The Amazon is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years. It’s caused by climate change. Climate change will affect many countries mostly via water: Too much water, too little water, or no water at all. Seasonal droughts will change into permanent droughts. Where will people get their water, especially those people who depend on snow and glacier melt? There was some talk of getting water from the Great Lakes, (biggest fresh water source on earth) which would be the death of them. This was one possible plan in 2007 and let’s hope it’s not the plan anymore. The Great Lakes are already too low and lowering every year, just from current lack of rainfall and water use. We should be increasing desalination of sea water instead of destroying remaining fresh water sources in the United States, or wasting the water. The worst use of water right now is wasting it on growing crops for fuel.
In the Amazon, they also have too little water. Many countries in Central America are also dealing with lack of water, and even a lack of the usual rainy season. The impact of climate-change droughts on the Amazon will be devastating. It’s impossible to imagine the forests of Central and South America disappearing entirely, but that is what has already begun to happen.
Reuters Photo 2009
In this photo, a man pulls his boat across the mudflats of a drying tributary of the Amazon River, as the season drought worsens to one of the worst in recent years, in Parana do Paraua, Amazonas State, November 24, 2009. After a rainy season that caused some of the worst flooding in recent history, the seasonal drought that followed is proving to be especially bad as well.
Source: PlanetArk
The current drought will likely lead to more climate change, and then even more drought.
With the Amazon rainforest experiencing its worst drought for 40 years, Brazil has declared many cities in the region’s largest state, Amazonas, as disaster areas.
Droughts in the Amazon are usually associated with El Niño, a periodic warming of southern Pacific waters. But no such warming has been detected this year.
However, the North Atlantic has been unusually warm, making water evaporate more than usual. This might have had the knock-on effect of providing less rainwater to the Amazon region.
Paul Lefebvre, a researcher who runs a monitoring station in the Amazon, says the drought could damage local fish supplies and human health.
He adds that the drought could slow tree growth, which could eventually contribute to climate change by making the forest less able to absorb carbon dioxide.
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