This country has 220 million cows, 43% of which are in the Amazon. A mind-boggling new report by the Climate Observatory notes that Brazil’s beef industry now has a bigger carbon footprint than Japan. This has become one of the world’s most heinous climate crimes. Land-grabbers use cows as occupying armies to strengthen their claims on stolen and cleared forest. The beef industry is the biggest driver of Amazon deforestation. This is where my bovine neighbours come into the picture. If you clear the vegetation, as many farmers continue to do – albeit at a much slower rate than they did under the rule of the rightwing former president Jair Bolsonaro – then the region will become hotter and drier due to local effects and global climate disruption. The most important of those, proved by recent studies, is that a healthy forest does not only generate its own rainfall, but also acts as a powerful regional cooler. This explanation is accurate but narrow, missing many of the main causes of this problem and the most workable solutions. Meteorologists explained that this year’s Amazon drought is anomalously severe due to the El Niño effect, Atlantic Ocean heating and the climate crisis. Seluchi said the latest forecasts suggest rains will not return to most parts of the Amazon until the end of this month.Īt a recent crisis meeting organised by the National Water and Sanitation Agency and president Luis Inácio Lula da Silva’s chief of staff, experts warned of threats to hydroelectric dams and river transport of essential commodities, such as food, fuel and medicine. Temperatures in many areas have hit record highs and the drought is far from over. I saw that shocking sight myself a couple of weeks ago. Many rivers in the region, including the mighty Rio Negro, he said, have fallen to levels not seen since measurements began more than a century ago. ![]() The landscape is parched and vegetation crunches underfoot. Marcelo Seluchi, the head of modelling and operations at the Natural Disaster Monitoring and Alert Centre, told me this is already one of the worst droughts in the history of the Amazon, an area the size of Europe. To a lesser degree, all of these things happen every dry season, but this is no normal year, as I confirmed with a couple of Brazil’s top scientists. ![]() Toads seek refuge in our dogs’ water bowls. Wasps that usually buzz around the fruit bowl now congregate near the pipes, seeking drops of water ahead of nectar. In the house, the kitchen and bathroom taps run dry for a few hours every two or three days. The Xingu River, where we take our dogs each morning, is 4 metres below its peak and the small tributary, where I usually canoe, has shrunk to an ankle-deep stream. ![]() And with every day that passes, the sense of foreboding grows stronger. By now, the dry season would normally have peaked, and rivers and aquifers would start to replenish. October, November and December are usually a period of transition. Innocent victims though they are, their presence has contributed to this bleak scene. Photograph: Jonathan Watts/The GuardianĪnd then there are the cows, poor creatures, that amble through sickly brown pastures looking for the last few leaves or patches of grass that haven’t been coated with dust. ![]() Solar panels cannot function properly because sunlight cannot break through the smoke.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |