The Amazon’s most valuable export isn’t timber — it’s rain

The Amazon’s most valuable export isn’t timber — it’s rain

Rainfall is often treated as a gift of geography — a function of latitude, oceans, and atmospheric circulation. A growing body of research suggests that in the tropics, it is also a product of ecosystems. Forests do not merely receive rain. They help generate it, regulate its distribution, and sustain the conditions that allow it to persist. “Quantifying tropical forest rainfall generation”, a review paper recently published in the journal Commu…