Amazon rainforest: Why is the Amazon important? What endangered animals live in Amazon?

Plants and trees in the Amazon absorb CO2 from the air through photosynthesis, and convert it into oxygen. 

And while plants and trees in the Amazon continue to burn, the CO2 these organisms store is released back into the atmosphere.

James Randerson from the University of California, Irvine, told Newsweek: “The Amazon is a carbon sink, which slows the rate of carbon dioxide build up in the atmosphere, and thus climate warming.

“Deforestation and fire-driven forest degradation affect the carbon cycle in two ways. 

source: express.co.uk