Drought threatens Amazon basin
Pastor Dale Morgan
Drought threatens Amazon basin*
· Extreme conditions felt for second year running
· Record sea temperatures and illegal logging blamed
Paul Brown in Manaus
Monday July 17, 2006
The Guardian
On the vast expanse of water where the silty Amazon mingles with the
coffee-coloured Rio Negro, Amazon Indians and church leaders floated out
yesterday to bless the waters and protect them from drought.
Such a prospect seems incredible in Manaus, a Brazilian port city where
both the Amazon and Rio Negro are more than five miles wide and 300
metres deep. At more than 1,000 miles from the sea, the two streams can
be navigated by oceangoing ships and already dwarf every other river in
the world in terms of volume.
But last year the worst drought in more than a century hit the Amazon
basin, drying up tributaries more than a mile wide and prompting Brazil
to declare a state of emergency across the entire region.
Tens of thousands were cut off as rivers that are the main means of
transportation were turned into mudflats and grasslands, leaving boats
stranded among millions of rotting fish on the baked mud.
Locals hoped the drought was a once-in-a-generation event, but already
there are signs that the extreme conditions of last year are returning.
In the Acre region close to Brazil's borders with Bolivia and Peru,
where last year's drought began, sandbanks have started appearing in
rivers which are normally larger than any of their European counterparts.
Such conditions usually occur only at the end of the dry season three
months from now, but this year Acre went without rain for 40 days in
June and early July, a circumstance almost unheard of. The government's
technical foundation in Acre said the vegetation was so dry that there
was a serious danger of forest fires.
The blessing of the rivers came at the start of a conference examining
the deterioration of the Amazon basin that brings together religious
leaders, politicians and scientists aboard a fleet of boats anchored in
Manaus, the Amazon's main city.
Brazil's environment minister, Marina Da Silva, said the drought was
linked to record sea temperatures in the south-west Atlantic and Gulf of
Mexico that had also contributed to last year's record Atlantic
hurricane season.
But the destruction of the rainforest by illegal loggers has also been
named as a cause, as rivers become choked with silt swept from the
denuded land.
Ecologist Carlos Rittl said the continued removal of trees was a crucial
factor in the drying of a region that has already lost 17% of its forest
cover. "The science shows that 50% of the rain comes from the trees
recycling the water through evaporation, which creates more rain. If you
lose the trees you lose the rainfall. It cannot continue like this," he
said.
Ms Da Silva said Brazil was determined to stamp out illegal logging and
the destruction of the forest for ranching and growing soya beans. A
clampdown over the past year has resulted in 300 people, including
corrupt officials, being arrested, while 1,500 businesses have been shut
down and 600,000 cubic metres of illegal logs seized.