Rivers at their lowest levels since measurements began, dead river dolphins, fires, communities cut of from supplies, lack of clean drinking water and no immediate end in sight.
The current drought in the Amazon is having detrimental effects on the ecosystem, humans, animals and plants and all living organisms in the region and it should be a reason of concern for us all globally.
There are three main factors contributing to the current drought the region: 1) Deforestation
3) El Niño 2) Warmer oceans due to climate change
Even through deforestation rates have dropped over the course of this year compared to the year before (2022) they do not make the preceding years of record destruction unhappen. The main direct drivers behind this deforestation is agribusiness, ranches and farms for which forest area is being cleared. Deforestation and forest degradation diminish the forest's resilience and make it more susceptible to fires and droughts.
El Niño is a climatic phenomenon occurring every two to seven years. It is characterised by a reversal of the otherwise dominant direction of winds within the tropics. This results in changes in temperatures and precipitation patterns. The air above the Northern part of South America, where a major part of the rainforest is located, becomes drier and hotter than usual, while the Southern part experiences heavy rains and floods.
The warming of the Northern Atlantic Ocean is attributable to global climate change and has resulted in a shifting of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, which basically moves the clouds, rains, and storms associated with it further north and away from the rainforest in Northern Brasil.
This is not the first drought the Amazon is experiencing. Though when looking at extreme droughts from the past, there is a trend of them becoming more frequent. As climate change is causing El Niño years to become stronger and more frequent, this trend is likely to exacerbate.
A concern for the immediate future is that this is just the start of the El Niño phenomenon, which may last until the end of April 2024.
Source:
Rodrigues, M. (2023). The Amazon’s record-setting drought: how bad will it be? Nature (London). https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03469-6