Major drought in Amazon rainforest

Major drought in Amazon rainforest

A boat navigates through a section of the Amazon River suffering from low water levels.

The worst drought in more than 40 years is damaging the world's biggest rainforest, plaguing the Amazon basin with wildfires, sickening river dwellers with tainted drinking water, and killing fish by the millions as streams dry up.

"What's awful for us is that all these fish have died and when the water returns there will be barely any more," Donisvaldo Mendonca da Silva, a 33-year-old fisherman, said.

Nearby, scores of piranhas shook in spasms in two inches of water -- what was left of the once flowing Parana de Manaquiri river, an Amazon tributary. Thousands of rotting fish lined the its dry banks.

The governor of Amazonas, a state the size of Alaska, has declared 16 municipalities in crisis as the two-month-long drought strands river dwellers who cannot find food or sell crops.

more...

Sometimes we miss the slow and silent disasters...

Earthquakes, hurricanes, drought, melting polar ice cap, potential pandemic... It's been one hell of a year...

That is one ominous list!


[edit on 23-7-2006 by loam]

Originally posted by loam

Sometimes we miss the slow and silent disasters...

Earthquakes, hurricanes, drought, melting polar ice cap, potential pandemic... It's been one hell of a year...

That is one ominous list!

[edit on 11-10-2005 by loam]

I agree, I really think what is happening to the earths rainforests has gone under the radar for far to long, with no end in sight. There are many discoveries that have yet to be made such as cures for diseases/cancers via some undiscovered plants/animals that will no longer be in existence very soon...

Yes what else is in store for this year? Seems like we have had every major disaster you can think of, and also seems that this bird flu pandemic is inevitable and will be the icing on the cake

[edit on 11-10-2005 by noslenwerd]

The Earth is agonizing.

The Amazon River was one of her more important lungs...

I am equally disturbed by this. I need to research more on the history of such droughts in the Amazon... Do they compare with this one? I don't know. The article is not clear on that.

Very alarming indeed. I hope it rains soon, because without the amazon we're kind of screwed.

This is very sad indeed, I will be interested in finding out a bit more about this, Very worring news,

I wonder what effects if this continues this will have on the planet?

It's pretty clear that all these weather events and natural disasters are occuring with greater frequency.

Anyways, I'm also interested in what the past droughts were like. My guess is that the human factor might make this situation worse.

The saddest part is there are animals that we haven't found yet, that will die.

Yeah this sucks.

And some folks are still running around doing whatever they want to the earth, without regard for the future. As an example, in my own place of work aluminum cans get tossed in the trash can, like it doesn't matter. And there is a recycling can that can easily be gotten to, you've only got to get up and walk to it. This is only one problem, but it illustrates the "I don't care" or "I'm too lazy" or "It doesn't matter", etc. type of attitudes.

One of my friends, who just tosses the cans away, has kids. Does he not see the environment he is leaving to his children?

The earth isn't some dumpster, we have to live "from" it.

Trpy

Amazon Drought Ending, Yet Sickness Looms

The Amazon basin's worst drought in more than 40 years is ending as rainfall returns to normal, though officials fear diseases will spread as rising rivers stir up muck from stagnant pools of contaminated water.

Many river dwellers in the world's largest rainforest are hungry, having lost crops in the drought. Stocks of fish, a dietary staple, may not recover for months in smaller tributaries that dried up, killing millions of fish.
"Now grave illnesses like hepatitis will come. We need to take medicine and food to people," said Franz Marinho de Alcantara, head of the emergency response efforts in the state of Amazonas, an area as big as Alaska.

His teams will use army boats to deliver 150,000 food baskets during the next several weeks to isolated communities living in the region's labyrinth of rivers.

The planned deliveries have been doubled because even though the rains have returned, it will take weeks for the enormous hydrologic system stretching across six states to fill up after some three months of drought...

more...

At least it's ending...

What a sad situation...

[edit on 10-12-2005 by loam]

The Amazon River was one of her more important lungs...

According to who exactly? I thought that the majority of the Earths O2 comes from Ocean bourn micro-organisms, I would liken the Amazon as an artery if you want to go classified our planet like a living organism.(Gaia theory was discredited decades ago as a valid scientific model)