Amazon forest

It covers an area 25 times as great as the United Kingdom. No other ecosystem on Earth is home to so many species nor exerts such control on the carbon cycle.

A study found that for at least 25 years the Amazon forest acted as a vast carbon sink. In normal years the forest absorbs nearly 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The total impact of the 2005 drought – 5 billion extra tonnes of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which exceeds the annual emissions of Europe and Japan combined.