Sunlight pours around a 'flying river' —- a vast, humid air current -— in an undated picture of the Amazon rain forest. Photograph courtesy Gérard Moss, Flying Rivers Project

By Christine Dell’Amore in Copenhagen
National Geographic News
December 18, 2009 The Amazon’s “flying rivers”—humid air currents that deliver water to the vast rain forest—may be ebbing, which could have dire consequences for the region’s ability to help curb global warming, an expert said this week at the Copenhagen climate conference. Rising temperatures in the Amazon region, in large part due to climate change, are creating more arid savannas, which disrupt the water cycle vital to Brazil’s farming and energy industries. Deforestation also plays a role. As more of Brazil‘s rain forests fall to logging and agriculture, there are fewer trees to release the water vapor that creates these flying rivers. Until recently, Amazon forest loss has been primarily linked to the trees’ role in trapping greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), which are a root cause of global warming. “Most people look at the Amazon as the lungs of the world, or as a solution to capture CO2,” said Gérard Moss, an engineer and founder of the Flying Rivers Project, an ongoing effort to document the humid air currents and their effects. “But I’d like people to realize that the Amazon Basin is a huge water pump—rain is [our] most valuable asset,” he said by phone Wednesday in Copenhagen, where he gave a press briefing on the project earlier this week. Flying rivers may transport as much water as the Amazon River itself, he added. “This huge rain machine needs to be preserved.” … Farmers in the Amazon’s fertile Matto Grosso state are highly dependent on Amazon rain to grow their crops, for example. The agriculture industry in the region is extremely profitable because so little irrigation is needed. …

Amazon Losing ‘Flying Rivers,’ Ability to Curb Warming