On the afternoon of October 16th, the Latin American Committee at Tufts (LAC) hosted its first panel of the semester to discuss the causes and implications of the Amazon Rainforest fires, which have burned down over 2.2 million acres of primary and secondary forests in 2019 alone. The panelists, Dr. Colin Orians, Sebastian Uribe, Dillon Kim, and Clemencia Pinasco (via Skype), shared their expertise on the matter through environmental, economic, and social lenses with a standing-room only crowd.
Professor Orians, whose research focuses on global change biology with an emphasis on climate change, species invasion, and agroecology, stressed the high value of the Amazon as a biological asset. He described the region as a “museum and a cradle of innovation”, highlighting the importance of both learning from its history and preserving it for the future.
