What If We Lost The Amazon Rainforest?
How long would it take for the world’s largest rainforest to burn down? If we don’t do anything to stop it, we’ll soon find out. The Amazon rainforest creates 20% of the Earth’s oxygen. It’s home to 30% of the planet’s species, and it holds the secrets to treating some of our most deadly diseases. If we destroy the Amazon rainforest, the consequences would be disastrous, and they’d be felt all around the world. Could we survive without it?
Correction: we got the percentage wrong at 00:16. Tropical rainforests are responsible for 20% of all photosynthesis (and not oxygen production). Academics say this is a very common misconception, and that the figure is less than 10%. For more on this and other questions, the BBC has put together a great article on the facts around the amazon fires: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49450925
Transcript and sources: https://insh.world/science/what-if-we-lost-the-amazon-rainforest/
Watch more what-if scenarios:
Planet Earth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-HhCwYD7rc&list=PLZdXRHYAVxTJCzxwmCq0NNpYq9N9wyb2l
The Cosmos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfuJyVkMH_g&list=PLZdXRHYAVxTJno6oFF9nLGuwXNGYHmE8U
Technology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS3bBO05fpU&list=PLZdXRHYAVxTIeRY3JtgXgoGqSEB7kDdKO
Your Body: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmXR46TrbA8&list=PLZdXRHYAVxTJNsV9FFeNAKl2ySsHj8GZO
Humanity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdCDQIyXGnw&list=PLZdXRHYAVxTIFnvmOeWbv-Mt8zFxSCSvZ
What If elsewhere:
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What If is a mini-documentary web series that takes you on an epic journey through hypothetical worlds and possibilities. Join us on an imaginary adventure — grounded in scientific theory — through time, space and chance, as we ask what if some of the most fundamental aspects of our existence were different.
#AmazonFires
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@levibrinkman8125
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
Aboot
@levibrinkman8125
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
I can’t stand this assholes Canadian accent. “Aboot.”!
@kevensevenonreverend
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
100 years yikes😬. We need to get our act together
@davepetro5676
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
A power plant puts out 870,000 mega watts per hour
time be 24 hours
Equals = 20,880,000 building takes no more then 4 Acres
Go green a solar field to put our 20,880,000 watts for 1 day
You have clear cut down
31,000 Acres square of land
And if your in a solar field it much hotter raises the climate temperatures because of the black panel make heat .
Like your in yard sitting on the grass then go stand on the blacktop and temp much hotter
@pgc6290
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
Shouldnt the whole world give brazil money for keeping the amazon forest.
@blackfeathers2166
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
this is the future… this is it, It's happening, Its ACTUALLY happening right in this moment
@zacharykenniston748
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
Give my life sorry
@zacharykenniston748
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
It’s too late. We’ve committed a genocide of hundreds of trillions of plants and animals. They burned alive and died in the worst possible excruciating agony. Trees and plants feel pain that’s why the governments lie about it because they know the ammount of pain they’re causing… they don’t care. They are like Nazis by comparison. It’s illegal to harm a human but animals and plants aren’t protected. The world leaders will burn the entire amazon to the ground. There’s nothing we can do. It’s too late there’s no hope. I’ve lived my life trying to help plants and trees and I’ve failed. No one cares about the excruciating agony of a burning animal or plant. I’d hone my life if I could undo the genocide
@lowlhoumoFaNot
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
it future is all in the hands of government
@rickaaay3938
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
i uh…
rather eat more beef than reducing it
@rafaelmde
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
(Brazilian here)Four years later and Amazon is already a source of carbon. The dry this year was never seen before,the super El ñino heated there mercilessly feeding fires for months. Listen, its not about decades, Amazon sistem is already collapsing. People will not stop cutting trees and burning. Amazon will desapear and part of Brasil and south America will become a huge desert because its the trees who transports water inside the continent and distributes through south America. Humans unfortunately just learn through pain….
@josechan4295
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
That's the mismanagement and corruption that cause environmental disasters.and terrible climate change led to human civilization collapsed.😢
@kungdu
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
If we lose the rain forest we will not have oxygen. So um kill the rain forest so we now pay for oxygen mauahahahha. Go captian pollution lol
@GPCTM
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
ridiculously False
"The Amazon rainforest creates 20% of the Earth's oxygen"
__
most likely True:
"Malhi explains in his blog post, the net contribution of the Amazonian ecosystem to the world’s oxygen level is “effectively zero.”
@mudoperfeito
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
K K K K
@skech_one149
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
The last frontier
@johnsky1009
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
It’s sad that scientist predict that the Amazon rainforest will be completely gone in 40 years from now if they keep doing it at a rapid speed
@greygoose561
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
More needs to be done.
@OverlordKitsune
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
It’s the amazon desert now
@brettjames1992
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
I hope we lose it ASAP!!!!!!!!!!
@meowmeow2030a
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
Well Europeans cut down all the forest in North America from the 1600s to 1900s for colonization, extermination of the Native Americans, and extinction of species. How about regrowing some forest in USA and reducing the colonization of the rainforest by Europeans this century? Both would be better. And we must not forget corruption and the desire to make a profit Trump the rainforest in Brazil. The government will tell you one thing but farmers, big oil, mining companies, and the government all are contributing to its destruction and don’t care. In reality why would they? They have zero incentive to stop, I mean Brazil is already a hot, tropical climate and the climate change probably won’t directly effect Brazil. Perhaps the world governments should get serious about climate change and provide incentives to really stop rainforest destruction based on measurable results. Time will tell but I won’t hold my breath on saving the rainforest
@jeffreyjackson5229
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
I read a few responses and, to me, only one person's comment is headed in the right direction.
My response will skirt the truth because of the nature of the overall population of responders:
It's more than just $. The destruction of the rain forest is a part of a larger plan. The entire world is being pushed strategically in a specific direction and, little by little, we are headed there- an economic crash here, a default there, an increase in national debt over there, hyperinflation here.
Here's the connection:
The destruction of the rain forest will inevitably affect the weather and weather affect crops, crop yields, and the livestock. The smaller the yield, the higher the cost to purchase goods. Correct?
Now, if you have high prices and a major global economic collapse, you will have desperate people. Correct?
These desperate people will be willing to conform to basically anything to survive. See where I am going? What will people be willing to conform to? The answer to that question is where we are slowly headed.😉
@Lepidodendronn
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
People like money
@UnleashedTraining101
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
I’m always called an alarmist whenever I talk about the risk to these major forests. Yes they are large, but we are on a trajectory towards reaching a point of no return in a matter of decades. We’ve slowed down on it since the 90s, but it’s not enough.
@NefosG
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
How cute. US and Europe got to devastate their forests in order to create loads of resources and become 1st World countries. When we try to do the same, it's "bad for the planet". You imperialist scum.
@yourfavoritememes2607
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
Imagine just giving away the rainforest to a country from another world just imagine what will happen in this world
@urmo345
January 21, 2026 at 12:52 pm
Earth forests does create 20% of oxygen, it includes African rainforests and Boreal forests as oxygen sources, also Asian rain forests. Therefore Amazon rain forest is not creating 20% of oxygen! Not even nearly!
Comments are closed.