EUROPE: Deep in the pristine Amazon jungle, Brazil’s newest skyscraper has a mission unlike any other: to save the world.
The white and orange metal frame called Amazon Tall Tower Observatory, or ATTO, is a bold new tool in the push to understand climate change and the vital role of rainforests.
At 325 metres (1,066 feet), the ATTO is a metre higher than the Eiffel Tower and a good bit taller than London’s loftiest building, the Shard.
But instead of the typical city din of honking horns and engines, the loudest noise around the skinny structure is the chatter of cicadas and tropical birds.
Built in the Uatuma nature reserve, 350 kilometres from the city of Manaus and reachable only after hours of rough roads and a boat ride, the ATTO is seriously remote — and for the climate scientists that’s the point.
“Being far from towns and man’s influence ensures we can collect relatively pure data,” said Meinrat Andrae, director of the Max Planck Institute of Chemistry, which is partnering with Brazilian research agency Inpa on the German-Brazilian funded project.
The Amazon is seen as a big piece of the global warming puzzle, since trees are a key weapon in safely capturing destructive carbon gasses. And at 3,000 kilometres wide, the Amazon is the greatest of all rainforests, known to many as the lungs of the world.
“Thanks to this tower we’ll be able to better understand the role of the Amazon, its effect on the local climate and also on the global climate,” said Antonio Ocimar Manzi, one of the Brazilian scientists.
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