Ein riesiger, von China unterstützter Hafen könnte den Amazonas-Regenwald an seine Grenzen bringen: Der Hafen wird den Welthandel revolutionieren, aber er löst zerstörerische Regenwaldrouten aus.

>The port is a magnet,” said Luis Fernandez, executive director of Wake Forest University’s Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation. They’ll find more efficient ways to get over the Andes, to plug into Chancay.

>But environmental scientists and forestry experts warn that the economic pull of the port will speed the destruction of the Amazon, the planet’s most critical, climate-stabilizing terrestrial ecosystem.

>The port and its faster link to massive Asian economies, they warn, will deepen and expand an extractive network of roads, railways, and waterways that have already eaten into the rainforest, a web of arteries carrying oil, gold, timber, beef, and soy to markets around the world.

>The pressure could push the rainforest over the edge, transforming it from the world’s largest terrestrial carbon sink into a massive emitter of planet-warming gases. Some research suggests the forest is already at or near this potentially catastrophic tipping point.