Global warming

Geology

Climate change

Archaeology

Biology

Geography

Tropical climate

Ecology

Programming language

Extreme weather

Rainforest

Deforestation (computer science)

Computer science

Climatology

Environmental science

Tropics

Tropical rainforest

Environmental Research Letters

Accelerating deforestation rates in Earth's tropical rainforests have dramatic impacts on local public health, agricultural productivity, and global climate change. We used satellite observations to quantify the local temperature changes in deforested patches of rainforests across the tropics and found local warming larger than that predicted from more than a century of climate change under a worst-case emissions scenario. We show that the most extreme warming is typically found in large patches of deforestation; the combined effects of deforestation and climate change on tropical temperatures present a uniquely difficult challenge to the long term public health, occupational safety, and economic security of tropical populations.

Large scale tropical deforestation drives extreme warming