the past decade, Brazil has made some effort to reduce deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. This was also the country’s primary contribution to the fight against global warming. However, despite a 76 percent decline in deforestation rates over the last 13 years, those efforts might now be offset by drought-induced fires, according to a study recently published in Nature Communications.

According to a group of researchers connected to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), the 2015 drought...