Rainforests: How to restore Earth's lungs

Breathe in. Breathe out. The oxygen flowing through your body is the result of photosynthesis: the natural process through which living things convert sunlight into energy. About 30% of land-based photosynthesis happens in tropical rainforests: the lungs of the earth. Rainforests are also great at sucking up excess carbon from the atmosphere- something we know we've got to do more of.

But in recent years, these lungs have been getting constricted: shrinking in size and choked up with smoke. So grab your mosquito net and join Tori & Khalil on a trip through the tropics to find out what's going on - and how we can help rainforests breathe deeply again.

Contributors:
Mardi Minangsari - Campaigner with Indonesian conservation group Kaoem Telapak
Dr Helena Varkey - Professor of Environmental Politics, Universiti Malaya
Dr Thomas Smith - Geographer and environmental scientist, London School of Economics
Dr Michael Pashkevich, Marshall Sherfield Fellow, University of Cambridge
Dr Rico Fischer, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, UFZ Leipzig

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Learn more about how you can take action for nature and find additional resources at www.nhm.ac.uk/podcast