Jonathan Foley

Saleska also put the figure that tropical vegetation is responsible for about 25% of oxygen produced by land-based photosynthesis, and since the Amazon represents about half of those, we can guess that it would represent about 12 to 13% of the total.

Complicating things further, land-based photosynthesis only accounts for about half of photosynthesis, bringing that figure closer to 6%, a figure that is supported by climate scientists like Michael E. Mann, director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center, and Dr. Jonathan Foley, director of Project Drawdown.

But what the Amazon does do is act as a massive carbon sink, sucking up large quantities of carbon dioxide, and when the trees are cut down, that CO2 is released into the atmosphere.

And as it degrades, the entire rainforest will go from being a CO2 sink to being a net-

Climate change can feel like one of those problems that is simply too big, too global, too political, too far gone for any one of us to actually make a difference.

Jonathan Foley has very little patience for that.

Many problems, sure, thanks.

So I really get kinda irritated when people think like, "Oh, my actions don't matter." I'm like, "Yes, they do, and enormously, and they sure matter when you give up without even trying." That's the worst thing you can do.

You will be disappointed, disappointed, but better, and you will sometimes fail, but you're still gonna be hopeful because hope means you will give your heart, your time, your soul, everything you are, even in the possibility of building a better world, knowing full well you may fail.

[upbeat music]

Today on Atmosphere, climate scientist Dr. Jonathan Foley will tell us why we already have many of the tools we need to tackle climate change, why he thinks doomerism may be just as dangerous as denial, and why our generation has a responsibility to get off the sidelines and leave something better behind.

And you know what? At the end of the day, the world doesn't give a damn how we feel.