IPCC is right: Amazon still at risk from drought, global warming
. It does show that one series of data from one, mid-resolution satellite sensor, didn’t detect any measurable difference in the spectral signature of Amazon trees during one drought year.
One positive that has come out of the press release’s drastic mischaracterization of Semanta et al.’s article and corresponding news coverage is the quality conversations incited about the findings in the IPCC report. I’ll conclude with a portion of a statement yesterday by 19 leading scientists who conduct research on Amazon forests, climate, and/ or fire released, which called the BU press release “misleading and inaccurateâ€.
There are multiple, consistent lines of evidence from ground-based studies published in the peer-reviewed literature that Amazon forests are, indeed, very susceptible to drought stress… [and] the main conclusion of the IPCC statement – that Amazonian forests are very susceptible to reductions in rainfall – remains our best understanding of the data available at the time of the IPCC report and also today.
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By Environmental Defense on 03/19/2010 11:10 am PDT -- Green