- 7 weeks ago
For decades, the Amazon rainforest has acted as one of Earth’s most powerful carbon sinks, absorbing vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But rising heat and intensifying droughts are pushing the forest into unfamiliar territory, weakening trees and disrupting its self-sustaining water cycle. If this trend continues, the Amazon could shift from absorbing carbon to releasing it — altering the planet’s carbon balance in ways that accelerate global warming.
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00:01The Amazon rainforest is shifting into a climate that Earth hasn't seen in millions of years.
00:07Scientists looked at decades of real data and had to invent a new word for it,
00:12hyper-tropical. In normal human language, it means hotter droughts that last longer,
00:18hit more often, and push the rainforest past its limits.
00:23So yes, hyper-tropical is not a lush jungle, but extra, as you might think.
00:29It's more like a tropical forest, but stressed out,
00:32overheated and drying out like a sponge left on a radiator.
00:36The researchers behind this say these conditions have no current analog.
00:40All this is pretty worrying since the Amazon acts like a giant carbon sink
00:44that absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it in trees and soil.
00:50It's like Earth's lungs mixed with a massive storage vault,
00:54but when trees get hammered by heat and drought, they struggle to grow.
00:58They lose leaves and simply wither.
01:00And when it happens, they don't just stop absorbing carbon,
01:04they can actually release it back and turn the system into a carbon source,
01:08which is the opposite of what we need.
01:12Sadly, this isn't a guess based on one bad summer.
01:16The team of scientists used data gathered across the Amazon for more than three decades.
01:21They studied how trees respond when drought hits and temperatures spike.
01:26And how the soil behaves too.
01:28Because soil isn't just dirt.
01:30It's a whole living world of roots, microbes, moisture, and nutrients.
01:35When drought bakes the ground, trees don't just get thirsty.
01:39Their entire support system starts malfunctioning.
01:42The Amazon is all about the constant recycling of water.
01:47Rain falls. Trees drink it.
01:49Then they release water vapor back into the air through their leaves.
01:53That process is called transpiration, which is basically the forest sweating.
01:58That tree sweat helps form clouds and bring more rain.
02:02It's like the rainforest runs its own water cycle loop.
02:06If drought weakens the trees, the loop weakens too.
02:10And then the forest becomes even drier.
02:14The last time similar climate conditions existed on our planet was around 10 million years ago.
02:20The planet and the animals living on it looked completely different back then.
02:24And ecosystems played by different rules.
02:27So for everyone living on Earth now,
02:30these conditions are a challenge of a completely new, unknown level.
02:34What makes this feel even more intense is how scientists use drought and heat waves as a preview.
02:41They looked at how forests behave during extreme events today.
02:44Because those events can act like a time machine.
02:47A quick glimpse at what normal could look like in the next 100 years.
02:52That's terrifying because it means today's disaster seasons might be tomorrow's average weather.
02:58Like the Amazon doesn't get a bad year anymore.
03:02It gets a new baseline.
03:05And this isn't just an Amazon problem.
03:08The researchers say hyper-tropical forests will mostly emerge in the Amazon region.
03:14But similar conditions could also show up in parts of Africa and Asia too.
03:19When forests slip from carbon sinks to carbon sources, things will get ugly fast.
03:25It's like a feedback loop.
03:27A runaway cycle that feeds itself.
03:29The forest stops protecting the atmosphere and starts fueling the problem it used to help control.
03:35The Amazon helped keep the atmosphere stable for longer than humans have existed.
03:40And now it's getting pushed into conditions it never evolved to handle.
03:45It's not the first time.
03:47Or climate type we'd better never encounter again.
03:50When Earth slammed all its land into one megacontinent, it didn't just make a bigger map.
03:56But a different planet.
03:58Pangea created a monster monsoon system so intense it earned its own name.
04:03The Pangean Mega Monsoon.
04:06It was like a normal monsoon blown out of proportion.
04:09Feeding insane wet seasons in some regions and brutal dryness in others.
04:15It happened because one giant continent messed with winds and ocean moisture.
04:20Like a giant wall in the atmosphere.
04:23This climate didn't spread rain evenly.
04:25It concentrated it.
04:26It created extreme swings.
04:28Wet months that dump water like a broken fire hydrant.
04:32And dry seasons that feel like the planet forgot how to rain at all.
04:36The interior regions likely turned harsh and difficult.
04:39And coastal zones got slammed with seasonal extremes.
04:43Luckily, this climate won't come back the same way because it requires a supercontinent again.
04:48But the idea matters because it shows that Earth's climate doesn't just change from temperature, but also from layout.
04:57Rearrange continents and the whole sky starts behaving differently.
05:02During the Snowball Earth period, the entire planet looked like Antarctica.
05:06Ice was stretching almost everywhere, possibly all the way to the equator.
05:12Ancient glacial deposits scientists found in places that used to sit near the tropics prove it was real.
05:19Here's the terrifying part.
05:21Once ice spreads far enough, it starts cheating.
05:25Ice reflects sunlight like a giant mirror.
05:28So Earth absorbs less heat, cools even more, forms even more ice, and the freeze feeds itself.
05:36And when all that ice melted under volcanoes released enough carbon dioxide, it likely did it violently.
05:43With extreme weather and huge chemical shifts in the oceans.
05:48Then there was the hothouse Earth that felt like the thermostats stuck on broil.
05:54There were long periods when global temperatures stayed way warmer than today.
05:59Sea levels rose and the planet's climate system behaved like it had too much momentum to slow down.
06:04In a hothouse world, the ocean expanded as it warmed, as warm water takes up more space.
06:11Ice sheaths shrank and without its natural light mirror, Earth absorbed more heat and dug itself deeper into the hot
06:18zone.
06:19Warm conditions messed with rainfall patterns and turned some regions into non-stop flood zones, while others dried into permanent
06:26drought.
06:27We should all be happy the next horrible climate scenario and toxic events have not happened for millions of years.
06:34But they did happen many times in the past and may have contributed to mass extinctions.
06:40The ocean looked normal from above, but underneath, huge regions turned into low oxygen zones.
06:46Part of the ocean became stratified, meaning the layers stopped mixing properly.
06:52Warm surface water stayed on top, deeper water got cut off,
06:56and oxygen stopped refreshing the depths.
06:59Then bacteria took over, breaking down organic matter in ways that created nasty chemical conditions.
07:06Whole ecosystems collapsed, and it didn't take a meteor to trigger it.
07:10Just the wrong combo of warming, nutrient overload, and messed up ocean circulation.
07:16These events also left behind black, organic-rich sediments, like the ocean wrote down the disaster in dark ink.
07:23And the creepiest part is that the ocean anoxic events didn't feel like a dramatic explosion.
07:30They felt like a slow suffocation of the sea.
07:35After you learn about all these, some climate models from the past don't sound that scary after all.
07:40The Carboniferous Earth looked like it got trapped in wet mode.
07:44Giant swamps stretched across continents, and forests soaked the world like a sponge that never dried out.
07:50The air carried more oxygen than today, which sounds nice until you remember what oxygen does to insects.
07:58This was the era that produced giant creepy crawly legends like millipedes the size of a car.
08:04This climate also allowed to build in huge coal deposits because withered plants piled up faster than nature could break
08:11them down.
08:12So the climate didn't just create scary life, but also fuel for the future.
08:18Coal formed because the planet had endless swamp forests and the right conditions to bury carbon instead of recycling it.
08:26This climate won't come back because Earth's continents, ecosystems, and carbon cycle don't run the same way now.
08:34During the early Eocene period, our planet ran warm enough that the poles didn't freeze the way they do now,
08:41and the temperature gap between the equator and the Arctic shrank.
08:45Scientists call this an equable climate, which means Earth felt more evenly warm across latitudes.
08:53High-latitude land stayed above freezing year-round in some models and evidence.
08:58Places near the Arctic were living without deep winter ice dominating everything.
09:03It didn't mean the whole world felt like Hawaii, but it did mean fewer extreme contrasts.
09:08If the planet warms enough, pole-to-equator differences can shrink again, and seasons can soften in certain regions.
09:16But the Earth system today has ice sheets, ocean patterns, and human-built infrastructure that never existed back then.
09:25So if low-season Earth returns, it won't feel calm.
09:30You're strapped in a boat cruising down the Amazon River with the sun scorching hot.
09:35As you check out your map, your boat starts rocking back and forth.
09:40The water is starting to get more intense, so you hang on for dear life.
09:45You tuck your map in your pocket and try to take control of your boat.
09:49You strike some jagged rocks and duck low to avoid tree branches.
09:53Your boat strikes a large rock out of nowhere and capsizes.
09:57You're swimming in the murky green water.
09:59While you're trying your best to get ashore, your boat gets washed away.
10:04Underneath the water lies a whole new world of bizarre and dangerous animals.
10:10Candiru fish are snake-like creatures that can grow up to 16 inches long.
10:15Arapimus can weigh more than an adult male and are taller than most basketball players.
10:21They are the biggest freshwater fish in South America.
10:24They have a hybrid gill system that forces them to pop up to the surface every 5 to 15 minutes
10:29to breathe in oxygen for their large swim bladder.
10:33You swim out of the raging water and dry yourself off.
10:37Oh no!
10:38Your map is completely soaked!
10:40There's no way you can get to your destination without it!
10:43You venture into the thick rainforest, shoving the branches and leaves away.
10:47As you get deeper, you notice something on a tree.
10:50It's barely moving, but it's got sharp claws and a raggedy coat.
10:55It stretches its arm to another branch and tries to pull itself up, ever so slowly.
11:02Sloths sleep more than half their days and only head down from trees once a week.
11:07They're so motionless, they sometimes grow algae and moss on their fur.
11:12The rainforest gets denser with each step until there's barely any sunlight illuminating the path in front of you.
11:19You notice a figure following you.
11:21With every branch you step on, you can hear a faint sound right next to you creeping around.
11:26You start walking a bit faster and the sound catches up with you.
11:30You make it out of the dense part and tread along a narrow path until you reach a cliff.
11:35You can't walk normally here, so you pin against the wall and walk sideways to cross the hills.
11:42You slowly move across with the river 30 feet below you.
11:45You move your right foot and some rocks fall into the river.
11:49You keep going and misstep!
11:51You're about to fall!
11:52But you hold on to a large tree branch and pull yourself up.
11:56You notice a couple of colorful, poisoned frogs inches away from your fingers.
12:01Touching any of these frogs can be extremely dangerous and harmful, despite their amazing color patterns.
12:08The golden poison frog is one of the most poisonous animals in the world.
12:12One of them hops right next to you, so you let go of the branch and fall back in the
12:17river.
12:17The river is washing you down until you reach a calm current.
12:22Underneath you is a swarm of piranhas swimming with their sharp teeth.
12:26The red color on their skin is unmistakable, so you swim off like an Olympic athlete.
12:32Piranhas will eat anything that gets in their way, no matter the size.
12:36You grip onto a log and climb up a small rock to catch your breath.
12:41There's a huge electric eel underneath the rock.
12:44Despite their name, they're more related to catfish than eels.
12:48They use their powerful 600 volts of electricity to defend themselves and catch food.
12:54You're stuck, unless you're like the common basilisk that can run on the water like a jet ski.
13:00These incredible lizards have special webbing on their toes and can run the distance of a basketball court.
13:06You hop on a bunch of rocks until you reach the land.
13:09You continue walking along the riverbank until you come across a moving rock.
13:14You rub your eyes and see it moving again.
13:16It's a dinosaur-looking turtle that resembles a crocodile with armor.
13:21The Mata Mata is a freshwater turtle that disguises itself with its surroundings to catch prey.
13:27Their heads stretch longer than their bodies.
13:30You shimmy your way past it and continue.
13:33You head back into the rainforest and find a spot to rest.
13:36Wait, there are giant ants everywhere!
13:39They're the biggest ants in the world and can produce one of the most painful stings out there,
13:44even comparable to a wasp's sting.
13:46You immediately get up and find another place to rest.
13:50As you continue walking along, you notice the same feeling of something following you.
13:56You can hear some leaves rustling, but it's getting dark and there's no way of telling.
14:00You find a nice little spot to build a campfire and catch some z's.
14:05But in the Amazon, everything is a threat.
14:08Except for those cute capybaras wandering around.
14:11They live in groups next to water sources.
14:13They're also the biggest rodents in the world.
14:16You don't need to worry about them if you're stuck in the middle of the Amazon rainforest.
14:20Suddenly, you feel something slithering up next to you.
14:24You look down and see a massive green anaconda just about to constrict you.
14:29They are the heaviest snakes in the world and can grow up to 20 feet long and have a huge
14:35appetite.
14:35You get up and sprint your way out of there.
14:38All right!
14:39You found a decent cave to crash in.
14:45It's daytime again, and you're still alive!
14:48You continue walking along the rainforest.
14:50You were able to find some breakfast to boost your energy for the rest of the day.
14:55You spot something on a tree that looks like a branch.
14:58But it's actually a potu, a master of disguise that can spend days motionless on broken tree branches.
15:05These bizarre birds use those branches as their permanent home where they lay their eggs and chill all day.
15:12You continue your way through the rainforest and see a Brazilian wandering spider crawling on a tree branch right in
15:19front of you.
15:20Eight of these species can be found in the Amazon area.
15:23They are some of the most aggressive and venomous spiders out there.
15:27So, you make a big detour and walk away from it.
15:30You feel someone walking next to you again, but you still can't figure out what it is.
15:35You see a steep cliff with a waterfall hitting a large lake ahead of you.
15:39Looks peaceful.
15:40Until you see a team of black caimans gathering around the shore.
15:44They're the biggest predators in the whole Amazon ecosystem and feed on anything that moves.
15:50It's a good thing you're on high ground.
15:52Otherwise...
15:53Whoa!
15:54You slip and fall down the river right on the deep end.
15:58So far, no caimans spotted you.
16:01You swim underwater and try to get to the opposite end of where the reptiles are.
16:05As you climb out and dry yourself off, you notice some large black spots on you.
16:10You try pulling them off, but they've latched on pretty hard.
16:14The Amazon giant leech finds its target by tracking movement and shadow.
16:19Once they attach themselves to the skin, it's extremely difficult to extract them.
16:23The best way to do so is to slide your finger next to its mouth and pull it off slowly.
16:29Ugh!
16:30You manage to get them off your body and see that the caimans are swimming towards you.
16:34You're pinned to the wall with the lake of hungry reptiles approaching.
16:38Suddenly, a pink dolphin jumps out of the water and splashes all over them.
16:43They can grow larger than humans and are the celebrities of the Amazon.
16:47Scientists think they get their color from the blood capillaries on their skin.
16:52The Amazon even has bull sharks swimming around.
16:55These carnivorous giant fish are threatening to humans and can swim in both salt water and fresh water.
17:01These sharks prey on anything within their reach, including other sharks.
17:05The dolphin distracted the caimans, so you climb up the cliff and try to find the best way to escape.
17:12Opened jaws waiting for you to fall into the pit are right below you.
17:17You're lucky enough to escape to the top, but as your arms pull you up,
17:21the first thing that you see is a jaguar looking straight at you.
17:25It's the creature that's been following you this whole time.
17:28You get up while it starts circling you, timing its strike.
17:32You know that you can't take on a jaguar, nor can you outrun it,
17:36so you grab a large tree branch from the ground to defend yourself.
17:40It jumps at you, but you duck down in time.
17:43The jaguar lands in the water far away from the caimans crocs.
17:47It's a good thing these large kitties are excellent swimmers.
17:50You pick yourself up and continue.
17:52And to your surprise, you find your boat again.
17:54You fix it up and sail your way out of the Amazon.
17:59Whew!
18:00A bridge, a very helpful structure that traces back to the Neolithic times.
18:05The oldest bridge in the world, at least the one that is still standing,
18:09is the Arcadeco Bridge, built more than 3,000 years ago.
18:13But there's a river you cannot cross using a bridge.
18:16The Amazon River, the largest and longest river in the world.
18:21Okay, the Nile River is actually the longest river in the world,
18:25but the Amazon wants both titles for itself.
18:28The Amazon River is born in Peru and crosses Colombia and Brazil,
18:32until it reaches a massive delta at the Atlantic Ocean.
18:36Its waters travel a longer distance than Frodo and Sam,
18:40and yet, not a single bridge has ever been built over it.
18:43Why is that?
18:46First of all, seasonal floods change the size of the river.
18:49During dry seasons, the Amazon is about 3 miles wide.
18:53But during heavy rains, it can get up to 30 miles wide in a few weeks.
18:59Not only that, but the flood also makes the river change its position.
19:04Now imagine trying to build a bridge in a place where the ground turns into water for about 4 months.
19:10Not an impossible task, but not the easiest one either.
19:14Now, if you look back at your geography classes,
19:17you might remember that the soil of the riverbank can be very soft,
19:21especially in the Amazon, which means it can erode and shift.
19:25Heavy rains also create marshes,
19:27a type of wetlands that actually reduces the magnitude of the floods and purifies the water.
19:33It's also home to many animals.
19:36This means that to build a bridge, part of this wetland would have to be drained,
19:40which would ruin the lives of all those animals.
19:44Besides, the foundations of said bridge would have to be deep,
19:47and that would cost a lot of money.
19:50The rain creates yet another problem for the potential bridge.
19:53It increases the river's water level by 13 to almost 50 feet.
19:59Of course, bridges have been built in deep rivers before, like the Padma Bridge,
20:03a gigantic structure with a foundation of 417 feet.
20:08But because the soil of the Amazon River can erode easily,
20:12a bridge would have to be built using floating structures, known as pontoons,
20:16and they're not helpful in a river that changes depth whenever it feels like it.
20:21Next on our list of things that are a problem to human endeavors is the Amazon Rainforest.
20:27This forest spreads over nine countries and is so big and so dense,
20:32it could cover about half of Europe.
20:34This means that a bridge would almost likely connect one patch of the forest to another.
20:39A pointless improvement to the lives of capybaras and jaguars.
20:44Of course, the real users of such a bridge would be humans.
20:47Most people live around the tributaries of the Amazon River, not around the river itself,
20:52because who wants to live like a beaver at a dam?
20:56There's even a state called Amapa on the left side of the Amazon River
21:00that is completely cut off from the rest of Brazil.
21:04You could easily take your car and visit its neighbor, a place called French Guiana.
21:09But if you wanted to go to another part of Brazil, you'd have to find other means of transportation.
21:15Aside from small riverside populations that live right on the riverside, duh, of the Amazon,
21:22bigger cities were built near tributary rivers like the Rio Negro, which has a bridge, by the way,
21:28and the Nanay River in Peru.
21:30The bridges that go over the Nanay and the Rio Negro are the only two bridges over the rivers in
21:36the Amazon basin.
21:37The lack of good roads and highways inside the Amazon also makes the creation of bridges a pointless endeavor.
21:44Back in the 70s, humans had big ideas on how to explore the Amazon evermore,
21:50which is why they decided to build a highway which would cut the Amazon basin from left to right.
21:55The road, called the Trans-Amazonian Highway, was supposed to bring people to the heart of the Amazon.
22:02But it seems like the difficulties of building more than 2,000 miles of road inside a dense rainforest were
22:09not foreseen.
22:10Halfway through, the project was abandoned because it was super expensive and problematic.
22:16Nowadays, highways in the Amazon basin are always flooded, filled with holes and mud.
22:22This whole situation creates a ripple effect.
22:25People don't live near the river because it's hard to access it.
22:29The roads don't go there either because it's hard to build them.
22:32Which, in turn, makes even fewer people want to settle on the banks of the Amazon River because they have
22:38no roads to get them there.
22:40So, if there are no roads and no bridges, how do people live there?
22:44You're not going to believe this, but the riverside population uses a very old but reliable invention called a boat.
22:53The Amazon River is fully navigable, and the people that live there use it like a road.
22:58Much like motorcycles, cars, and buses, the Amazon River has canoes, speedboats, and ferries.
23:05There's even a very specific ferry called Obedense, transporting people to the municipality of Obedos.
23:12Hence the name.
23:13Locals do everything on boats.
23:15They even have a boat hospital that floats around and visits riverside populations, and a boat bank.
23:21So you can do all your bank related things while looking at the vastness of the Amazon.
23:27Honestly?
23:28Genius invention!
23:30The downside to this lack of bridges is that it stops us from exploring the truly hidden gems of the
23:36world.
23:37In the Amazon, for example, there are over 10,000 undiscovered archeological sites.
23:43We may never be able to dig out stuff like fortified villages, geoglyphs, and many other structures.
23:49It would be pretty neat to go full on Lara Croft in the middle of the Amazon, but these findings
23:55are tucked deep in the heart of the forest.
23:57At the same time, only on a boat are you able to witness the crazy phenomenon of the unmixed waters
24:04of the Rio Negru and the Solimoines on the Amazon River.
24:07For more than three miles, these two tributaries of the Amazon River flow side by side without mixing.
24:14The speed and the temperature of these waters are different, so you'll see a river that looks like coffee and
24:20Coca-Cola mixed.
24:22This awesome phenomenon is called the meeting of waters.
24:28But the Amazon River is not the only river in the world deemed bridgeless.
24:32The Congo River, the second longest river in Africa, only has one bridge crossing it.
24:38The two Kongos, yes there are two different countries in the world named Congo, are separated by the Congo River,
24:45and so far, no roads connect them.
24:48Also, fun fact, some geologists believe that back when Gondwana existed and the continents were all cuddled together, the Amazon
24:56and the Congo River were one river connected to each other.
25:01Another place with a lack of bridges is the east side of the Thames in London.
25:06The west side of the river is narrower, which makes building a bridge easier.
25:10There are about 33 bridges on the west side alone, but if you want to cross the river from the
25:16east side, it's gonna be a hassle.
25:18The thing is, back in the 1800s, shipping companies decided that building too many bridges over the Thames was too
25:25expensive,
25:26because this was a shipping route and the bridges would have to be taller than usual.
25:29The structure would also have to be long, since some parts of the Thames are about 1870 feet wide.
25:38But building long bridges is not a problem per se.
25:41In Rio de Janeiro, for example, you can find the Rio Nitaoy Bridge, which is about 8.26 miles long.
25:50Back when it was built in the 70s, it was the second longest bridge in the world.
25:55The bridge is so long that in 2018, a girl was born while her mother was crossing it,
26:01and now the birthplace in her birth certificate is literally the bridge.
26:06There's also no U-turn on it, so if you drive onto the bridge by mistake, you're in for a
26:11long drive.
26:13So next time you feel like exploring the Amazon, remember to pack your own boat.
26:18So now, I think you have some people in the back and a big deal for you, I think it
26:18all was such a big deal for me.
26:18I don't know exactly where the thing I was trying to do this, but I'm sorry.
26:18How are you doing?
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