Janice R. Andrews
According to a ground-breaking analysis published today by the global scientific network World Weather Attribution, El Nino was not the main cause of the exceptional drought that afflicted the Amazon jungle last year; rather, it was global warming. The world’s largest rainforest is severely impacted by human-induced climate change, with dire ramifications for its environment and the millions of people who depend on its waters, as shown by the report.
Principal Results:
Human-Induced Global Warming: According to the study, the combustion of fossil fuels has increased global warming, which has increased the likelihood of drought in the Amazon by 30 times. Extreme temperatures brought on by this warming have resulted in the lowest water levels ever recorded.
Drought’s Dual Effects:Climate change has resulted in less rainfall and hotter weather, which evaporatively evaporates moisture from soil and plants and increases the severity of droughts.
Human and Ecological Toll:Millions of people who depend on the Amazon’s waterways for food, transportation, and employment have been cut off by the drought. Mass mortality threatened endangered dolphins, an important component of the ecosystem, and river villages struggled to get supplies.
Worldwide Effect:Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, and Peru are among the nine countries in the Amazon rainforest that have been impacted. It is anticipated that once the rainy season ends in May, things will get worse.
Devastation in the Neighbourhood:People have had to drag boats across dried-up stretches of the Amazon River in order to make the gruelling treks necessary to obtain supplies. Fish have vanished, crops have shrivelled, and people in big towns like Manaus have been breathing in smoke from wildfires for months.
Wildlife Loss: Low oxygen levels in tributaries caused thousands of fish to perish, and at least 178 rare pink and grey river dolphins to go extinct.
Point of No Return and Forest Fires:The Amazon may get closer to a point of no return—where the biome dries out and stops being a lush rainforest—if the drought worsens forest fires. According to the report, these kinds of catastrophic catastrophes will happen more frequently if climate change doesn’t stop.
Call for Immediate Action: To safeguard the health of the Amazon, researchers stress how critical it is to confront climate change. The forest is essential to the fight against climate change because it absorbs greenhouse gases in a significant way.
Worsening Climate Crisis: Experts warn that the planet is perilously close to surpassing the 1.5 degrees Celsius increase since pre-industrial times, a threshold that nations aimed to avoid in order to prevent catastrophic consequences like deadly heat, rising seas, flooding, and wildfires. The report comes after the hottest year on record globally.
