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Global
Edition - Today's top story: Amazon region hit by trio of
droughts in grim snapshot of the century to come View
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Global
Edition | 23 November 2023 | |
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In
the Amazon, there is extreme drought. Wildlife is perishing.
Life for many humans is getting more difficult. The level of
water in the region’s rivers continues to fall and the outlook
for the year ahead is bleak. This, as scientists, researchers
and policy makers from all over the world head to Dubai
next week for COP28, the United Nations Climate Change
Conference.
Many
of them will have an eye on the Amazon, trying to understand
the causes and predict the consequences of the drought, but
also to propose alternative approaches before it’s too late.
Our new Brazilian edition of The Conversation is publishing a
series of key commissions on the situation in the Amazon, a
region that perhaps more than any other represents the health
– and future – of the whole of humanity.
Among
the articles produced by colleagues in recent weeks is this
portrait – drawn by biologists Phillip
Fearnside and Rosimeire Araújo, both from the Amazon Research
Institute (INPA) – detailing the damage that the
combination of unprecedented seasonal droughts and the El Niño
phenomenon is bringing to the region’s riverside population.
They look at what is likely to happen in the months, years and
decades to come. And at what can change the course we are now
on.
In
the next few weeks we will have content in text and audio
formats from our bureaux around the world, considering all
aspects of COP28 and a climate emergency that is now a reality
for communities across the planet. |
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Daniel Stycer
Editor, Rio de
Janeiro | |
The largest tributary on the left bank of the
Amazon, the Rio Negro is known for its paradisiacal
landscapes, fresh, clean and abundant waters, where pink
dolphins swim. Today, much of its riverbed around Manaus looks
like this. AP Photo/Edmar Barros
Philip Fearnside, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas
da Amazônia (INPA); Rosimeire Araújo Silva, Instituto Nacional
de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA)
The
drought is expected to affect the region until mid-2024 at the
earliest. Signs of its severity include the lowest water
levels in the city of Manaus in 121 years. |
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Argemiro Teixeira Leite Filho,
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)
Diminishing
forests reduces the capacity of the Amazon and Cerrado
to regulate rainfall patterns. That’s bad for
communities, but also bad for business and global food
security.
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Ludovic Pascal, Université du Québec à
Rimouski (UQAR); Gwénaëlle Chaillou, Université du
Québec à Rimouski (UQAR)
The
waters of the St. Lawrence are running out of breath
and bottom-dwelling organisms are already feeling the
effects. Here’s how ecosystems are
reacting. | |
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Cydney Thompson, Trinity College Dublin
Why
this 1866 painting by French artist Auguste Toulmouche has
become an online sensation. |
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Gregory F. Treverton, USC Dornsife
College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
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Natalia I. Kucirkova, The Open University
In
the academic world, researchers are rewarded for
publishing frequently. Not only is this affecting
research quality but it is also hindering female
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Anjana Susarla, Michigan State University
The
explosion of generative AI tools like ChatGPT and
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Katherine Astbury, University of Warwick
A
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Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2023 11:32 AM
Subject: COP28 – Brazil editor on extreme Amazon
drought
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