Stark before-and-after pictures reveal dramatic shrinking of major Amazon rivers

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Stark before-and-after pictures reveal dramatic shrinking of major

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rivers

Huge tributaries that feed the mighty

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River — the

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— have plunged to record-low levels, upending lives, stranding boats, and threatening endangered dolphins as drought grips Brazil.

The country is currently enduring its worst drought since records began in 1950, according to Cemaden, the country’s natural disaster monitoring center. It’s Brazil’s second straight year of extreme drought. Nearly 60% of the country is affected, with some cities, including the capital Brasília, enduring

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without rain.

In the heart of the

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rainforest, the impact on rivers is shocking and experts are sounding the alarm on what this means for the region,

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and crucial climate change buffer.

The Rio ******, one of the

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River’s biggest tributaries, is at record lows for this time of year near the city of Manaus in Amazonas state. Its water levels are falling at

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, according to Brazil’s geological service.

The river’s characteristic jet-****** waters usually course through its thick maze of channels, but satellite images now show it drastically shrunken with huge swaths of riverbed exposed.

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Part of the Rio ****** in Manaus on June 19, 2024. – Edmar Barros/AP

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The same part of the Rio ****** on September 25, 2024. – Edmar Barros/AP

The Rio ****** is seeing “extreme reductions” as temperatures soar and the region struggles with a dearth of rainfall, said Lincoln Alves, a research scientist Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research.

So too is the Solimões River, whose muddy-******** waters converge with the Rio ****** at Manaus to form the

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River.

This month, the Solimões fell to its

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for this time of year in Tabatinga, a Brazilian city on the border with Colombia and Peru.

Ships have been left stranded and vast expanses of sand are visible where water once flowed.

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A hopper barge stranded on a sandbank at the Solimões River, near Tefé, Amazonas state, Brazil on September 17, 2024. – Jorge Silva/Reuters

Lake Tefé, on the northern bank of the Solimões River, is also heavily depleted.

Photos of the lake last month show it dramatically shrunken compared to the same time last year and it has continued to decline. It’s “contributing to critical water shortages and impacting local ecosystems,” said Alves.

Last year, more than 200 dolphins were

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during a historic drought and record-high water temperatures, and experts ***** a repeat this year.

Dolphin deaths are already happening. “Last week, we found one a day on average,” Miriam Marmontel, head of the dolphin project at the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development, told

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earlier this month.

Researchers believe as the lake shrinks, there is less room for dolphins, putting them at greater risk of collision with boats and ferries.

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Researcher Miriam Marmontel, from Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development, after finding a ***** dolphin on Lake Tefé on September 18, 2024. – Leonardo Benassatto/Reuters

In many regions of the

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“the drought is already more intense today than it was at the worst point last year,” said Romulo Batista, a biologist and spokesperson for Greenpeace Brazil.

“The minimums in these rivers … are usually at the end of October,” said Adriana Cuartas, a researcher at Cemaden. This year they have happened earlier and water levels will continue to decline, she told CNN.

The consequences are stark for local people who rely on the rivers for food, medicine, livelihoods and transport, said André Guimarães, executive director of the

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Environmental Research Institute, a nonprofit organization.

“We are suffering a situation that has never happened before,” he told CNN, adding, “the reduction of the river flows is absolutely enormous.”

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Part of the Educandos that connects to the Rio ****** in Manaus, Brazil, Tuesday, June 17, 2024. – Edmar Barros/AP

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The same part of the river on Sept. 25, 2024. – Edmar Barros/AP

Brazil’s severe and prolonged drought has been fueled by a knot of factors.

An intense El Niño, a natural climate pattern, brought warmer and drier weather to the region last year and into 2024. El Niño has now ended but heat and drought are being influenced by an unusually hot Atlantic Ocean, said Cemaden’s Cuartas.

Deforestation is also a factor, said Alves, helping raise temperatures and change rainfall patterns. “Ongoing ecosystem degradation (is) pushing the region toward a potential tipping point,” he said.

Then there is climate change, driven by burning planet-heating fossil fuels, which is bringing warmer temperatures and longer periods without rain.

Last year’s devastating drought in the

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Basin was made

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by climate change, according to a report from World Weather Attribution, a network of scientists that analyze extreme weather events.

What’s happening in Brazil “is a tragic example of a local impact of global climate change,” Guimarães said, referring to the fact that it’s often poorer, less-developed countries that feel the brunt of climate change impacts disproportionately caused by richer countries.

Earlier this month, the environmental group Greenpeace unveiled a huge banner reading, “Who Pays?” on the newly exposed sandy banks of the Solimões.

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A message by Greenpeace activists on sandbanks of the Solimões River on September 20, 2024. – Jorge Silva/Reuters

The drought has also set the stage for devastating wildfires in Brazil that have destroyed huge swaths of the

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, the world’s largest tropical wetlands, and choked cities in thick smoke.

There is little relief in sight. Rainfall at levels that could start to replenish rivers is not expected for weeks yet and river levels are projected to keep on falling.

“Until November the situation will continue to worsen,” Cuartas said.

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#Stark #beforeandafter #pictures #reveal #dramatic #shrinking #major #

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#rivers

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