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topic: Drought
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Drought is deepening a health crisis among Peru’s recently contacted Indigenous Matsés
- Since initiating contact with the outside world in 1969, the Matsés Indigenous people of the northeastern Peruvian Amazon have faced a barrage of epidemics.
- During a recent visit to the Matsés reserve, Mongabay found a population still suffering from outbreaks of deadly malaria and hepatitis B, exacerbated by state neglect and environmental threats like drought.
- Matsés leaders, anthropologists, and health experts warn that exposure could be fatal for isolated groups neighboring Matsés land, as well as those in nearby reserves across the wider Yavarí-Tapiche Territorial Corridor.
- Drought and an intensifying El Niño could further compound these health pressures by disrupting rainfall patterns, creating conditions that allow malaria-bearing mosquitoes to proliferate and affecting river transport for medical care.
Climate change parches Puerto Rico and Jamaica in rare early wet season drought
A severe drought that has parched the Caribbean since May 2026 was fueled by human-induced climate change, according to a recent study. The rapid analysis was released by World Weather Attribution (WWA), a global network of researchers who analyze the influence of climate change in extreme weather events. In the Caribbean, the wet season runs […]
Brazil relaxes Belo Monte water rule amid El Niño-fueled Amazon drought risk
Brazilian authorities have temporarily relaxed an environmental rule for the Belo Monte hydropower plant on the Xingu River in the northeastern Amazon. The change comes in anticipation of another potentially severe, El-Niño-fueled dry season. Under the temporary measure, Belo Monte’s operator Norte Energia can cut the flow of the dam’s 119 square-kilometer (46 square-mile) intermediate […]
World must look to the past to prepare for likely unprecedented El Niño
- A potentially historic El Niño is gathering strength and likely to peak between Nov. 2026-Jan. 2027. Latest projections suggest the event could become the strongest ever measured. Countries around the world are bracing for impacts.
- Past very strong El Niño events, with record heat, drought, precipitation, floods, and wildfires, have taken a toll in human lives, human health, national and community economies, and ecosystems. Some effects can linger as much as a decade, after these events.
- While some nations, such as Peru and Sri Lanka, are preparing for a record El Niño, many are unable to, with the United Nations now making a $202 million El Niño Joint Anticipatory Action Appeal to aid 22 high-risk countries in Asia, Oceania, Africa and Latin America.
- In this story, experts outline some lessons that can be learned from history’s most powerful past El Niño events and the preparations that will be required to protect vulnerable populations during the potentially unprecedented 2026-27 event.
Lake Powell hits record low, threatening key water and electricity supply for millions
The water level at Lake Powell, the United States’ second-largest reservoir, has fallen to a record low, heightening concerns about the ongoing crisis in the Colorado River system. The alarming milestone at Lake Powell, reached Saturday, comes about a week after the river’s other major reservoir, Lake Mead, also hit a historic low. Plummeting water levels […]
More people, farms, and drought could mean more elephant conflict in Southern Africa
A growing human population, expanding croplands, and drier conditions driven by climate change within protected areas could significantly intensify human-elephant conflict in Southern Africa, a recent study finds. Southern Africa is home to almost 300,000 African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana), with many populations rebounding after decades of poaching. The region is also seeing rapidly expanding […]
Wildfire ravages Indonesia’s Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park
A massive wildfire within a national park in Indonesia has forced a total closure of one of the country’s best-known tourist destinations. Some 899 hectares (2,222 acres) of savanna and forest within Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park (TNBTS) in East Java province have been destroyed by fire as of the morning of Aug. 11, the […]
Rare living stone plant, found in a tiny area in Namibia, is critically endangered
In a small area of Namibia’s Erongo Mountains, a tiny, pebble-like plant grows on a very thin layer of gravel. This succulent, Lithops werneri, is found in just one tiny 4 square-kilometer (1.5 square-mile) area, according to the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. With more than an 80% decline in its population since 1981 […]
Sri Lanka prepares for impending El Niño with traditional and new approaches
- According to traditional Sri Lankan paddy farmers, long dry spells have occurred every four to seven years.
- Sri Lanka has experienced around 25-26 El Niño events from 1950 to date, out of which only three have been strong El Niño events, meteorology department officials say.
- The irrigation department has introduced new water-saving techniques such as alternative wetting and drying to preserve excess water during the forecasted dry season.
- Attempts are also being made to integrate science into decision making, but there are gaps in research due to a lack of access to information, academics say.
New fire satellites offer hope for Amazon and other biomes, but local barriers remain
- Record forest fires raged out of control in South America in 2024, scorching areas that had never burned before. An El Niño episode is expected to intensify fires in 2026 and 2027.
- Earlier this month, nonprofit Earth Fire Alliance launched three FireSat satellites, the latest step in its plans to provide firefighters worldwide with more precise and rapidly updated data.
- For countries in the Amazon basin, the technology promises to provide data that could ensure faster and more accurate responses. Yet, in many countries, the lack of physical infrastructure and governmental support could dampen the positive impacts of having more data.
In Michoacán, Mexico, drying soil threatens water supplies and avocados, says study
- Avocados are grown year-round in the southwestern Mexican state of Michoacán, which exports more than 1 million metric tons of avocados annually.
- A recent study in Michoacán found that between 2001 and 2018, soils with high avocado productivity lost 38 liters per cubic meter of water annually.
- Illegal logging of high-altitude forests to accommodate new avocado plantations simultaneously depletes the aquifer, as avocado trees consume 4-5 times more water than native pines.
- If the trend continues, Michoacán’s avocado-growing areas are expected to suffer increased water stress in the short term, negatively affecting both agricultural production and drinking water access in the region.
Amazon tree rings reveal more intense drought and rainfall in the rainforest
Tree rings from the Amazon show that the world’s largest rainforest has developed wetter wet seasons and drier dry seasons over the past four decades. The findings point to intense seasonal swings that can cause significant harm to biodiversity and suggest that widespread drying out across the entire Amazon basin is unlikely. Researchers collected tree […]
How Costa Rica’s extreme climate changes the social behaviors of white-faced capuchin
- For 33 years, a research team has studied white-faced capuchin monkeys in the tropical dry forests of Costa Rica, gathering data on their complex social lives.
- A new study from the team shows that during extreme climate events, large groups of capuchins may go hungry, while smaller groups may fare better.
- Climate extremes alter the physical landscape, causing animals to change their societal behaviors. For capuchins, this means greater competition for food, heightened territorial sensitivity and fluctuating group sizes.
- While capuchins can adapt to environmental changes over time, there are limits to their resilience, as seen during the severe droughts caused by the El Niño in 2014-2016, when dwindling food sources caused capuchins to abandon societal norms in search of food.
Ancient rock structures help restore biodiversity on the US-Mexico border
- On the border between the United States and Mexico, ranchers are struggling under shifting climatic conditions, including extreme drought and intense flooding.
- Small rock structures known as trincheras are an ancient method of slowing water flow, reducing erosion and improving subsoil quality, allowing life to rebound in degraded rangelands.
- A growing body of research indicates that rock detention structures like trincheras help improve drought resilience, increase biodiversity and water yields.
- In Sonora, a state dominated by private rangelands, momentum is growing to build these structures and adopt a wider range of “regenerative ranching” practices, as conservationists and ranchers work together.
Targeted conservation in Brazil could help protect the Amazon’s flying rivers
- The Amazon’s atmospheric moisture flows known as “flying rivers” provide over 70% of rainfall in parts of southern Peru and northern Bolivia, but they are threatened by deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
- According to a new report by the NGO Amazon Conservation, the lack of protections for areas known as undesignated public forests and road development projects pose a deforestation risk that would disrupt the flying rivers during dry and transition seasons.
- Research shows that the Amazon is already experiencing longer dry seasons, which in turn affects the forest’s capacity to recycle moisture for the flying rivers.
- Conservation targeting the forests that are most important for recycling atmospheric moisture could help maintain the flying rivers, the report proposes.
Thai farmers fear water woes from planned LNG plant
- Farmers in Thailand’s Chachoengsao province worry a planned 600-megawatt LNG power plant could increase water shortages and air pollution in an area already facing recurring drought.
- The project is the latest chapter in an 18-year struggle by local communities, who previously helped stop the same development when it was planned as a coal-fired power station and continue to challenge it on environmental and health grounds.
- Opponents also question why the plant is needed at all, arguing Thailand already has excess generating capacity and that expanding LNG infrastructure could deepen fossil-fuel dependence while delaying a shift to renewable energy.
Amazon floodplains cocoa offers a climate-resilient and sustainable chocolate
- Traditional communities in Pará, Brazil’s top cocoa-producing state, are managing native species that naturally resist pests and extreme weather.
- The dense forest canopy of the floodplains provides natural irrigation and protection for cocoa trees against extreme droughts, heavy rain and pests.
- Global demand for organic and ethically sourced chocolate is expected to rise, positioning Amazonian states to fill international supply gaps, despite hurdles.
- Experts compare Pará’s emerging artisanal chocolate sector to Burgundy wine or Ethiopian coffee due to the unique “terroir” flavors of its native beans.
South America’s farms depend, in part, on a healthy Amazon
- The Amazon is not only a carbon store; it is also a major source of atmospheric moisture that helps sustain rainfall across much of South America.
- A new Nature study finds that deforestation lowers the warming threshold at which large parts of the Amazon could lose stability.
- Recent droughts, El Niño conditions, and fire risk show why degraded forests are less able to withstand climate stress and recover afterward.
- Protecting intact forests, restoring degraded areas, and reducing fire are increasingly important for climate resilience, biodiversity, and South America’s food system.
Kenya is Africa’s first country to receive crucial climate disaster funding
Kenya became the first African nation to receive landmark climate disaster funding. It will be used to identify Kenyans who have suffered climate-related losses and damages during the last decade. The Sh90 million ($700,000) in funding comes from the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage, a Switzerland-based United Nations mechanism funded by voluntary contributions from […]
Climate change triples chance of deadly 2026 South Asia pre-monsoon heatwave: Report
From mid-April through May 2026, India and Pakistan were gripped by a heatwave that saw daily maximum temperatures soar above 46° Celsius (114.8° Fahrenheit) in numerous cities. This ongoing period of intense heat has resulted in at least 10 reported deaths in Karachi, Pakistan and 6 reported cases of deaths from heat stroke in India, […]
An Australian icon, the platypus is struggling — and scientists still lack answers
- Australia’s iconic platypus is under threat as climate change hits the country hard. Intense heat and longer droughts are parching waterways that platypuses live in; wildfires are more frequent and heavy rainfall events inundate their burrows.
- Platypuses are elusive animals, primarily active at dawn and dusk, making them difficult to locate and count, which hinders conservation efforts. Researchers are working to improve platypus population data.
- Without comprehensive information on their whereabouts, conservationists can’t intervene early in natural disasters to save platypuses.
- Australia’s intense three-year drought and the following 2019-2020 “Black Summer” bushfires led to new ways to manage wild platypus populations during natural disasters. Now, a new framework outlines ways to save populations in crisis: whether to help animals in situ or deciding to move them.
Rising waters and mounting pressures collide on Kenya’s Lake Turkana
- Lake Turkana in northern Kenya has risen by as much as 10 meters (33 feet) over the past 15 years, displacing communities, flooding infrastructure and reshaping fisheries in one of the country’s most climate-vulnerable regions.
- Scientists and local residents are still debating the causes of the lake’s expansion, with theories ranging from heavier rainfall linked to climate change, to tectonic and groundwater shifts, while researchers say Ethiopia’s Gibe III Dam upstream has also altered the lake’s ecological dynamics.
- Fishers around the lake say catches have declined sharply in recent years as changing water levels alter breeding grounds and fish distribution, while drought drives more pastoralists to rely on fishing for survival.
- Researchers and local advocates say Lake Turkana suffers from decades of poorly planned development and limited scientific monitoring, though new efforts are underway to improve data collection and guide more sustainable management of the lake and its fisheries.
‘Turkana has always adapted to change’: Interview with environmentalist Ikal Angelei
- Local livelihoods around Kenya’s Lake Turkana have long shifted between pastoralism, fishing, farming and trade as people adapted to a landscape defined by fluctuation.
- But as the scale and intensity of erratic climate patterns, mounting pressure on its fisheries, and conflict over resources has increased, their space has shrunk.
- The lake has long been a place where the poorest could make a living, but as the economic value of resources here increases, there is a risk that they will be pushed out by those better placed to access infrastructure and opportunities.
Zambian prodigy draws on theoretical physics to improve weather prediction
- A weather prediction model by a teen prodigy from Zambian is one of five shortlisted projects from Africa for the Earth Prize this year.
- The prize is awarded to youths between 13 and 19 who have come up with innovations that aim to solve pressing environmental challenges.
- Recognizing the need for weather prediction models that work in the sub-Saharan African context, Prosper Chanda, now 18, developed a model that aims to complement existing ones built largely with data from the U.S. and Europe.
- A scientific paper he authored focusing on the physics behind the model is currently undergoing peer review ahead of publication.
After quinoa’s boom, Bolivian farmers face degraded soils and climate stress
- Quinoa, a pseudocereal, has been grown in the Andes since pre-Hispanic times. The 2010-2014 quinoa boom benefited some farmers in the region, but intensified production also brought soil depletion, increased erosion and social conflicts.
- Climate change and shifts in regional weather patterns have also brought more frequent and irregular frosts, rains and heat, making quinoa production more difficult.
- Most of the Bolivian quinoa that’s exported is smuggled through Peru and sold as Peruvian, experts say, complicating efforts by Bolivian producers to benefit from using higher-quality seeds.
- Growers in Bolivia’s southern Altiplano, the Andean Plateau, are cultivating a premium variant of the crop in an effort to bypass middlemen and benefit from a price premium, but lack governmental support and direct access to markets.
What tree rings reveal about climate change in the Amazon
- Scientists analyzed tree growth rings to investigate whether the Amazon Basin is indeed drying up, as shown by extreme droughts in 2023 and 2024.
- Their study revealed that over the past four decades, rainfall has become more intense during the wet season and scarcer during the dry season, indicating unprecedented extension of climate seasonality.
- Researchers point out that such intensification of extremes results from a combination of natural environmental variability, deforestation and climate change, with direct impacts on the forest and the carbon cycle.
Bangladesh struggles to choose between food security & stable groundwater table
- With an aim to stabilize the groundwater table, Bangladesh declared 25 subdistricts of its northwestern part as water crisis zones in late 2025.
- Identifying irrigation as the major factor of the crisis, a government notice asked farmers to immediately halt the cultivation of high irrigation-fed boro paddy.
- Since the zone is also considered a rice-producing hub, the government later changed the direction for a limited time, considering the immediate impacts of hampering staple food production in the country.
- However, development professionals suggested shifts in agriculture practices from high irrigation-fed rice production to alternative crops to ensure a stabilized water table and livelihood for the people living in the region.
Heat, fires and agribusiness squeeze traditional Amazon açaí harvesters
- Intensive farming of the popular açaí berry grew by 70% since 2015, while community cooperatives reported losses of 35% or more during recent heat waves and fires.
- Industrial açaí crops often rely on artificial irrigation and nonnative honeybees, adapting the Amazon to intensive methods rather than benefiting from the biome’s own systems.
- Market analysis indicates increasing international demand and rising prices, a trend that pushes for high-yield commercial monocultures over forest-based extraction.
Disaster impacts in 2025 were ‘typical’ despite no mega-disasters: Report
More than 110 million people were affected by 358 reported disasters in 2025, according to the annual report by the Emergency Events Database. The year was consistent with a typical year of disaster impacts, with no mega-disasters recorded. The report looked at nine different types of disasters and only found above-average impacts from storms. The […]
In northern Kenya, a shifting Lake Turkana reshapes traditional livelihoods
- According to Kenya’s environment ministry, water levels in Lake Turkana have risen by several meters in the past decade, expanding its total surface area by around 10%.
- The rise, mainly caused by increased rainfall far upstream, has affected communities and infrastructure on the lake’s shores, as well as disrupted fishing in its changing waters.
- Extended drought in surrounding areas has drawn thousands of new fishers to Lake Turkana, sometimes sparking conflict.
- The people who have lived here the longest are negotiating their survival in what a researcher calls “a system with many variables, both natural and human.”
Novel research finds unexpected climate resilience in up to 36% of Amazon forest
- In recent decades, the Amazon Rainforest has repeatedly and increasingly been struck by devastating drought along with record heat due to climate change. Add to this record wildfires, rapid deforestation and land conversion for agriculture.
- Numerous field studies and modeling have found that these extreme changes are pushing the Amazon toward a tipping point and collapse of the biome — an ecological disaster that would release large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.
- But one research team, in a recently published study, offered up some hope: They found that little-studied low water table wetland Amazon forests — constituting up to 36% of Amazon trees — have stood up well to, and even thrived, during major droughts, with an increase in aboveground biomass.
- Those findings, the research team says, put the inevitability of an Amazon tipping point and collapse in some doubt, with the possibility that low water table forests could serve as a refugia for biodiversity. They also urge that these areas become a priority for protection and conservation as a hedge against future climate change.
How an engineer brought degraded wetlands back to life in drought-hit Bangladesh
- In drought-hit regions of Bangladesh, excavation and restoration of wetlands are crucial for local ecosystem and agriculture.
- An engineer at a government agency, A.K.M. Fazlul Haque challenges anomalies in wetland regulations around the country’s northern region.
- His efforts serve the community and biodiversity, and Fazlul’s story shows that conservation is a continuous struggle.
‘Sharing is off the table’ as drought reshapes the culture of Ethiopia’s pastoralists
- Pastoralists in Ethiopia’s Somali region say that worsening drought is eroding traditional systems of sharing that once helped communities survive.
- A recent study finds rainfall patterns have grown increasingly unpredictable, making it harder for pastoralists to plan and sustain their herds.
- Indigenous systems such as Gergar — a form of social insurance — and communal grazing are weakening as households struggle to sustain their own herds.
- As climate pressures grow, pastoralists are turning to alternative livelihoods, while assistance struggles to keep up with the scale of the problem.
Who controls Mexico’s Yaqui River?
Water has shaped the identity, livelihoods and governance of the Yaqui Indigenous people in northern Mexico for centuries. Today, the Yaqui River faces mounting pressure as drought intensifies, pollution persists and water is increasingly diverted to agriculture and cities. In this award-winning series, staff writer Aimee Gabay explores how climate change is sharpening long-standing disputes […]
Falling Amazon river flows trigger reality check at Belo Monte power plant
- Studies warn that climate change could slash hydropower generation across the Amazon by up to 40%, with controversial Belo Monte among the most exposed plants in Brazil.
- Researchers and regulators say relying on historical river flows is no longer viable as droughts intensify and rainfall patterns drop.
- Belo Monte’s operator argues the plant remains strategic for Brazil’s energy security, despite growing climate risks.
America’s national parks face an uncertain future as climate risks mount
- A nationwide analysis finds most U.S. national parks are highly vulnerable to climate change, with many facing risks of irreversible ecological transformation rather than gradual decline. Wildfire, drought, pests, and sea-level rise are converging to reshape landscapes the parks were created to preserve.
- Vulnerability is uneven: parks in the Midwest and eastern United States tend to face the greatest cumulative risk due to fragmented habitats, pollution, invasive species, and limited capacity for ecosystems to adapt. Many western parks appear more resilient but are exposed to multiple severe disturbances at once.
- Coastal parks are threatened by rising seas and storm surge, while inland forests face compound stresses that can trigger long-term shifts from forest to shrubland or grassland. Once such transitions occur, returning to previous ecological conditions may be impossible.
- As climate pressures intensify and policy responses weaken, park managers are shifting from preserving historical conditions to managing ongoing transformation. America’s parks may increasingly serve less as static sanctuaries and more as living records of how nature reorganizes under accelerating change.
UN recognition is latest boost to restoring spekboom across South Africa’s semidesert Karoo
- Since 2004, the South African government has been working to restore spekboom thickets in a semiarid region of the country.
- This biome, anchored by the hardy, carbon-sequestering spekboom plant, has been massively degraded by two centuries of expanding farming and livestock herding.
- That long arc of conversion of thicket landscapes to farm and rangeland is now dying, as overgrazing, climate change and shifting markets for agricultural products take their toll.
- Dozens of private operators have joined the government in trying to restore this biome’s original thicket cover, attracted by the potential for income from carbon credits.
Farmers fear displacement, drought, flooding tied to Cambodia’s Funan Techo Canal
- The Cambodian government is set to begin construction of the Funan Techo Canal, a nearly $1.2 billion, 180-kilometer (112-mile) waterway navigation project that will cut across four provinces to connect the Mekong River to the sea.
- The primary rationale for building the canal is to reduce Cambodia’s shipping costs, as well as to generate jobs and economic development.
- Mongabay has followed this mega-project’s development for more than a year, speaking with more than 50 people living along the canal’s proposed route. Virtually everyone we spoke with noted that the government has provided very little information about the project, and amid the uncertainty, fear has taken root.
- In inland communities in the rich floodplains of the Mekong River, farmers we spoke with said they worried they’d lose their homes or land, and that construction would disrupt the annual months-long inundation of the wetlands they rely on for planting rice as well as for fishing, crabbing and raising livestock.
Animals dying in Kenya as drought conditions leave many hungry
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Drought conditions have left over 2 million people facing hunger in parts of Kenya, with cattle-keeping communities in the northeast the hardest hit, according to the United Nations and others. In recent weeks, images of emaciated livestock in the arid area near the Somali border have shocked many in a region […]
Seminarian-turned-fire-agent preaches new tactics to fight Amazon’s burn crisis
- Lacking trucks and gear, a civil servant once destined for the priesthood now uses WhatsApp groups to direct volunteers who must manually carry river water through dense forest to tackle record blazes deep in an Amazonian town five times the size of New York City.
- Once rare, record-breaking wildfires destroyed millions of hectares across the Brazilian Amazon in recent years, leaving surviving forests increasingly fragile and susceptible to recurring blazes.
- Only 16% of Amazonian municipalities in Brazil have operational military fire brigades, forcing rural towns to rely on underfunded local offices and unpaid volunteers to defend the rainforest.
Many Amazon climate disasters are missing from official records, study finds
More than 12,500 extreme climate events were registered in the Amazon biome between 2013 and 2023, according to a recent study. But many more events were never recorded, as some Amazonian countries provided no or limited information, Gonzalo Ortuño López reported for Mongabay Latam. The study aggregated available national data but found that the national […]
Statewide survey aims to put California’s fungi on the conservation map
- A state-funded survey has sampled and collected fungi species from across California, identifying hundreds of new-to-science species.
- It’s part of a statewide effort to protect biodiversity, which has yielded thousands of specimens and is the first of its kind in North America.
- Fungi are often neglected compared to the attention given to plants and animals, yet they play an important role in maintaining ecological health by supporting plant growth and storing carbon.
- Understanding fungi’s role in nature has implications for conservation and for forest restoration as wildfires grow larger and more frequent. Other researchers in California are working on putting fungi to use cleaning up polluted areas.
Collapses of Amazon riverbanks threaten communities and shipping routes
- Extreme droughts, human interventions and growing boat traffic are contributing to riverbank collapses that endanger riverside communities in the Brazilian Amazon.
- Four public river ports in Amazonas state have been damaged by riverbank collapses in the past decade, prompting concerns about the safety of Amazon port infrastructure.
- Brazil’s Federal Public Ministry is investigating alleged failures to prevent collapses at regional ports that connect riverside communities and provide access to essential services.
New riverside lake in Nepal wins hearts, but faces government opposition
- The Bagmati Lake (Bharat Taal), constructed recently in Nepal’s southern Sarlahi district, attracts Nepali and Indian tourists with recreational activities, generating revenue, employment and cross-border tourism.
- The lake, which may have helped improve groundwater levels, soil moisture and crop yields in surrounding areas, has provided habitat for migratory birds.
- However, the fate of the lake hangs in the balance as the country’s anti-corruption court looks into alleged corruption and the lack of environmental compliance during its construction.
Drought amplifies human-wildlife conflict, study finds
A recent study from the U.S. state of California finds that the public reported more encounters with wildlife in times of drought. Researchers say they expect such drought-driven human-wildlife interactions in other areas also facing water shortages — a growing problem amid climate change. The researchers analyzed more than 31,000 wildlife-related incidents reported by members […]
Weather disasters are surging in the Amazon. Reporting isn’t.
The Amazon’s climate hazards are growing faster than governments can track.
From waffle gardens to terraces, Indigenous groups revive farming heritage in America’s deserts
- Native American farmers in the southwestern United States have long deployed weather-adaptive techniques to grow crops such as corn and beans in high-desert environments only occasionally visited by rain.
- In recent years, a variety of tribal groups have arisen to train the next generation of Native American farmers as a means of promoting cultural identity and improving self-sufficiency, health and well-being while using farming strategies that have worked for centuries on arid lands.
- The techniques range from hillside terracing and “waffle” gardening, to water conservation and leveraging microclimates on a piece of land.
- During Native American Heritage Month in November, Mongabay spoke with the leaders of these groups about their traditional farming techniques and how they can be replicated in increasingly dry regions around the world.
India’s Ganga River drying at unprecedented levels
The Ganga River, which sustains the lives of at least 600 million people, is facing its worst dry spell and lowest streamflow in 1,300 years, according to a recent study, reports Mongabay India’s Simrin Sirur. Researchers extrapolated the Ganga’s water levels going back to the year 700 C.E. using a combination of paleoclimatic and historical […]
AI system eavesdrops on elephants to prevent deadly encounters in India
- Engineer-turned-conservationist Seema Lokhandwala has developed an AI-powered device that listens for elephant vocalizations and plays sounds like tiger roars or buzzing bees to drive herds away from villages near India’s Kaziranga National Park.
- Early field trials show the device is about 80% accurate in detecting elephants and 100% effective in deterring them, gaining support from local communities and forest officials despite limited funding.
- Lokhandwala and other experts stress that while technology can help mitigate human-elephant conflict, true coexistence requires addressing the root causes of conflict — habitat loss, land use and unsustainable development — and restoring respect for elephants among local communities.
- India’s Assam state, where Kaziranga is located, is a hotspot for human-elephant conflict, with expanding farms, infrastructure and climate-driven food shortages pushing elephants into villages, causing hundreds of human and elephant deaths over the past two decades.
Guava yields in South Asia shrink due to unpredictable heat & rainfall
- Changing rainfall patterns due to climate change are posing threats to guava farming in South Asia, the global hub of the tropical fruit.
- In recent years, rising temperatures and delayed monsoons have been affecting the flowering and fruiting of even the drought-tolerant guava varieties.
- Experts in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have identified links to climate change with vulnerabilities in guava farming and suggest solutions.
Uphill battle to save California’s endangered mountain yellow-legged frog
- Conservation organizations released 350 mountain yellow-legged frogs earlier this year, marking another step in an intensive, long-running reintroduction project for this highly endangered species in Southern California.
- Once abundant across its range, populations have declined drastically because of invasive fish species, climate change impacts, and the deadly chytrid fungus that is wiping out amphibians worldwide.
- Conservationists are testing out new ways to boost survival rates of released frogs. Though it’s hoped the species may one day recover, today they are locked in a fight against extinction.
Climate change is messing with global wind speeds, impacting planetary health
- Climate change is affecting global wind patterns in multiple ways, many of which have direct implications for human health.
- Worsening sand and dust storms, wildfires intensified by record-setting winds, and increasingly severe hurricanes, derechos, short-lived convective storms, and other extreme weather events are impacting people’s lives, health and property around the world.
- Conversely, some studies suggest escalating climate change will contribute to global declines in average wind speed and intensify “wind droughts” in some locales, which could concentrate toxic atmospheric pollutants, intensify heat domes, and have implications for renewable energy systems.
- Alterations to Earth’s high-altitude jet stream is making it “wavier,” and more likely to stall in place, contributing to longer and more severe droughts and destructive storms. In polar regions, changes in wind and storm patterns are affecting ice melt, with potentially troubling consequences for global weather.
Indigenous myths reveal Amazon’s past truths: Interview with Stéphen Rostain
- Recent archaeological findings, bolstered by laser-based lidar mapping and by archaeologist Stéphen Rostain, reveal that the Amazon supported vast and complex ancient urban societies.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Rostain says the ancient Upano Valley culture in Ecuador collapsed due to severe drought, offering a stark warning for the Amazon’s current climate vulnerability.
- Rostain says he’s hopeful that a new archaeological understanding of the Amazon will challenge centuries of prejudice against Indigenous people and offer answers for the future.
The fate of flying rivers could decide Amazon ‘tipping point,’ report says
- The Amazon’s “tipping point” refers to the transition of the rainforest into a drier, savanna ecosystem. The rainforest’s ecological balance depends on the transport and recycling of moisture, but deforestation has been shown to disrupt the region’s water cycle.
- Moisture moves east to west, from the Atlantic Ocean across the Amazon Basin via what scientists call “aerial” or “flying rivers,” a critical mechanism in the region’s water cycle.
- A new report from Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andes Amazon Project identified areas of deforestation that disrupt these flying rivers from hundreds of miles away. It also found that not all parts of the Amazon have the same tipping point.
- The researchers stressed the need for regional, transboundary conservation efforts that account for varied threats in different parts of the Amazon.
Permaculture promises peace, food, increased equality in Kenyan county
- In Kenya’s semiarid Baringo county, Indigenous pastoralists like Salina Chepsat are moving from herding to diversified organic crop farming.
- They benefit from training by the Indigenous Women and Girls Initiative in permaculture and seed saving, but male control of land still restrains how much they can do.
- Boreholes and a shared irrigation scheme enable year-round crops and foster cooperation among different ethnic communities with a history of hostilities.
- Experts call for co-designed strategies combining water access, land restoration and inclusive decision-making to secure food and peace.
More deforestation leads to a drier dry season, Amazon study finds
- Between 2002 and 2015, forest loss in Brazil’s southern Amazon reduced the amount of rainfall during the dry season by more than 5%, a recent study found.
- Researchers studying how deforestation in the states of Rondônia and Mato Grosso affected the atmospheric water cycle between 2002 and 2015 found that a reduction in forest cover reduced evapotranspiration and disrupted regional atmospheric systems.
- Lower rainfall during the dry season can compromise crops, boost wildfires, and reduce water supplies and river levels, sometimes leaving communities isolated.
How scientists unmask climate change’s role in extreme weather
How do scientists determine whether climate change is driving extreme weather events like the floods, heat waves and droughts that we’re experiencing today? To find out about the science of attribution, Mongabay’s Kristine Sabillo recently interviewed environmental statistician Clair Barnes of World Weather Attribution (WWA), a global network of researchers that has been analyzing the […]
Climate change intensified wildfire weather in Greece, Türkiye and Cyprus: Study
Hundreds of wildfires across Europe have burned at least 1 million hectares, or around 2.5 million acres, since the start of the year. That’s made 2025 the worst year for the continent since official wildfire records began in 2006. In Türkiye, Greece and Cyprus, which saw deadly fires peaking since June, weather conditions that drove […]
In Nepal, artificial ponds offer drought relief despite lingering doubts
- As Nepal’s plains face severe drought, communities are building artificial ponds to cope with water shortages for drinking, irrigation and other uses.
- The ponds are becoming popular as a “nature-based solution” with both local communities and the government supporting their construction.
- Scientific studies and anecdotal evidence suggest that these ponds are successful in raising groundwater levels as well as reducing negative human-wildlife interactions.
- However, experts warn of significant gaps in knowledge, noting that many ponds are poorly designed, unscientifically built or located in unsuitable areas.
Climate change tests the resilience of people and desert-adapted wildlife in Namibia
- Since Namibia’s independence in 1990, the country has become a model of wildlife recovery, and is now famed for its free-roaming herds of megafauna and emblematic national parks.
- A key to this recovery is the model of community-based natural resource management, which places much of the responsibility and benefits of wildlife conservation in the hands of rural communities, enabling people to earn income from small-scale hunting and tourism and thus motivating them to conserve wildlife.
- A recent 11-year dry spell has tested the resilience of the model and the people and natural systems that depend on it — but it also serves as an opportunity to build a more climate-resilient future for desert-adapted megafauna in habitats projected to become hotter and drier.
- Namibian conservation experts maintain that the key to wildlife survival is to cement their economic value in policies: if the people in the areas they roam can benefit from wildlife, they will stand a better chance in a more inhospitable future.
Ethiopian initiatives try to mainstream traditional and resilient enset crop in diets
- Enset, a drought-tolerant crop native to Ethiopia and known as the “tree against hunger,” feeds more than 25 million people and is seen as a key to building climate-resilient food systems.
- Despite its importance, enset has long been neglected by both local agricultural policies and international partners, limiting its potential to improve food security on a broader scale.
- Efforts are underway to revive the cultivation and use of enset through innovation and national development programs — turning it into marketable products like flour used for porridge or cookies, which can be consumed in urban areas and across the country.
- However, challenges such as crop disease, limited investment and lack of international support remain key obstacles to its expansion as a sustainable food solution.
Patrick Kilonzo Mwalua, water bearer to Tsavo’s wild, died June 18, 2024, aged 51
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. It began with a buffalo. The animal lay slumped beside a dry waterhole in Kenya’s Tsavo West National Park, its great ribs rising and falling slowly in the dust. No rain had come. No relief was in sight. […]
Report reveals severe impact of last year’s drought on Amazonian communities
- A new U.N. report documents some of the most widespread and damaging impacts of the 2023-24 drought in the Amazon basin, which affected hundreds of thousands of Amazonian people.
- The main impacts were impeded transportation, drinking water shortages, deaths of aquatic wildlife and wildfires.
- In 2023, the drought led to a loss of 3.3 million hectares (8.1 million acres) of surface water relative to 2022 and nine Amazon countries experienced extremely high temperatures and their lowest rainfall in 40 years.
- Researchers warn that droughts are expected to worsen as climate change continues.
A forest garden project attempts to expand into the Sahel
- A project in the Sahel and East Africa claims to fight both soil erosion and poverty through regenerative agroforestry.
- U.S.-based NGO Trees for the Future (TREES) trains farmers in what it calls the forest garden approach, an ancient model to plant diverse species next to each other.
- The approach is one of seven selected by the U.N. as a world restoration flagship program and aims to scale up massively to plant a billion trees by 2030.
- However, some experts say the potential for scaling up is limited, especially in the semiarid Sahel region, given the need for easily accessible sources of water.
In a warming world, can California save its Joshua trees?
- Western Joshua trees in California are increasingly threatened by changing climate conditions, including rising heat, increasing drought, more frequent wildfires, and by expanding renewable energy and housing developments.
- Despite increasingly harsh conditions, adult Joshua trees are expected to remain common through the end of the century, but young trees will not survive across most of their current range, scientists warn.
- Although the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has declined to protect eastern and western Joshua trees under the Endangered Species Act, California passed a state law to protect its western Joshua trees in 2023.
- Scientists warn that these trees need climate action to survive the century.
Tropical forest roots show strain as changes aboveground filter below
- Tropical forest plant roots have not received as much research attention as aboveground vegetation. This knowledge gap affects our understanding of how rainforests adapt to change, including their ability to capture and store atmospheric carbon.
- An emerging field of research is looking at how root systems respond to global change. New evidence dramatically underlines the outsized importance of tropical forests in the global carbon cycle. Tropical forests represent one of the world’s largest carbon sinks, largely thanks to plant roots, which add carbon to soils.
- Despite the challenge of studying tiny roots hidden underground, researchers are uncovering important insights. Some tropical forests send roots deeper into the soil under dry conditions, possibly seeking moisture, which may aid in drought tolerance. Others seem unable to do this, making them more vulnerable to climate change.
- Recent plant root studies are confirming the immense stress tropical rainforests are under, with conditions changing faster than roots belowground can adapt. Knowing more precisely which forests can, and can’t, tolerate escalating climate change and other stressors could better inform management and conservation decisions.
Iconic Brazil nut crop plunges after extreme drought, skyrocketing prices
- Communities in the Amazon reported severe cuts of up to 80% of Brazil nut crops, with some territories collecting “not even a single nut.”
- The nut tree, which can live up to 800 years, is crucial for forest economies and ecosystems, but is increasingly vulnerable to extreme climate events, such as the historic droughts of 2023 and 2024.
- Sold worldwide, the Brazil nut’s price soared fourfold, prompting experts to warn of market instability if buyers abandon it, urging recognition of their ecological value and continued inclusion in product lines.
Indigenous rubber bounces back for Amazon conservation and higher income
- Rubber tapping in the forest was once the main Amazonian economic activity, and now an Indigenous group is bringing it back.
- Partnering with Brazilian organizations, Indigenous Gavião communities find they can simultaneously protect the forest and its cultural heritage while boosting their own livelihoods through the wild rubber trade.
- The initiative is part of a broader Indigenous-led bioeconomy movement in the Amazon that attracts younger generations by combining traditional practices with technical training and earning opportunities.
- Despite promising results, challenges such as drought and limited private sector engagement highlight the need for increased investment to scale up forest-based alternatives.
Droughts are a ‘slow-moving global catastrophe,’ report finds
- A new report documents some of the most widespread and damaging droughts in recorded history, between 2023 and 2025, affecting millions across Africa, the Mediterranean, Latin America and Southeast Asia.
- More than 90 million people across Eastern and Southern Africa face acute food insecurity or need food assistance, while women and children bear disproportionate burdens.
- The droughts caused agricultural failures, such as Spain’s 50% olive crop loss, and energy crises in countries like Zambia, where power outages lasted up to 21 hours daily.
- Drought episodes today cost twice as much as they did in 2000, with costs expected to rise by another 35-110% by 2035.
Study finds planetary waves linked to wild summer weather have tripled since 1950
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new study says climate change has tripled the frequency of atmospheric wave events linked to extreme summer weather in the last 75 years. And the research indicates that may explain why long-range computer forecasts keep underestimating the surge in killer heat waves, droughts and floods. Monday’s study says that in the […]
Record-breaking heat wave due to climate change hits Iceland & Greenland: Scientists
In May, both Iceland and Greenland experienced record-breaking heat. A new rapid analysis has found that the heat wave in both regions was made worse and more likely in today’s warmer climate. The analysis was conducted by World Weather Attribution (WWA), a global network of researchers that evaluates the role of climate change in extreme […]
How extreme droughts could redefine the future of Amazonian fish
- The most severe Amazon drought on record, in 2023, followed by a new high in 2024, triggered multiple threats to Amazonian fish biodiversity, such as warming waters, loss of habitat, limited reproduction, and compromised growth.
- Fish are the main source of protein and other nutrients for those who live in the region; species most threatened by droughts include several that are important to local fisheries.
- Stronger droughts are already projected in the region in a scenario where global warming reaches 1.5°C (2.7°F); if it exceeds 2°C (3.6°F), the risk of prolonged, severe and frequent droughts increases significantly, with impacts on food security and Amazonian biodiversity.
- Short-term policies can be adapted to this new reality, such as adjustment of closed seasons, when fishing of certain species is banned; in the medium term, it’s crucial to invest in modernizing the monitoring of fish stocks, experts say.
In Nepal, centuries-old Buddhist incense tradition faces overharvesting, climate threats
- Lighting sang, a traditional incense made from juniper and other local plants, is a sacred daily ritual among Buddhist communities in Nepal’s Trans-Himalayan regions like Manang, symbolizing purification and peace.
- Though classified as “least concern” globally by the IUCN, black juniper faces pressure due to habitat fragmentation, overharvesting for incense and increasing commercial demand.
- Climate change, especially prolonged winter droughts and delayed snowfall, is impairing the regeneration of juniper shrubs, making them more vulnerable despite their natural resilience in harsh alpine conditions.
Lack of funds, cattle ranchers challenge Brazil’s sustainable farmers
In 2005, the Brazilian government created PDS Brasília, a sustainable settlement in the state of Pará. The settlement was designed to encourage 500 families to practice small-scale family farming, while also collectively using a standing forest to harvest its fruits and nuts, Mongabay’s Fernanda Wenzel reported in March. The 19,800-hectare (49,000-acre) settlement was created following the […]
Eucalyptus for Brazil’s steelmaking dries out communities in Minas Gerais
- Eucalyptus plantations in Brazil’s Alto Jequitinhonha Valley, grown to make charcoal for the steel industry, have drastically reduced local water resources, harming rural communities, locals and experts warn.
- Despite years of complaints by a local NGO, Aperam, the steelmaking company that owns the plantations, continues to hold FSC certification for sustainable forestry. A recent audit, however, has flagged problems in its most recent assessment for certification.
- Studies show that eucalyptus plantations in the region have lowered groundwater levels by 4.5 meters (nearly 15 feet) since the mid-1970s, jeopardizing the water supply for local communities and their livelihood.
- Aperam also profits from its plantations by producing biochar from eucalyptus waste, which it uses to boost soil carbon sequestration, and selling the concept as a form of carbon removal to companies looking to offset their own emissions.
Uttarakhand’s extreme weather wreaks havoc on crops, livelihoods & futures
- In Uttarakhand, extreme weather events like droughts, erratic rainfall and hailstorms have severely affected farming, leading to lower crop yields, increased pests and financial distress for farmers.
- Festivals and agricultural practices linked to seasonal changes are losing their significance due to shifting flowering and harvesting periods, affecting both cultural traditions and livelihoods.
- Reduced snowfall and irregular rainfall have led to water shortages, depleting natural aquifers and springs that local communities rely on for drinking water and irrigation, while forest fires, intensified by extreme heat, have caused loss of human life and biodiversity.
- Climate change is also impacting tourism and small businesses, with rising temperatures and unpredictable weather affecting visitor numbers and local economies.
Groundwater overuse puts Brazil’s river flow at risk, study finds
- A recent study reveals the potential risk of river water flowing underground in Brazil due to high groundwater extraction, which could lead to losses in streamflow.
- Researchers found a correlation between groundwater use and river flow reductions, particularly in dryland areas.
- Overexploitation of groundwater could severely affect Brazil’s agriculture, energy production, and ecosystems, with illegal and unregistered wells likely contributing to the problem.
- Experts stress the importance of improving water resource management, with calls for better hydrogeological monitoring and more localized studies to better understand the potential harms facing Brazil’s water sources.
Longer periods of drought threaten Brazilian amphibians
- According to a study, global warming will increase droughts in up to 33% of the habitats of frogs, toads and treefrogs; in Brazil, the strongest impacts will be felt on the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest — precisely those with the greatest diversity of amphibians.
- Drought and amphibians are not a viable combination: These animals depend on water and humidity to survive; without that, they may dehydrate in a few hours and die.
- The Atlantic Forest is home to more than 700 species of anuran amphibians, more than 50% of which are endemic; in the Amazon, the greatest focus of potential extinction is the Arc of Deforestation.
- In a warmer and drier climate, the question is whether there will be time for these animals to adapt or evolve over generations to survive these new conditions.
A tale of two cities: What drove 2024’s Valencia and Porto Alegre floods?
- In 2024, catastrophic floods occurred in the cities of Porto Alegre, Brazil, and Valencia, Spain. These two record floods number among the thousands of extreme weather events that saw records for temperature, drought and deluge shattered across the globe. Such horrors have only continued in 2025, with the cataclysmic wildfires in Los Angeles.
- Scientists have clearly pegged these disasters to carbon emissions and intensifying climate change. But a closer look at Porto Alegre and Valencia shows that other causes contributed to the floods and droughts there, and elsewhere on the planet — problems requiring nuanced but Earth-wide changes in how people live and society develops.
- Researchers especially point to the drastic destabilization of the world’s water cycle, which is increasingly bringing far too little precipitation to many regions for far too long, only to suddenly switch to too much rain all at once — sometimes a year’s worth in a single day, as happened in Valencia when 445.5 mm (17.5 inches) fell in 24 hours.
- The problem isn’t only CO2 emissions, but also local deforestation and hardened urban infrastructure that promote flooding. But what may be seriously underestimated is how large-scale destruction of forest, marshland and other vegetation is dangerously altering rainfall patterns, a theory proposed decades ago by a little-known Spanish scientist.
Will Brazil’s President Lula wake up to the climate crisis? (commentary)
- The global climate system is even nearer than we thought to a tipping point where global warming escapes from human control. Emissions from both fossil fuel combustion and the loss and degradation of forests must be drastically reduced, beginning immediately.
- Brazil would be one of the greatest victims if global warming escapes from control, but, excepting the Ministry of Environment and Climate change, virtually the entire Brazilian government is promoting projects that will increase emissions for decades to come.
- Brazil’s President Lula so far shows no signs of waking up to the climate crisis, to its implications for Brazil, and to the climatic consequences of his current policies.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Lake Chad isn’t shrinking — but climate change is causing other problems
- Contrary to popular conception, Lake Chad is not shrinking; new research shows that the volume of water in the lake has increased since its low point in the 1980s.
- However, more intense rain in the region, coupled with the impacts of historic drought, increases the risk of flooding.
- The region is also plagued by continuing conflict and insecurity, making to harder for people to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
- A Lutheran World Federation project is working with communities in the Lake Chad Basin on sustainable agriculture and fisheries, land restoration, conflict resolution and more.
Adjusting to temperature and providing water can help save Kenya farmers’ bees, study says
- Temperature can increase bee colony loss in dry, hot and wet seasons, and beekeepers practicing water supplementation experience up to 10% less decrease, a study says.
- Bees, particularly honeybees, are crucial for plant pollination and agricultural production, with the Western honeybee being the most preferred species globally, contributing significantly to economic growth.
- Honeybee production is affected by extended drought seasons, with dried-up water points and limited access to plants and fruits like mangoes, a beekeeper explains.
- An expert calls for the evaluation of the impact of beekeeping education on the adoption of climate adaptation practices, such as water supplementation.
Brazil has seen a 460% increase in climate-related disasters since the 1990s
- An unprecedented study analyzed data from 1991 to 2023 and found that each 0.1°C increase in average global air temperature led to 360 new climate disaster events and damages in Brazil amounting to R$ 5.6 billion ($970 million).
- The global warming process has accelerated over the current decade, resulting in an average of 4,077 recorded climate-related disasters per year in Brazil, compared to 725 per year during the 1990s — an increase of 460%.
- The extreme events recorded over the period — totaling 64,280 — include droughts, floods and storms in 5,117 Brazilian municipalities; over 219 million people were affected, 78 million of whom during the last four years.
- Despite the increased number of disasters and the damage they caused, Brazil’s federal budget for risk and disaster management has been cut every year between 2012 and 2023 by an average of R$ 200 million ($34.6 million) per year.
At least 11,500 deaths linked to extreme weather in 2024
Extreme weather in 2024 affected around 18 in every 1,000 people across the globe, according to preliminary figures from the International Disaster Database. Mongabay has compiled the data into an interactive dashboard below. Intense droughts, floods, storms, heat waves and other climate-driven disasters claimed more than 11,500 lives and affected at least 148 million people […]
Climate change fueled record extreme weather events in 2024
Climate change fueled some of the worst extreme weather events on record in 2024, according to a recent report. Researchers at the World Weather Attribution (WWA) and Climate Central reviewed heat waves, droughts, wildfires, storms and floods that struck in 2024, and found that nearly every extreme weather event they studied was “made more intense […]
Latin America in 2024: politics, turmoil and hope
- In 2024, Latin America continued facing chronic issues of deforestation, ecosystem contamination, violence, habitat loss and political turmoil.
- Changes brought on by presidential elections in several countries have not brought on significant changes for the environment, at least not yet, with effects still to be seen in the years to come.
- Increased criminal activity in the region remains a serious obstacle to conservation work, endangering local and Indigenous communities, while highlighting governments’ inability to tackle narco-trafficking and its associated consequences.
Rainforest Outlook 2025: Storylines to watch as the year unfolds
- As 2025 begins, the future of the world’s tropical forests hangs in the balance, shaped by a confluence of political, economic, and environmental forces.
- From the Amazon to Southeast Asia and the Congo Basin, these ecosystems play a critical role in stabilizing the planet’s climate, preserving biodiversity, and supporting millions of livelihoods. Yet, they face unrelenting threats from deforestation, climate change, and resource exploitation.
- This year promises pivotal developments that could redefine their trajectory, testing the resilience of conservation mechanisms and the resolve of global actors to prioritize sustainability.
- The stakes have never been higher for the survival of these irreplaceable landscapes.
The particularities of the migratory movement in Venezuela, the Guianas and Suriname
- Migration in the Colombian Amazon was not a state project but a consequence of the army’s armed conflict with the FARC and the emergence of drug trafficking that grew in its shadow.
- Although the peace process began in 2017, changes that have occurred since then have given rise to new criminal groups after the guerrillas were eradicated.
- Although the Guiana Shield has escaped large-scale deforestation, the region is home to tens of thousands of wildcat gold miners exploiting mineral resources in the thinly populated hinterlands of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.
Water returns to Amazon rivers amid historic drought
The Amazon River and its tributaries, which make up the largest freshwater basin in the world, are showing signs of recovery after dropping to record-low levels between September and November 2024. Abnormally low rainfall and high temperatures across the Amazon caused water levels to plummet, shutting down river transport, isolating communities and leaving industries without […]
Andes glacier melt threatens Amazon’s rivers & intensifies droughts
- A new study found that Andean tropical glaciers have reached their lowest levels in 11,700 years, with drastic consequences for the Amazon due to the overlap of the two ecosystems.
- The findings come to light as record droughts in the Amazon in 2023 and 2024, exacerbated by climate change, have severely impacted local communities, including food insecurity and lack of access to drinking water.
- The ice loss in the Andes could reduce the water flow to the Amazon rivers by up to 20%.
- Venezuela is on the verge of becoming the first country in modern history to lose all its glaciers.
The uncertain future of Amazon river dolphins amid historic drought
- This year, the drought in Amazon rivers is already worse than in 2023, when 209 pink and grey river dolphins were found dead in Lake Tefé, in Amazonas state, largely due to overheating of the waters.
- To avoid a new tragedy, local organizations have taken action in advance, establishing emergency operations with stronger monitoring, staff training and equipment acquisition.
- However, no dolphin deaths due to heat stress have been recorded this year; instead, dozens of carcasses of aquatic mammals have appeared in Amazon lakes as a result of another sinister effect of drought: increased interactions with humans.
Severe drought in Peruvian Amazon isolated more than 130 Indigenous communities
- A severe drought that spread over recent months in Peru’s Loreto and Ucayali regions led to the isolation of more than 130 communities.
- Record low river levels affected the navigation of boats that deliver food and supplies as well as the health and livelihoods of communities that rely on fish for food and trade.
- Indigenous leaders from isolated communities have criticized the state for failing to deliver emergency assistance, such as drinking water and medical supplies.
- The frequency and intensity of extreme drought in the Amazon will continue to increase substantially due to climate change, experts warn.
Paraguay’s Indigenous Paĩ Tavyterã communities fight invaders, fires and drought
- In Paraguay’s Amambay department, the arrival of agribusiness, armed groups and drug traffickers has caused the fragmentation and displacement of Indigenous Paĩ Tavyterã communities, who have been threatened and in some cases killed by the invaders.
- The region has been greatly affected by climate change, which has caused cycles of floods, droughts and deadly wildfires that destroy people’s homes and food gardens.
- With little protection from the state, the Paĩ have had to build fences to keep invaders out and have enrolled in firefighting courses to learn how to combat fires more effectively.
- Residents also participate in agroforestry workshops where they exchange ancestral knowledge and learn how to restore native plants and forests.
Western Kenya’s most important water-capturing forest is disappearing, satellites show
- Mau Forest is one of the largest forests in East Africa, and the most important water catchment in western Kenya, providing water for millions of people.
- Mau is also home to a plethora of wildlife, including endangered species such as African bush elephants (Loxodonta africana), African golden cats (Caracal aurata) and bongo antelopes (Tragelaphus eurycerus).
- But Mau lost some 25% of its tree cover between 1984 and 2020, and satellites show continuing loss.
- The primary drivers of deforestation are agricultural expansion, including slash-and-burn farming for cattle grazing and crop cultivation.
As climate change upends Ethiopia’s pastoral wisdom, adaptations can help
- In the face of climate change, pastoral and agropastoral communities in eastern Ethiopia remain at the receiving end of worsening droughts and climate shocks that have taken a toll on animal rearing and traditional livelihoods.
- For generations, pastoralists and agropastoralists across the country have used traditional knowledge and weather forecasting for preparedness and drought conditions.
- But these techniques are no longer as effective in the face of frequent unpredictable dry spells and population pressures on pasture.
- Researchers suggest combining this traditional knowledge with innovative strategies to help pastoralists gather real-time data on water conditions that can be key to drought adaptation in the region.
Organizations tackle droughts, floods in Brazil by planting forests
- Many areas of Brazil have been hit with severe droughts and floods in recent years; scientists say climate change is increasing the incidence of extreme weather events.
- Forests protect against erosion and pollution and help store water in soil and aquifers, buoying water security.
- Organizations across the country are leading efforts to reforest cleared areas — particularly along rivers and other water sources —to mitigate the damaging effects of droughts, floods and other effects of climate change, as well as safeguard and improve habitat for wildlife.
- Experts and stakeholders say broader support is needed at the federal level, while a representative of Brazil’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change says the government is rolling out conservation plans of its own.
As global fire risk rises, modern homes become toxic plastic traps
- In the 21st century, petrochemical-based building materials and furnishings have replaced traditional wood, fabric and metal materials in homes worldwide. But plastics are more flammable and release persistent toxic chemicals when burned or exposed to high heat.
- Also over the last 25 years, wildfires have multiplied and intensified due to global warming, and often now jump the wildland-urban interface, burning whole neighborhoods and leaving behind a dangerous toxic home legacy.
- Homeowners whose houses survive such wildfires are often stunned to learn that their homes are a toxic health threat, unlivable and a total loss.
- The multibillion-dollar production and wide-ranging export of plastic building materials and home furnishings, and the dramatic surge in wildfires, has made this a global problem impacting communities in the U.S., China, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Portugal and beyond.
Extreme drought wrecks rivers and daily life in Amazon’s most burnt Indigenous land
- Almost 20% of the Kayapó Indigenous Territory has burned in this year’s Amazon drought, the worst ever recorded in Brazil.
- The land has for years been subjected to illegal mining, cattle ranching and burning of forests, degrading both the soil and rivers and significantly disrupting the way of life for the Mebêngôkre-Kayapó people.
- The Indigenous inhabitants now confront a growing crisis as wildfires and drought threaten their lands, particularly along the Riozinho River.
- According to ecologist Rodolfo Salm, who has worked with the Kayapó since 1996, fire has now surpassed illegal logging as the greatest danger to the region.
Despite court ruling, Yaqui water rights abuses ignored
- For decades, the Yaqui peoples in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora have been fighting to defend their rights to the Yaqui River, which is sacred to the Indigenous tribe and has been drained of all its water in their territory after decades of overexploitation, unequal water distribution and droughts.
- In 2010, the government approved the construction of an aqueduct, known as the Independencia Aqueduct, to supply water to several cities in the state, which was later found to be a violation of the tribe’s rights.
- Despite a favorable court ruling, which found that the Mexican government did not consult the Yaqui tribe before the aqueduct’s approval, it did not suspend its construction, which was inaugurated in 2012, despite evidence that it would cause irreparable damage to the community.
Forest fires rage across South America, devastating the Amazon and beyond
Wildfires have scorched millions of hectares of forest across South America so far this year. From Bolivia to Brazil, Peru to Argentina, the continent has been gripped by one of its worst fire seasons in decades, with deforestation and drought fueling the flames. “The Amazon is not burning because it wants to burn, it is […]
Drought & climate change force Ethiopia pastoralists to go job hunting
- A severe drought, worsened by climate change, is driving pastoralists in Ethiopia’s Somali region to abandon traditional herding lifestyles in favor of urban labor, leading to significant shifts in their livelihoods.
- Many pastoralists are forced to seek alternative livelihoods in farming, construction and trade, which require new skills and adaptation to urban life.
- Former pastoralists express emotional ties to their traditional way of life and struggle with the demands of new jobs, reflecting the broader impacts of climate change on their identities and futures.
- A land and agriculture expert says nature-based solutions provide an opportunity to help pastoralists adapt to droughts, while government programs are focused on technical support and helping pastoralists achieve alternative livelihoods.
‘We need white men on our side to save the Amazon from destruction,’ 92-year-old Indigenous Chief Raoni says
- Indigenous leaders gathered at New York Climate Week to call on global leaders to address the unprecedented drought and wildfire crisis in the Amazon Rainforest.
- Chief Raoni Metuktire, a historic Indigenous leader of Brazil, asked non-Indigenous communities to reflect on their responsibility — mainly the introduction of illegal mining, logging and cattle ranching that are accelerating the impacts of climate change.
- Many Indigenous communities are in the path of wildfires, and isolated Indigenous peoples (PIA) are the most vulnerable.
Extreme drought pushes Amazon’s main rivers to lowest-ever levels
- Amid an extreme, unprecedented drought, almost all major Amazon rivers have registered their lowest levels in history.
- Experts say the outlook for the next months is even worse, putting researchers on alert for the possibility of Amazon’s worst drought ever.
- The low river level in Manaus, Amazonas’ state capital, may increase prices of products shipped through the city’s harbor.
- The drought has isolated some Indigenous communities, while others have to walk long distances through dry riverbeds carrying groceries and equipment.
Lack of research as contaminated Yaqui River poses health risks
- Amid a water crisis, Yaqui communities in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora lack safe drinking water due to contamination by arsenic, salinity and heavy metals as unveiled by several studies over the years.
- The water crisis, driven by decades of overexploitation, unequal water distribution and drought, intensifies contamination, particularly affecting coastal areas with saltwater intrusion and surpassing safe limits in certain regions.
- Members of the Yaqui tribe blame mining operations and agribusiness for the contamination, but there are few studies to confirm their source.
- They argue contamination has led to diabetes and health complications among community members, as well as cultural impacts.
Amazon lakes overheat as record drought drives dolphin deaths
Severe drought and soaring temperatures are causing lakes and rivers in the Amazon to reach dangerously high temperatures, threatening species like the Amazon river dolphin, according to a recent study’s preprint. In 2023, the Amazon experienced its worst drought in recorded history, coupled with the hottest dry season on record. The extreme climate caused the […]
Drought forces Amazon Indigenous communities to drink mercury-tainted water
- River levels in parts of the Brazilian Amazon are even lower than in 2023, when the region experienced its worst drought.
- In the Munduruku Indigenous Territory, in Pará state, low river levels are forcing communities to drink water contaminated by mercury.
- Indigenous leaders call for immediate help while children suffer from diarrhea and stomachaches.
Brazil launches ‘war’ on widespread fire outbreaks & criminal arsonists
- Fire outbreaks are setting records all over Brazil, with flames burning the Amazon, the Cerrado, the Pantanal and the São Paulo state.
- Federal authorities say most fires are criminal and they are launching investigations.
- Smoke from fires spread through 10 Brazilian states, impacting air quality and air traffic.
In the Brazilian Amazon, seedlings offer hope for drying rivers
- In Brazil’s Maranhão state, the advance of monoculture and decades of forest destruction have driven a shift in precipitation patterns, diminishing rains and drying out springs that feed important rivers.
- This represents a major threat for the Guajajara Indigenous people, for whom these springs hold spiritual significance and guarantee the health of the rivers they depend on for fishing, bathing, drinking and cultural rituals.
- In an effort to restore drying springs, Indigenous people in the Rio Pindaré reserve are mapping headwaters and planting species native to the Amazon rainforest – like buriti, pupunha and açaí palms – along their margins.
- Scientists say this type of reforestation could help restore balance to water cycles in the region, mitigating the broader impacts of drought and climate change.
Record drought in Yucatán prompts revival of ancient Maya rain ceremony
- Maya farmers in Yucatán, Mexico, have rekindled a pre-Hispanic ceremony that calls for rain from the god Cháak as the state suffers its worst drought in 50 years.
- The extended dry season has prevented local farmers from generating sufficient harvests to provide enough food to sustain Indigenous people from remote regions.
- In early May, the Yucatán Peninsula experienced a record high temperature of 43.7°C (110.7°F) after an already year-long drought.
- Pollution from industrial pig farms and monocrop plantations is contaminating groundwater systems and cenotes, considered sacred by the Maya and relied upon to supply farms in rural communities.
Eucalyptus expansion worsens droughts and fires in Brazil’s Cerrado, conservationists say
- Brazilian paper pulp producer Suzano’s eucalyptus plantations are worsening drought conditions in the Brazilian Cerrado, a new report says, causing water scarcity and biodiversity loss, which are impacting local communities.
- Despite Suzano’s sustainability claims and ESG credentials, the company faces unresolved allegations of land grabbing and social conflicts with traditional communities.
- Suzano continues to expand its eucalyptus plantations, including a new factory adding 2.55 million metric tons of pulp capacity annually; conservationists warn this expansion increases wildfire risk and water stress in the Cerrado.
- The company’s high ESG ratings, in some cases based only on its self-reporting, have helped it secure billions of dollars in financing from major banks, which the report accuses of profiting from Suzano’s damaging activities.
Acre’s communities face drinking water shortage amid Amazon drought
- Acre’s population experienced a flood at the start of 2024 and is now suffering from water shortages due to the severe drought.
- Authorities have installed water tanks for residents of rural communities in Rio Branco, but supplies are insufficient.
- After the extreme drought of 2023, the Amazon is preparing for a new drought, which is already showing signs that it could surpass last year’s crisis.
Climate change threatens public health, raising the spread of food-borne diseases
- A new study finds that climate change is affecting the distribution and spread of food-borne diseases.
- An increase in the number and severity of heatwaves, droughts, and heavy precipitation events are all expected to lead to a rise in food-borne diseases, hitting Africa and Asia particularly hard.
- Investing in research and innovation can provide valuable insights into the underlying mechanisms of climate change-pathogen interactions and novel solutions for mitigating effects.
- For example, the Cameroon National Climate Observatory, ONACC, already provides national sectors, such as agriculture, livestock, and health with forecast climate information translated into local languages to facilitate monitoring in the context of global warming.
Cerrado’s current drought impossible without human-caused climate change: Study
- Since early 2000s, Brazil’s Cerrado has been suffering severe drought episodes, with water shortages affecting hydroelectric power, agriculture and water access. Its water supply has also been under pressure from encroaching agriculture and deforestation.
- Analysis of 700 years of climate data indicated an unprecedented drying trend that started around the 1970s, which experts say was made possible by human-induced warming, and not by climate’s natural variability.
- Researchers collected data from stalagmites in one cave in the state of Minas Gerais and built a climate record for the Cerrado.
The Amazon’s most fertile forests are also most vulnerable to drought: Study
- Researchers at the University of Arizona analyzed 20 years of satellite data to understand how different Amazon forest ecosystems respond to drought. They found that variations in water-table depth, soil fertility and tree height influence forests’ response to droughts.
- In the southern Amazon, experts observed a strong relationship between groundwater availability and the forests’ drought resilience. But the situation was more complex in the northern Amazon, where drought vulnerability depended on a combination of factors, including water availability, soil fertility and tree height.
- The study suggests scientists may have overestimated the risk of drought-related tree death — and the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere as a result — in the southern Amazon. However, long droughts, like the current one across the Amazon, can push these forests to the brink of collapse.
- The researchers created a map of drought resilience across the Amazon Basin, which shows that forests at high risk of deforestation are also most vulnerable to drought. These forests also play a key role in regional weather patterns by feeding the “atmospheric river” that brings rainfall to major agricultural areas.
Indigenous communities in the Bolivian Amazon combat droughts and floods
- The Tsimané, Mosetén and Tacana Indigenous ethnic groups in the Bolivian Amazon feared the worst for early 2024. They believed that the cycle of floods would bring misfortune and affect their communities
- However, the water management projects they have implemented have provided favorable results and helped the communities avoid disasters. This is an example of a communitywide effort to commemorate World Water Day 2024, which was March 22.
- Members of these Indigenous communities collect water from several watersheds and transport it through kilometers of pipes so that it reaches their homes, a complex engineering project that also has allowed them to adapt to the more intense droughts and floods caused by climate change.
Loss of water means loss of culture for Mexico’s Indigenous Yaqui
- The sacred waters of the Yaqui tribe in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora have dried up after decades of overexploitation, unequal water distribution and drought.
- This poses serious threats to Yaqui culture, which previously used certain sections of the Yaqui River for traditional ceremonies.
- It has also led to the decline of plant and tree species, such as the alamo (Ficus cotinifolia) and the giant reed (Arundo donax), which are used to build traditional structures in Yaqui villages.
- Important features of the Yaqui ritual dance, known as the pascola and deer, rely on the cocoons of the four-mirror butterfly, an endemic species that depends on the Yaqui River for its survival and is in decline.
Study to benchmark water quality finds key Amazon tributary in good shape
- Researchers have found that water quality in Brazil’s Negro River, the second-largest tributary of the Amazon, remains largely excellent, the result of a sparse human presence and strong conservation measures.
- The sampling of 50 sites along the main stream of the blackwater river was carried out to develop a water quality index (WQI) for this type of Amazonian river, which hasn’t been done before.
- In August, the research group will present this new WQI to the Amazonas state water resources council; if approved, the index will be used as the model for monitoring blackwater rivers in the state.
- The project on the Negro is the first of the program, which aims to develop a WQI for each of the largest rivers in Amazonas state, such as the Madeira, Solimões and Purus, and establish continuous monitoring during the wet and dry seasons.
After historic 2023 drought, Amazon communities brace for more in Brazil
- In the Brazilian Amazon, low river levels and insufficient rain might lead to 2024’s dry season being worse than 2023’s historic drought.
- Amazonian states are already feeling early signs of the drought, although bolder actions are lacking.
- Enduring water loss is an issue throughout the country, but it hits the Amazon and the Pantanal especially hard, as wildfires are breaking records.
As drought parches Mexico, a Yaqui water defender fights for a sacred river
- In the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora, Mario Luna Romero faces constant threats to his life for fighting to protect his community’s rights to its water in the region.
- Within the Yaqui Territory are the remnants of the Yaqui River, which is sacred to the Indigenous tribe and has been drained of all its water after decades of overexploitation, unequal water distribution and droughts. Mexico, including the Yaqui Valley, is experiencing a deadly heat wave, drought and water shortages.
- Luna was arrested in 2014 and spent a year and 11 days in a maximum-security prison; meanwhile, other colleagues have been harassed by government officials or killed by criminals.
- This 4-part series won for Best Coverage of Indigenous Communities as part of the 2025 Indigenous Media Awards.
Pantanal’s intense blazes stoke fears of another destructive fire season
- The fire season has started early in the Brazilian Pantanal, amid concerns the biome might see another catastrophic fire season like in 2020.
- The first 23 days of June alone saw more than 2,100 hotspots recorded, the highest figure by far for the month, and more than 627,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) burnt.
- The Pantanal is going through a severe drought, which, coupled with climate- and human-driven disruption of its usual ebb and flow of water, has left the biome drier and more vulnerable to fires, experts say.
- Although authorities are better prepared to fight the fires than in the past, civil society organizations say they worry the response is insufficient in the face of a new, more extreme reality.
Ancient farming system and campesino livelihoods at risk in Mexico City
- In the south of Mexico City lies a complex lake and canal system dotted with raised agricultural fields known as chinampas, which have been cultivated by campesino farmers ever since the Aztec Empire.
- Chinampa culture is under threat in part due to environmental problems caused by urbanization, the overexploitation of water resources, irregular settlements and unregulated tourism.
- Over the years, greater numbers of the chinampas’ farmers, known as chinamperos, have left the fields to work in the city, an issue that has led to the abandonment of 16,000 chinampas, according to researchers.
- Those who remain face several challenges, such as water contamination and drought, with little government support.
Uzbekistan plants a forest where a sea once lay
- The Aral Sea, once the lifeblood of peoples in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, is parched, shrouded in a layer of toxic salt and dust.
- Officials from both countries are working with locals to plant a new forest of drought-resistant plants in the dried-out lakebed, to prevent sandstorms and mitigate the health impacts of breathing in the toxic dust.
- The initiative in Uzbekistan has so far planted 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) of forest, with up to 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) of new forest planned for 2024.
- Forestry and climate researchers say the nature-based solution shows promise, but that the afforestation project must follow important steps to succeed and may struggle in the face of increased droughts.
In Brazil’s Cerrado, aquifers are losing more water than they can replace
- A new monitoring model combining satellite images with artificial intelligence can identify variations in the volume of Brazilian aquifers.
- The Urucuia, one of the largest aquifers in the Cerrado biome, saw its water volume decrease by 31 cubic kilometers (7.43 cubic miles) over two decades; most of it is in western Bahia, where monoculture plantations are gaining ground.
- According to researchers, Brazil’s groundwaters—which cover 2.84 million square kilometers (1 million square miles) — remain “an unknown resource,” and few tools exist to monitor them.
‘Weather whiplash’ cycles of floods & droughts imperil Nigerian farming
- Farmers in Nigeria — and other regions, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa — are suffering huge losses due to extreme weather shifts in quick succession, a phenomenon that researchers refer to as “weather whiplash.”
- Research shows a connection between poverty and weather whiplash, and farmers in poorer regions are five times more exposed to drought-downpour cycles than people in wealthier regions.
- In April, the independent SciLine service for journalists hosted a webinar with agricultural scientists who discussed these extreme weather cycles, the impacts of climate change on agriculture in different regions and the need for homegrown approaches to support agriculture resilience.
An ancient Indigenous lagoon system brings water back to a dry town in Ecuador
- The town of Catacocha, located in the south of Ecuador, is in a province known for being almost a desert: dry forest, barren soil and rains that only appear two months in the year.
- A historian discovered the water collection system long ago used by Palta Indigenous people and persuaded locals in Catacocha to apply it.
- By building 250 artificial lagoons, the inhabitants of this region have succeeded in managing rainwater.
- The change that has happened in nine years is visible: They sowed 12,000 plant,s and UNESCO has included the area in its list of ecohydrology demonstration sites.
Drone cameras help scientists distinguish between drought stress & fungus in oaks
- Scientists have used remote sensing, spectroscopy and machine learning to detect sick oak trees and distinguish between drought stress and oak wilt, a fungal disease.
- A recently published study describes how researchers established a link between physiological traits of trees and light reflectance to monitor the progression of symptoms in trees afflicted by oak wilt and drought.
- They used the data to build a predictive model that can identify symptoms and detect sick oaks 12 days before visual symptoms appear.
- Oaks are vital for climate regulation and carbon sequestration; however, the trees face threats to their survival because of a fatal fungal disease as well as the worsening impacts of climate change.
Climate change could drive mammal extinction in Brazil’s Caatinga, study warns
- According to a new study, 91.6% of terrestrial mammal communities in the Caatinga will lose species by 2060, with 87% of them being deprived of their habitats if the temperature in the region increases by at least 2°C.
- Small mammals will suffer the strongest impact, and some species may disappear from the biome, such as the giant anteater and the giant armadillo.
- In addition to more drought and rising temperatures, deforestation caused by wind farms also threatens some species, such as the jaguar.
- In a previous study, the same researchers had warned that 99% of plant communities in the Caatinga will lose species by 2060.
Rainwater reserves a tenuous lifeline for Sumatran community amid punishing dry season
- Kuala Selat village lies on the coast of Indragiri Hilir district on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
- In the first half of the year, residents of the village arrange buckets and drums to collect rainwater to meet their daily needs.
- They will then stockpile water to last through the dry months from June-September, but a longer dry spell has led to an acute shortage of water.
- Residents say they believe the water crisis in the village was linked to bouts of diarrhea, and that many fled the village during an outbreak.
Tropical forest loss puts 2030 zero-deforestation target further out of reach
- The overall rate of primary forest loss across the tropics remained stubbornly high in 2023, putting the world well off track from its net-zero deforestation target by 2030, according to a new report from the World Resources Institute.
- The few bright spots were Brazil and Colombia, where changes in political leadership helped drive down deforestation rates in the Amazon.
- Elsewhere, however, several countries hit record-high rates of forest loss, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bolivia and Laos, driven largely by agriculture, mining and fires.
- The report authors call for “bold global mechanisms and unique local initiatives … to achieve enduring reductions in deforestation across all tropical front countries.”
Agroforestry project sows seeds of hope in drought-hit Honduras
- In response to longer and more intense droughts, Indigenous Tolupan farmers in Honduras are turning to agroforestry and agroecology strategies to adapt to the changing climate.
- The strategies include diversifying their crops, building water storage systems, introducing methods to better conserve water in the soil, and building up banks of native seeds.
- Although Honduras wasn’t among the 22 countries that declared a drought emergency in 2022 and 2023, severe heat waves and El Niño events are hitting harvests hard, leading to an exodus of young people out of rural areas.
- Locals participating in the adaptation initiative say it’s starting to bear fruit and give them hope — a precious resource in a dry land.
Critics fear catastrophic energy crisis as AI is outsourced to Latin America
- AI use is surging astronomically around the globe, requiring vastly more energy to make AI-friendly semiconductor chips and causing a gigantic explosion in data center construction. So large and rapid is this expansion that Sam Altman, the boss of OpenAI, has warned that AI is driving humanity toward a “catastrophic energy crisis.”
- Altman’s solution is an audacious plan to spend up to $7 trillion to produce energy from nuclear fusion. But even if this investment, the biggest in all of history, occurred, its impact wouldn’t be felt until mid-century, and do little to end the energy and water crises triggered by AI manufacture and use, while having huge mining and toxic waste impacts.
- Data centers are mushrooming worldwide to meet AI demand, but particularly in Latin America, seen as strategically located by Big Tech. One of the largest data center hubs is in Querétaro, a Mexican state with high risk of intensifying climate change-induced drought. Farmers are already protesting their risk of losing water access.
- As Latin American protests rise over the environmental and social harm done by AI, activists and academics are calling for a halt to government rubber-stamping of approvals for new data centers, for a full assessment of AI life-cycle impacts, and for new regulations to curb the growing social harm caused by AI.
Fanned by El Niño, megafires in Brazil threaten Amazon’s preserved areas
- Researchers and protection agencies expected a dry season with more fires in Brazil’s Roraima state at the start of 2024, but the effects of an intense and prolonged El Niño have aggravated the situation.
- In February alone, the number of hotspots detected in this northernmost Amazonian state hit an all-time high of 2,057.
- According to IBAMA, Brazil’s federal environmental agency, 23% of the outbreaks recorded in Roraima are in Indigenous areas, affecting at least 13 territories.
- The Roraima state government says controlled fires in private areas are allowed with a permit, but the large number of fires this year indicates criminal activity.
Brazilian youngsters discuss how they are tackling the climate emergency
- Affected by drought, pollution, high waters and floods, young people from different Brazilian states describe how climate change is impacting their routines and causing illness, malnutrition, displacement and school disruption.
- According to a UNICEF report, 2 billion children and adolescents in the world are exposed to risks arising from the climate emergency; in Brazil, there are 40 million affected children and adolescents — 60% of Brazilians under 18.
- According to experts, the climate crisis is a crisis of the rights of children and adolescents, as it affects everything from the right to decent housing and health care to education and food, leading to problems in child development and learning abilities.
Sumatra firefighters on alert as burning heralds start of Riau dry season
- On the northeast coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island, the first of two annual dry seasons led to a spike in wildfires in some peatland areas in February.
- In the week ending March 2, Indonesian peatland NGO Pantau Gambut said 34 hotspots, possibly fires, were identified by satellite on peatlands in Riau province.
- Emergency services in the province have been concentrated to the east of the port city of Dumai, where a fire started in the concession of a palm oil company, according to local authorities.
Harsh dry season sours harvest prospects for Java coffee farmers
- Indonesia is the world’s fourth-largest producer of coffee, after Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia, but the archipelago’s farmers are less productive than their competitors.
- In East Java province, farmers have seen yields plummet as a protracted water deficit shrinks fruit and introduces pests.
- Total output is expected to drop by more than 20% this season, while increasingly frequent extreme weather may pose challenges to the viability of some smallholders in lowland areas of Indonesia.
Megafires are spreading in the Amazon — and they are here to stay
- Wildfires consuming more than 100 square kilometers (38 square miles) of tropical rainforest shouldn’t happen, yet they are becoming more and more frequent.
- Because of its intense humidity and tall trees, fire does not occur spontaneously in the Amazon; usually accidental, forest fires are caused by uncontrolled small fires coming from crop burning, livestock management or clear-cutting.
- Scientists say the rainforest is becoming increasingly flammable, even in areas not directly related to deforestation; fire is now spreading faster and higher, reaching more than 10 meters (32 feet) in height.
Climate change, extreme weather & conflict exacerbate global food crisis
- Global food insecurity has risen substantially since pre-pandemic times, exacerbated by extreme weather, climate change, war and conflict.
- What the U.N. World Food Program calls “a hunger crisis of unprecedented proportions” plays out differently around the world.
- In this story, three of Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellows detail the local situation in their region – from rising inflation and flooding in Nigeria to diminished local food production in Suriname and the environmental and socioeconomic effects of commercial food production in Brazil.
- “If we do not redouble and better target our efforts, our goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030 will remain out of reach,” write the authors of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) 2023 report on global food security and nutrition.
Climate change made 2023 Amazon drought 30 times more likely, scientists say
- A new report from World Weather Attribution (WWA) estimates that climate change increased the likelihood of the 2023 Amazon drought by a factor of 30.
- Both El Niño and climate change contributed to the lack of rainfall in the region, but climate change also led to extremely high temperatures and increased water evaporation.
- In a world 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) warmer than preindustrial levels, similar or worse droughts will likely occur in the region every 10-15 years.
Maluku farmers sweat El Niño drought as Indonesia rice prices surge
- Rice prices surged across Indonesia during the second half of 2023 as the effects of El Niño led to widespread crop failures.
- In December, President Joko Widodo ordered military personnel to help farmers plant rice in a bid to boost domestic production, and curb food price inflation.
- On Buru Island, Mongabay Indonesia spoke with farmers who described risks of conflict as water scarcity forced farmers to queue for access to water.
Extreme drought in western Pará pushes family farmers into agroforestry
- Lost crops, reduced fish numbers, low water levels in rivers and difficult access to potable water have all led to a state of disaster declared in many municipalities in the state of Pará.
- Severe drought, the result of increasing climate changes and El Niño, is resulting in a more flammable Amazon rainforest. Farmers and technicians are seeking out more sustainable alternatives to the traditional slash-and-burn system.
- Agroforestry systems (AFS) and native honeybee apiculture cooperatives are increasing in the region.
Extreme drought in the Brazilian Amazon forces small farmers to look for alternatives
JURUTI, Pará — Since May 2023, the Amazon has faced below-average rainfall, leading to an unprecedented drought exacerbated by climate change and the El Niño phenomenon. In the western region of Pará, small-scale farming has been severely affected, a critical concern as agriculture occupies half of the land in this area. To combat these challenges, […]
The year in rainforests: 2023
- The following is Mongabay’s annual recap of major tropical rainforest storylines.
- While the data is still preliminary, it appears that deforestation declined across the tropics as a whole in 2023 due to developments in the Amazon, which has more than half the world’s remaining primary tropical forests.
- Some of the other big storylines for the year: Lula prioritizes the Amazon; droughts in the Amazon and Indonsia; Indonesia holds the line on deforestation despite el Niño; regulation on imports of forest-risk commodities; an eventful year in the forest carbon market; rainforests and Indigenous peoples; and rampant illegality.
With half its surface water area lost, an Amazonian state runs dry
- Water bodies across the Brazilian state of Roraima have shrunk in area by half over the past 20 years, according to research from the mapping collective MapBiomas.
- Today, locals are facing even drier times amid a severe drought in the Amazon, which has led to record-low levels of water in the rainforest’s main rivers.
- Since 1985, Roraima’s agricultural area has grown by more than 1,100%, with experts pointing to crops as one of the state’s main drivers of water loss.
Detailed NASA analysis finds Earth and Amazon in deep climate trouble
- A NASA study analyzed the future action of six climate variables in all the world’s regions — air temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, short- and long wave solar radiation and wind speed — if Earth’s average temperature reaches 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, which could occur by 2040 if emissions keep rising at current rates.
- The authors used advanced statistical techniques to downscale climate models at a resolution eight times greater than most previous models. This allows for identification of climate variations on a daily basis across the world, something essential since climate impacts unfold gradually, rather than as upheavals.
- The study found that the Amazon will be the area with the greatest reduction in relative humidity. An analysis by the Brazilian space agency INPE showed that some parts of this rainforest biome have already reached maximum temperatures of more than 3°C (5.4°F) over 1960 levels.
- Regardless of warnings from science and Indigenous peoples of the existential threat posed by climate change, the world’s largest fossil fuel producers, largely with government consent, plan to further expand fossil fuel exploration, says a U.N. report. That’s despite a COP28 climate summit deal “transitioning away from fossil fuels.”
Thailand tries nature-based water management to adapt to climate change
- With an economy largely underpinned by irrigated crops like rice, water is a crucial resource in Thailand. But as climate change exacerbates floods and droughts in the country, sustainable water management is an increasing challenge.
- Nature-based solutions that incorporate the natural processes of the country’s abundant rivers, floodplains and watershed forests are beginning to be trialed via various projects at large and small scales.
- A new report assesses the efficacy of two nature-based approaches to water management in Thailand, which represent a step away from the country’s typically top-down, hard-engineering approach and present several benefits to the environment and communities.
- However, environmental and societal tradeoffs, complex policy frameworks, and the need for greater understanding and expertise around the concept, design and implementation of nature-based approaches are barriers to their widespread implementation.
Prolonged drought brings unprecedented changes to Amazonian communities in Pará
- A severe drought across the Amazon Rainforest continues to be felt along the Tapajós River in Brazil’s state of Pará, where locals say it “is the worst one ever.”
- The Tapajós River has suffered from the lowest water level ever recorded, reaching 94 centimeters (37 inches) — 38 cm (15 in) below the level recorded in the same period of the year in 2010 during the historic drought.
- The long, dry period has sparked a record number of fires in the state of Pará, covering the region in thick clouds of smoke.
- Riverside communities have been cut off by low river levels, and experts say the drought could impact fish populations for the next three years.
Mongabay CEO discusses slowdown in Amazon loss and other positive news
- It’s been an eventful couple of months for the Amazon Rainforest and for the Mongabay newsroom.
- Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) recently shared data showing a 22% decline in deforestation for the year ending July 31, 2023.
- In other exciting news, Mongabay was awarded the prestigious 2023 Biophilia Award for Environmental Communication recently. Past winners have included Pulitzer-winning journalist Elizabeth Kolbert and The Guardian.
- Mongabay has also just launched an entirely new bilingual bureau in Africa. Here to discuss all these developments on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast is CEO and editor-in-chief Rhett Butler.
Salty wells and lost land: Climate and erosion take their toll in Sulawesi
- Coastal erosion on the west coast of Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island is so advanced that seawater has penetrated the groundwater supply that tens of thousands use for drinking water.
- The communities have yet to be served by utility water provision, so families are resorting to costly supplies of water from private distributors.
- Research shows that rising seas and more frequent and powerful storms will accelerate coastal abrasion, raising burdens shouldered by the world’s coastal communities.
Last of the reef netters: An Indigenous, sustainable salmon fishery
- Reef net fishing is an ancient, sustainable salmon-harvesting technique created and perfected by the Lummi and other Coast Salish Indigenous people over a millennium.
- Rather than chasing the fish, this technique uses ropes to create an artificial reef that channels fish toward a net stretched between two anchored boats. Fishers observe the water and pull in the net at the right moment, intercepting salmon as they migrate from the Pacific Ocean to the Fraser River near present-day Washington state and British Columbia.
- Colonialism, government policies, habitat destruction, and declining salmon populations have separated tribes from this tradition. Today, only 12 reef net permits exist, with just one belonging to the Lummi Nation.
- Many tribal members hope to revive reef net fishing to restore their cultural identity and a sustainable salmon harvest but face difficulties balancing economic realities with preserving what the Lummi consider a sacred heritage.
Fish out of water: North American drought bakes salmon
- An unprecedented drought across much of British Columbia, Canada, and Washington and Oregon, U.S., during the summer and fall months of June through October could have dire impacts on Pacific salmon populations, biologists warn.
- Low water levels in streams and rivers combined with higher water temperatures can kill juvenile salmon and make it difficult for adults to swim upriver to their spawning grounds.
- Experts say relieving other pressures on Pacific salmon and restoring habitat are the best ways to build their resiliency to drought and other impacts of climate change.
Forests hold massive carbon storage potential — if we cut emissions
- A new study finds forests could potentially store 226 billion metric tons of carbon if protected and restored, or about one-third of excess emissions since industrialization.
- Nearly two-thirds of this potential lies in conserving and letting existing forests mature.
- The authors say that restoring deforested areas through community-driven approaches such as agroforestry and payments for ecosystem services is essential.
- Planting trees can’t replace cutting fossil fuel emissions, as climate change threatens forests’ carbon uptake.
The Cloud vs. drought: Water hog data centers threaten Latin America, critics say
- Droughts in Uruguay and Chile have led residents to question the wisdom of their governments allowing transnational internet technology companies to build water-hungry mega-data centers there.
- As servers process data, they need lot of water to keep them cool. But if demand grows as expected, the world will need 10-20 times more data centers by 2035, and they’ll be using far more water. Many will likely be built in economically and water-challenged nations already facing climate change-intensified droughts.
- Latin American communities fear that this “data colonialism” will consume water they desperately need for drinking and agriculture, and are critical of their governments for giving priority treatment to transnational tech giants like Google and Microsoft, while putting people’s access to a basic human necessity at risk.
- Surging digital data use by 2030 may cause each of us in the developed world to have a “digital doppelganger,” with our internet use consuming as much water as our physical bodies. But much of the stored data is “junk.” Critics urge that nations insist on tougher regulations for transnational companies, easing the crisis.
Amazon drought: Much damage still to come (commentary)
- The Amazon Rainforest is being hit by three kinds of drought at once: an “eastern El Niño,” a “central El Niño” and an “Atlantic dipole.”
- Together, these drought conditions extend to almost the entire Amazon, and they are expected to last until at least mid-2024.
- These phenomena are all aggravated by global warming.
- This is a commentary and does not necessarily reflect the views of Mongabay. It is an updated translation of a text by the authors that is available in Portuguese on Amazônia Real.
People and nature suffer as historic drought fuels calamitous Amazon fires
- The state of Amazonas, the largest in Brazil, recorded 3,181 fires from Oct. 1-23, an all-time record for this month, according to monitoring by Brazil’s space agency, INPE.
- Surrounded by fires, Manaus, the state capital, has been shrouded in a thick layer of smoke, increasing the number of medical emergencies for respiratory problems.
- Researchers writing in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution say fires have become the main factor in the degradation of the Brazilian Amazon, threatening to undo the results of environmental protection policies.
- Water levels in the Solimões, Negro, Madeira and other great Amazonian rivers have dropped to unprecedented levels, forcing families to live on boats and drag themselves through the mud in search of water and food.
The Amazon’s archaeology of hope: Q&A with anthropologist Michael Heckenberger
- A professor at the University of Florida, Michael Heckenberger has been visiting and studying Indigenous peoples at the Upper Xingu River for decades and says the Amazon is already facing its tipping point: “It’s a tipping event.”
- In this interview for Mongabay, he tells how he and his colleagues have been practicing an “archeology of hope” — helping the Indigenous peoples in the region to prepare for climate change, using ancestral knowledge pulled out from archaeological research.
- “It should be the default, not the exception, to assume that there were Indigenous people living or dwelling in some way on almost every inch of Brazilian land,” he says about the marco temporal thesis, which aims to limit new Indigenous territories, now being discussed in Brazilian Congress.
Battling desertification: Bringing soil back to life in semiarid Spain
- Southeastern Spain is experiencing the northward advance of the Sahara Desert, leading to declining rainfall, soil degradation, and climate change-induced droughts, threatening agricultural lands that have been farmed for many centuries.
- Local farmers recently began adopting regenerative agriculture practices to better withstand long, persistent droughts punctuated by torrential rains and subsequent runoff.
- Many farmers in the region have formed a collaborative group called Alvelal to address encroaching desertification, depopulation, and the lack of opportunities for youth.
- Alvelal members manage more than 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of farmland using regenerative agriculture techniques and aim to expand further, conserving more farmland against the onslaught of climate change, while restoring natural corridors and promoting biodiversity.
Meet the farmers in southeastern Spain fighting desertification
LOS VÉLEZ, Spain — Southeastern Spain faces a pressing environmental challenge: the encroachment of the Sahara Desert. This northward advance results in reduced rainfall, soil degradation, and severe droughts driven by climate change, jeopardizing centuries-old agricultural lands. In response to these challenges, local farmers are increasingly turning to regenerative agriculture practices. These innovative methods aim […]
Despite severe drought, Amazon deforestation continues to slow
- Despite a severe drought, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is still on the decline, according to data released today Brazil’s national space research institute (INPE).
- INPE’s near-real-time deforestation monitoring system, DETER, detected 629 square kilometers of forest clearing in September, a 57% drop from last September.
- This decline in forest loss has occurred despite a severe drought that is affecting vast swathes of the Brazilian Amazon, drying up rivers and worsening the spread of agricultural fires.
Sumatran province hangs on for late rain as El Niño fires bring heat and sickness
- Wildfires have returned to Indonesia as the country enters its dry season amid an El Niño year.
- In Palembang city, new respiratory infections will likely soon eclipse the total diagnosed in 2022.
- Meteorology officials expect the monsoon to begin in parts of Sumatra and Borneo islands in October, but warn dry conditions will persist in much of Indonesia until November.
Indigenous peoples undersupported on frontline of hotter, drier, fiery world
- It’s official: This has been the warmest June-July-August on record, and much attention has focused on the urgent need to achieve climate resilience in impacted urban areas. But how are rural Indigenous communities around the world living with these new extremes?
- Indigenous peoples — from Africa to the Arctic to Central America — report unprecedented heat waves, droughts, storms and wildfires, extremes that are impacting the wildlife they hunt, the plants they gather, crops they grow, livestock they raise, and their very survival.
- Given that many Indigenous peoples live close to the land and depend directly on local resources, they’re especially vulnerable to the massive changes now sweeping our planet.
- But while Indigenous peoples are considered by many researchers and activists to be Earth’s best land stewards, their communities aren’t receiving the funding or resources necessary to adapt to a hotter, drier, stormier, fiery world, often due to the lack of access to their traditional lands.
Transgenics contaminate a third of Brazil’s traditional corn in semiarid region
- A new study identified the presence of up to seven transgenic genes in single seeds of traditional, or “creole” corn from more than 1,000 samples collected in 10% of the towns in Brazil’s Caatinga.
- The results indicate cross-contamination in the fields; it is estimated that pollen from transgenic corn can travel up to 3 kilometers, contaminating nearby traditional corn crops.
- The loss of agricultural biodiversity due to contamination by transgenic plants leaves Brazil vulnerable to climate change and food insecurity. Farmers have put their faith in community creole seed banks.
A tale of two biomes as deforestation surges in Cerrado but wanes in Amazon
- Brazil has managed to bring down spiraling rates of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest in the first half of this year, but the neighboring Cerrado savanna has seen a wave of environmental destruction during the same period.
- The country’s second largest biome, the Cerrado is seeing its highest deforestation figure since 2018; satellite data show 3,281 hectares (8,107 acres) per day have been cleared since the start of the year through Aug. 4.
- The leading causes of the rising deforestation rates in the Cerrado are a disparity in conservation efforts across Brazil’s biomes, an unsustainable economic model that prioritizes monocultures, and escalating levels of illegal native vegetation clearing.
- Given the importance of the Cerrado to replenish watersheds across the continent, its destruction would affect not just Brazil but South America too, experts warn, adding that the region’s water, food and energy security are at stake.
Can land titles save Madagascar’s embattled biodiversity and people?
- Through its Titre Vert or Green Title initiative, the Malagasy government is opening up a path to land ownership for its most vulnerable citizens in the hopes it will help tackle hunger, internal migration, and forest loss.
- The state is using the initiative to lean on potential migrants to remain in the country’s deep south, where five years of failed rains have left 2 million people hungry, instead of migrating north, where they are often blamed for social tensions and for destroying forests.
- This March, the Malagasy government started work on a Titre Vert enclave in the Menabe region, a popular destination for migrants from the drought-hit south, to dissuade them from clearing unique dry forests to grow crops.
- Critics say the government is holding people back in a rain-starved region without providing enough support; in Menabe, backers of the project hope to provide ample assistance to get migrants out of the forests and onto their feet.
Drought cycles erode tropics’ ability to absorb CO₂, study finds
- A recent study finds that tropical carbon sinks have become increasingly vulnerable to water scarcity since 1960, and are consequently less able to absorb carbon dioxide.
- These findings suggest that tropical ecosystems are less resilient to climate change than previously thought.
- While the study doesn’t necessarily make projections for the future, the findings suggest that an acceleration of climate change, which is very likely to bring more drought, could further limit the ability of tropical ecosystems to absorb carbon dioxide, which, in turn, would worsen climate change.
The climate is already changing in the Matopiba, Brazil’s new agricultural frontier
- Collecting data from the last 40 years, researchers have observed increased temperatures and more severe droughts in the Matopiba region, which encompasses parts of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia states.
- A transition zone between the Cerrado and the eastern Amazon, the Matopiba is the largest area of contact between forest and savanna in the tropics; in the last two decades it has become one of the main fronts for the expansion of grain cultivation in Brazil.
- According to the researchers, the increased frequency of hot and dry days in the region results from an interaction between global climate change and the advance of deforestation.
- In the near future, environmental changes can harm agribusiness itself, putting Brazilian food security at risk.
Deforestation linked to less rainfall, study shows; El Niño could make it worse
- A new study shows concerning links between deforestation and reduced precipitation in tropical regions, which can in turn lead to reduced agricultural yields and food security issues.
- Now, researchers are concerned about the potential for another El Niño, which typically brings hotter, drier conditions to tropical regions, particularly in Southeast Asia, and can compound the effects of deforestation and reduced rainfall.
- The 2015-16 El Niño triggered crop losses, disease outbreaks, malnutrition and food insecurity, livestock deaths and other hardships that affected 60 million people globally; researchers say these trends signal the need for greater climate resilience in local communities.
Study shows Kenyan elephant shrew may be adapting to human disturbance, drought
- The endangered golden-rumped elephant shrew has seen its population in a Kenyan forest reserve increase by 52% in a decade, upending researchers’ fears of extinction due to hunting and habitat loss.
- The latest population survey credits the rabbit-sized mammal’s high adaptability to human-disturbed landscapes, including plantations of exotic tree species.
- They also appear to be thriving amid Kenya’s long-running drought, which has caused trees to shed their leaves in large volumes, thus creating the thick carpets of leaf litter that are the animal’s favored habitat.
- Researchers say the increase may also reflect the gains made by conservation measures within the forest reserve, including a community-based conservation system known as participatory forest management (PFM) that has the support of NGOs and the government.
Not all parts of the Amazon will survive future droughts, study says
- A recent study found that the western and southern Amazon will struggle to survive against increasingly extended periods of drought brought on by climate change, which will reduce the areas’ ability to store carbon.
- Researchers sampled more than 540 trees across 129 species at 11 separate sites in the western, central-eastern and southern Amazon, covering Brazil, Peru and Bolivia.
- Trees in the southern part of the Amazon show the greatest degree of adaption to cope with drought but will also face harsher conditions than other areas, which will lead to higher mortality rates.
Drying wetlands and drought threaten water supplies in Kenya’s Kiambu County
- Prolonged drought in Kenya has caused a water crisis, threatening local livelihoods and biodiversity; one of the badly affected areas is Kiambu County, a region normally known for its high agricultural productivity.
- Human activities such as dumping, encroachment and overgrazing coupled with dire effects of climate change exacerbate the degradation of wetlands, worsening the water crisis.
- Scientists say that conservation efforts must center around local communities to ensure the restoration of natural resources and combat the impacts of climate change.
Chile communities defy the desert by capturing increasingly scarce water
- The inhabitants of a rural community on the expanding frontier of Chile’s Atacama Desert are able to harvest around 500,000 liters (132,000 gallons) of water per year, thanks to fog nets installed 17 years ago.
- This water has allowed them to revive their mountain region’s vegetation and launch new businesses to improve their quality of life and adapt to drought.
- Other initiatives in the region, aimed at making the most use of the less frequent rains, help retain water for livestock and prevent soil erosion and mudslides.
- But these initiatives are pilot projects, with no funding or political support to sustain them over the long term, which the community says are what are needed the most.
Ancient fires may be helping the Amazon survive droughts – modern ones, not so much
- Areas of the Amazon forest with higher concentration of soil pyrogenic carbon, a material produced by the burning of vegetation centuries or millennia ago, show an enhanced resistance to droughts, a new study says.
- Regions richer in pyrogenic carbon appear to have higher soil fertility and water-holding capacity, helping the forest to get through dry periods without enduring the usual damage.
- While the underlying mechanisms aren’t yet understood, the authors hypothesize that species substitution after ancient fires, which brings in trees with lower wood density, might play a role.
- Modern fires, which have become more intense and frequent in recent decades, are unlikely to produce similar effects.
At the U.N. Water Conference, food security needs to take center stage (commentary)
- This week at the United Nations Water Conference, the growing level of global food insecurity from a lack of water should be addressed.
- “We urgently need a worldwide evaluation of water-related food risks that offers immediate and practical solutions,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Make it local: Deforestation link to less Amazon rainfall tips activism shift
- A new study supports mounting evidence that deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest correlates with a reduction in regional rainfall.
- Experts say this research reinforces the findings of other studies that claim the Amazon is leaning toward its “tipping point” and the southern regions are gradually becoming drier.
- Environmentalists see this research as an opportunity to reshape conservation activism and policy towards local communities.
Amazon deforestation linked to reduced Tibetan snows, Antarctic ice loss: Study
- Earth’s climate is controlled by a complex network of interactions between the atmosphere, oceans, lands, ice and biosphere. Many elements in this system are now being pushed toward tipping points, beyond which changes become self-sustaining, with the whole Earth system potentially shifting to a new steady state.
- A recent study analyzed 40 years of air temperature measurements at more than 65,000 locations to investigate how changes in one region rippled through the climate system to affect temperatures in other parts of the globe. Computer models then simulated how these links may be affected by future climate change.
- Researchers identified a strong correlation between high temperatures in the Amazon Rainforest and on the Tibetan Plateau. They found a similar relationship between temperatures in the Amazon and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
- Deforestation in the Amazon likely influences the Tibetan Plateau via a convoluted 20,000-kilometer (12,400-mile) pathway driven by atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns. The study suggests that a healthy, functioning Amazon is crucial not only for the regional climate in Brazil, but for the whole Earth system.
‘During droughts, pivot to agroecology’: Q&A with soil expert at the World Agroforestry Centre
- As the unabating drought in Kenya persists, pastoralists in the region are struggling as millions of their livestock perish and vast swaths of crops die. About 4.4 million people in the country are food insecure.
- International food agencies are calling it a dire humanitarian situation and highlight the vital need to build communities’ resilience to adapt and cope with drought.
- Mongabay speaks with David Leilei, a Kenyan soil biologist at the World Agroforestry Centre, on the agroecological techniques and strategies pastoralists and the government can use to restore healthy soils to promote productive farming.
- Mary Njenga, a research scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre who works with 1,200 households in northern Kenya, also speaks with Mongabay on climate-resilient strategies.
Herders turn to fishing in the desert amid severe drought, putting pressure on fish population
- As Northern Kenya’s unabating drought continues, a growing wave of pastoralists are finding it challenging to keep their livestock alive and are switching to fishing in Lake Turkana, the world’s largest desert lake.
- However, environmentalists, fishing authorities, and some fishers worry that potential overfishing and increased pressures on fish populations will cause a collapse in fish stocks and the lake’s ecosystem.
- Authorities are also concerned about the rampant use of illegal fishing gear, such as thin mesh nets that catch undersized fish in shallow breeding zones, and an illegal tilapia smuggling network draining the lake by the tons.
- Though no studies have yet been done to assess fish populations, some environmentalists and fishers are calling for better enforcement of regulations to keep livelihoods afloat.
Mapping of no-drill areas in Ecuador’s Amazon can be scaled for entire rainforest: Study
- A recent study proposes a new methodology to map parts of the Ecuadoran Amazon where fossil fuel reserves must be kept untapped to meet global climate goals, and says it can be replicated and scaled for the entire Amazon Rainforest.
- This includes reviving the Yasuní-ITT Initiative proposed in 2003, and later abandoned by the Ecuadoran government, to stop oil exploitation in Yasuní National Park.
- Since the initiative was shelved, oil exploration has resumed inside the park, advancing toward areas where isolated Indigenous people live and driving swaths of deforestation in the dense forest.
- Campaigners have successfully pushed for the revival of the Yasuní-ITT Initiative to be put to a referendum this month.
Extreme heat takes a toll on tropical countries’ economies
- Extreme heat costs tropical countries more than 5% of their annual per capita GDP, new research shows, while more prosperous mid-latitude countries lose only about a 1% of GDP due to heat waves, which can even bolster economic growth in some instances.
- Poorer tropical countries suffer the worst effects of heat waves despite being least culpable and least economically capable of adapting.
- The effects of extreme heat and drought can hit hard in local communities, such as among Kenyan families who rely on cattle they can no longer feed.
Climate crisis puts Indigenous Amazonians’ Quarup funeral ritual at risk
- The inhabitants of the Xingu Indigenous Territory have had to adapt their Quarup funeral ceremony to avoid fires and guarantee enough food for all visitors.
- The climate crisis has left the forests drier and more flammable: over the past 20 years, 1,890 square kilometers (730 square miles) of protected forest in the Xingu have been lost to fires.
- Deforestation because of soy and corn monocultures in neighboring regions has muddied rivers and caused wild pigs to invade traditional vegetable gardens.
- The loss of rivers makes it difficult to properly store the pequi fruits needed during Quarup, while drought and wild pigs are damaging yucca harvests, also threatening a staple serving for the ceremony.
Brazil’s Pantanal is at risk of collapse, scientists say
- Though the Pantanal is 93% privately owned, this vast Brazilian tropical wetland remains a stronghold for jaguars and untold other species, and connects animals with the Amazon, Cerrado and other biomes.
- A confluence of human activities in Brazil and worldwide — including deforestation and climate change — are heating and drying this watery landscape, threatening the entire ecosystem with drought, wildfires and habitat loss.
- Now, a plan to dredge and straighten the Paraguay River that feeds the Pantanal could serve as the death knell for this vast wetland ecosystem.
- There’s hope that president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who campaigned on an environmental platform, will initiate stewardship that stops Pantanal deforestation and the waterway project, helping curb greenhouse gas emissions.
In Brazil’s agricultural heartland, rivers run dry as monoculture advances
- The Paraná River Basin has suffered an unprecedented drought since 2021, affecting hydropower generation, river-borne food shipments, and freshwater supplies for 40 million people across Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.
- In Brazil, the prolonged drought has hit some of the region’s most important reserves, including Várzeas do Rio Ivinhema State Park, which houses one of the last slices of forest in Mato Grosso do Sul state and acts as a refuge for hundreds of species.
- The drought has drained lagoons in the park, made parts of the reserve more prone to wildfires, and disrupted the breeding cycles of native birds.
- Environmentalists blame the advance of large-scale monoculture in the region, which has cleared most of the forests and ushered in changes in rain patterns and droughts.
Wildfires are climbing up the snowiest mountains of the western U.S.
- Forest fires are getting larger and hotter in the western U.S., shrinking the mountain snowpacks vital to communities and ecosystems.
- When a wildfire burns on mountain slopes, snow that falls later in the winter is more exposed to sun and wind, making it melt or evaporate faster and earlier than ever before.
- Burned land is recovering more slowly as the region warms, leaving less water for trees and plants to regrow and increasing the risks of erosion and flooding.
Climate change is hammering insects — in the tropics and everywhere else: Scientists
- A new review paper finds that climate change is pounding insects in a wide variety of ways all over the world.
- Because insects are so sensitive to temperature change, climate change is impacting them directly, including potentially decreasing their ability to breed.
- But climate change is also causing insects to change their behavior as it shifts seasonal beginnings and ends, risking that insects will act out of sync with the rest of the environment on which they depend. Climate change-intensified drought, extreme precipitation, lengthening heat waves, and fires are also harming insects.
- The best way to protect insects? Combat climate change and safeguard micro-habitats.
Blue jeans: An iconic fashion item that’s costing the planet dearly
- The production of blue jeans, one of the most popular apparel items ever, has for decades left behind a trail of heavy consumption, diminishing Earth’s water and energy resources, causing pollution, and contributing to climate change. The harm done by the fashion industry has intensified, not diminished, in recent years.
- The making of jeans is water intensive, yet much of the world’s cotton crop is grown in semiarid regions requiring irrigation and pesticide use. As climate change intensifies, irrigation-dependent cotton cultivation and ecological catastrophe are on a collision course, with the Aral Sea’s ecological death a prime example and warning.
- While some major fashion companies have made sustainability pledges, and taken some steps to produce greener blue jeans, the industry has yet to make significant strides toward sustainability, with organic cotton, for example, still only 1% of the business.
- A few fashion companies are changing their operations to be more sustainable and investing in technology to reduce the socioenvironmental impacts of jeans production. But much more remains to be done.
In Chile, drought and human expansion threaten a unique national park
- La Campana National Park in Chile is home to threatened species of plants and animals, many found nowhere else.
- The region has been suffering a 12-year drought, and in spite of rains this year, experts say it’s too early to say whether the climate trend has been reversed.
- The park also faces pressure from expanding farmland and urbanization, including the conversion of native vegetation to fruit monocultures, and the encroachment of domestic animals that can spread disease to wildlife.
American agroforestry accelerates with new funding announcements
- “There is a windfall of federal money entering the agroforestry sector. After 30-plus years of work on agroforestry in the United States, the sector’s moment has arrived,” a source tells Mongabay.
- In mid-September, USDA unveiled the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding program, investing up to $2.8 billion in 70 projects, which includes over $60 million to advance agroforestry.
- Agroforestry is the most climate-conscious form of agriculture, sequestering an estimated 45 gigatons of carbon globally while providing habitat for biodiversity, boosting water tables, and building soil.
- This intentional combination of woody perennials like shrubs and trees with annual crops like grains and vegetables also increases farms’ resilience to drought, heat, and deluges, by providing shade, windbreaks, and deep root systems capable of absorbing excess water.
Lebanese research preserves heat-adapted seeds to feed a warming world
- In Lebanon, the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) is preserving crops’ genetic diversity and helping breed climate-resilient varieties of seeds.
- Varieties selected for their adaptation to local conditions, resilience to drought and heat can thrive without the use of expensive hybrid seeds and agrochemicals promoted by agribusinesses — boosting farmers’ finances and food security — and can improve production on sustainable farms based on the principles of agroecology.
- “Big companies like Monsanto are after profit, they are trying to find ways to make the farmers dependent on buying seeds from them. For us it’s not about profit, it’s about improving livelihoods and promoting agricultural practices that don’t harm the environment,” an ICARDA researcher tells Mongabay.
How close is the Amazon tipping point? Forest loss in the east changes the equation
- Scientists warn that the Amazon is approaching a tipping point beyond which it would begin to transition from a lush tropical forest into a dry, degraded savanna. This point may be reached when 25% of the forest is lost.
- In a newly released report, the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) estimates that 13.2% of the original Amazon forest biome has been lost due to deforestation and other causes.
- However, when the map is divided into thirds, it shows that 31% of the eastern Amazon has been lost. Moisture cycles through the forest from east to west, creating up to half of all rainfall across the Amazon. The 31% figure is critical, the report says, “because the tipping point will likely be triggered in the east.”
- Experts say the upcoming elections in Brazil could have dramatic consequences for the Amazon, and to avert the tipping point we must lower emissions, undertake ambitious reforestation projects, and build an economy based on the standing forest. Granting and honoring Indigenous land tenure and protected areas are also key strategies.
More droughts are coming, and the Amazon can’t keep up: Study
- Up to 50% of rainfall in the Amazon comes from the forest itself, as moisture is recycled from the trees to the atmosphere.
- In severe droughts, when the forest loses more water to evaporation than it receives from rain, the trees begin to die. For every three trees that die due to drought in the Amazon rainforest, a fourth tree, even if not directly affected by drought, will also die, according to a new study.
- As trees are lost and the forest dries up, parts of the Amazon will rapidly approach a tipping point, where they will transition into a degraded savanna-like ecosystem with few to no trees.
- The southern and southeastern Amazon are the most vulnerable regions to tipping. Here, deforestation and fires are at their most extreme, driven largely by cattle ranching and soy farming.
On the frontlines of drought, communities in Mexico strive to save every drop of water
- Sixteen Indigenous Zapotec communities in Mexico have created over 579 water infrastructure projects, including absorption wells, small dams and water pans, to conserve water in the Oaxaca Valley – a region impacted by recurrent droughts.
- Significant success in harvesting water has been realized, however, farmers still struggle to have enough water due to lack of rain – making water conservation efforts largely fall to dust.
- Last year, the Mexican government recognized their efforts and gave communities a concession to manage water resources locally. Communities are still waiting to know when they will officially receive the concession.
- Just a few women hold leadership positions in these communities, including Josefina, Esperanza and María. They have been involved in water conservation projects since a severe drought hit the region 17 years ago and hope to enhance gender equality in the region.
Crimes against the Amazon reverberate across Brazil, analysis shows
- Crimes associated with illegal logging, mining and other illicit activities in the Brazilian Amazon are being felt in 24 of Brazil’s 27 states, a new report shows.
- Records of more than 300 Federal Police operations between 2016 and 2021 show that crimes such as tax evasion, money laundering, corruption and wildlife trafficking are reverberating far beyond the rainforest.
- Deforestation is at the center of the criminal economy in the Amazon, driving four main illegal activities: logging, mining, occupation of public lands, and environmental violations associated with agriculture.
- Nearly half of the police operations investigated crimes that occurred in protected areas in the Amazon, including 37 Indigenous territories.
What’s the chance of meeting Paris climate goal? Just 0.1%, study says
- Under the 2015 Paris climate accord, nearly 200 countries committed to reducing the carbon emissions that fuel climate change and keeping global warming under 2˚C (3.6°F), or 1.5 ˚C (2.7°F) if possible.
- The 1.5°C goal requires global greenhouse emissions to be cut by 45% by 2030 and brought down to net zero by 2050, which is extremely unlikely to happen, a new analysis has found.
- Even if mean temperatures were held below 2°C, people living in the tropics, in particular in India and sub-Saharan Africa, will be exposed to extreme heat for most days of the year, researchers warned.
- In the mid-latitude zone, which includes the U.S. and most of the European Union and the U.K., deadly heat waves could strike every year by 2100.
Bad weather knocks down Brazil’s grain production as ‘exhaustively forewarned’
- Brazil’s agricultural GDP declined by 8% in the first quarter of 2022 due to a severe drought in the country’s south caused by a rare triple-dip La Niña.
- In Rio Grande do Sul, the nation’s southernmost state, 56% of last year’s total soy harvest was lost, harming thousands of farmers.
- Scientists warn that climate change will make Brazil’s southern region, an agribusiness stronghold, widespread crop losses more common.
- Despite warnings, climate denial in the agriculture sector is getting in the way of mitigation efforts as the government of President Jair Bolsonaro and the agribusiness lobby push an anti-environmental agenda.
Drought-beset South African city taps aquifer, shirks long-term solutions: Critics
- A major coastal city located in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province is facing a total water cutoff for about 500,000 residents, almost half its population, following a prolonged drought.
- Disaster relief hydrologists have begun drilling boreholes to access groundwater so that hospitals and schools can stay open during the emergency in Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality.
- But critics say the city administration has failed to develop a long-term plan to support water harvesting from intermittent rains and construction of desalination plants.
- They also point out that overreliance on boreholes drilled near the sea could lead to saline water intrusion into the aquifer, contaminating groundwater and rendering borehole water undrinkable.
Climate change amplifies the risk of conflict, study from Africa shows
- New research shows that climate change can amplify the risk of conflict by as much as four to five times in a 550-kilometer (340-mile) radius, with rising temperatures and extreme rainfall acting as triggers.
- Many countries most vulnerable to climate impacts are beset by armed conflicts, such as Somalia, which is grappling with widespread drought amid a decades-long civil war; the research suggests the country is trapped in a vicious cycle of worsening climatic disasters and conflict.
- Both too little rain and too much rain are triggers for conflict, the research finds: persistent rainfall failures increase instability over a broader geographic region while extreme rainfall increases the likelihood of confrontations over a smaller area and for a shorter time, the analysis suggests.
- The research underscores the importance of tackling climate change impacts and conflict mitigation together because misguided climate adaptation strategies can intensify existing tensions.
‘Water always wins,’ so why are we fighting it?
- On this week’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast we examine humanity’s approach to harnessing water, and how the current “us-first” mindset is actually exacerbating our water access problems.
- Journalist and author Erica Gies joins us to discuss the concept of ‘slow’ solutions to water shortages presented in her new book "Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge," and how communities can work with water rather than against it.
- Gies discusses how hydrologists, engineers, and urban planners are creating 'slow' water projects with traditional hydrological knowledge, which are less invasive ways of harnessing water, in places such as Chennai, India.
Beyond boundaries: Earth’s water cycle is being bent to breaking point
- The hydrological cycle is a fundamental natural process for keeping Earth’s operating system intact. Humanity and civilization are intimately dependent on the water cycle, but we have manipulated it vastly and destructively, to suit our needs.
- We don’t yet know the full global implications of human modifications to the water cycle. We do know such changes could lead to huge shifts in Earth systems, threatening life as it exists. Researchers are asking where and how they can measure change to determine if the water cycle is being pushed to the breaking point.
- Recent research has indicated that modifications to aspects of the water cycle are now causing Earth system destabilization at a scale that modern civilization might not have ever faced. That is already playing out in extreme weather events and long-term slow-onset climate alterations, with repercussions we don’t yet understand.
- There are no easy or simple solutions. To increase our chances of remaining in a “safe living space,” we need to reverse damage to the global hydrological cycle with large-scale interventions, including reductions in water use, and reversals of deforestation, land degradation, soil erosion, air pollution and climate change.
‘Lost’ Amazonian cities hint at how to build urban landscapes without harming nature
- Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a Pre-Columbian urban settlement that spans more than 4,500 square kilometers (1,737 square miles) in Bolivia’s Llanos de Mojos region, in the Amazon rainforest.
- This is the latest proof that large, complex urban societies existed in the Amazon before the arrival of the Spanish, challenging the idea that the rainforest was always a pristine, untouched wilderness.
- Some experts say we could learn from these Indigenous urban planning strategies, which, with a sophisticated land and water management system, show us how cities and the rainforest once co-existed without degrading the environment.
Can wonder plant spekboom really bring smiles back to sad South African towns?
- Botanists are working on an ambitious project to restore 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of degraded land in South Africa that were previously covered by thickets of the indigenous succulent spekboom (Portulacaria afra).
- Farmers have stripped the land of its native thicket over the course of decades of commercial agriculture and livestock keeping, and following extended droughts, it’s now turning to desert.
- Spekboom, much praised for its ability to sequester carbon, is not only a resilient native plant, but its growth naturally promotes the recovery of other species.
- Carbon credits are one promising source of funding for restoration that could prove profitable for landowners and workers, though some critics say planting spekboom as an offset lacks a scientific basis.
Conflict over resources in Kenya hits deadly highs with firearms in play
- Increased droughts, floods and invasive species are fueling violent conflicts between pastoralists over livestock in Kenya’s central Baringo county, the intensity of which is exacerbated by the proliferation of illegal firearms in the region.
- Firearms trafficked from civil conflicts in the Horn of Africa have made their way into the hands of pastoralists who now see it as the only way to defend themselves and their cattle during raids and conflicts over grazing land.
- In 2021, there were 16 deaths from 19 livestock raids; in the first four months of 2022, there have been 39 fatalities from 24 violent clashes, half of them due to livestock raids.
- Violent conflicts in Baringo are linked to insecurity in neighboring counties, and drought along with politics only heighten the precarious situation.
A new index measures the human impacts on Amazon waters
- Based on the best scientific data available, the unprecedented Amazon Water Impact Index draws together monitoring and research data to identify the most vulnerable areas of the Brazilian Amazon.
- According to the index, 20% of the 11,216 Brazilian Amazon micro basins have an impact considered high, very high or extreme; half of these watersheds are affected by hydroelectric plants.
- The same index points out that 323 of the 385 Indigenous Lands in the Brazilian Amazon face a medium to low impact, which demonstrates the fundamental role of these areas in protecting the aquatic ecosystems of the Amazon.
- The Amazon River Basin covers 7 million square kilometers (2.7 million square miles) and contains 20% of all freshwater on the Earth’s surface; still, little is known about the impacts of increased human activity on aquatic ecosystems.
Cradle of transformation: The Mediterranean and climate change
- The Mediterranean region is warming 20% faster than the world as a whole, raising concerns about the impacts that climate change and other environmental upheaval will have on ecosystems, agriculture and the region’s 542 million people.
- Heat waves, drought, extreme weather and sea-level rise are among the impacts that the region can expect to see continue through the end of the century, and failing to stop emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases could make these issues worse.
- Charting a course that both mitigates climate change and bolsters adaption to its effects is further complicated by the Mediterranean’s mix of countries, cultures and socioeconomics, leading to wide gaps in vulnerability in the region.
Freshwater planetary boundary “considerably” transgressed: New research
- Earth’s operating systems have stayed in relative balance for thousands of years, allowing the flourishing of civilization. However, humanity’s actions have resulted in the transgressing of multiple planetary boundaries, resulting in destabilization of those vital operating systems.
- This week scientists announced that humanity has transgressed the freshwater planetary boundary. Other boundaries already crossed are climate change, biosphere integrity, biogeochemical cycles (nitrogen and phosphorous pollution), land-system change, and novel entities (pollution by synthetic substances).
- In the past, the freshwater boundary was defined only by “blue water” — a measure of humanity’s use of lakes, rivers and groundwater. But scientists have now extended that definition to include “green water” — rainfall, evaporation and soil moisture.
- Scientists say soil moisture conditions are changing from boreal forests to the tropics, with abnormally dry and wet soils now common, risking biome changes. The Amazon, for example, is becoming far dryer, which could result in it reaching a rainforest-to-savanna tipping point, releasing large amounts of stored carbon.
The world’s dams: Doing major harm but a manageable problem?
- Dam construction is one of the oldest, most preferred tools to manage freshwater for various uses. The practice reached a peak internationally in the 1960s and ’70s, but in recent years dam construction has faced increasing global criticism as the hefty environmental price paid for their benefits piles up.
- The flows of most major waterways have been impacted by dams globally. Only 37% of rivers longer than 1,000 km (620 mi) remain free-flowing, and just 23% flow uninterrupted to the sea. Natural flows will be altered for 93% of river volume worldwide by 2030, if all planned and ongoing hydropower construction goes ahead.
- This global fragmentation of rivers has led to severe impacts. Dams have contributed to an 84% average decline in freshwater wildlife population sizes since 1970. More than a quarter of Earth’s land-to-ocean sediment flux is trapped behind dams. Dams also impact Earth’s climate in complex ways via modification of the carbon cycle.
- But dams are needed for energy, agriculture and drinking water, and are an inevitable part of our future. Lessons on how to balance their benefits against the environmental harm they do are already available to us: removing some existing dams, for example, and not building others.
Indonesia’s Riau province declares state of emergency ahead of fire season
- Almost every year vast swaths of Southeast Asia are covered in toxic haze, which causes air quality to reach hazardous levels and creates major health, environmental and economic problems.
- Recorded since the early ’70s, the smoke is almost entirely a result of large forest and peatland fires in Indonesia that are often illegally started to clear land for oil palm plantations.
- The governor of Indonesia’s Riau province in Sumatra, which, along with Borneo, is a primary location of the fires, has declared an emergency alert status to increase and expedite prevention and extinguishing efforts ahead of this year’s fire season.
- A national environmental NGO says the alert status shows the government has again failed to prevent the fires, and that the existing mitigation efforts fail to tackle the root of the problem.
As the Horn of Africa heats up, the risks of insecurity are rising (commentary)
- World leaders are increasingly concerned about the complex connections between climate and insecurity, including the risk that climate disruption is a “conflict multiplier.”
- The threat is particularly acute in the Greater Horn of Africa, where populations already grappling with food insecurity and armed conflict are experiencing some of the fastest-warming conditions in the world.
- Noting that “the fortunes and stability of this region of 365 million people now look to be at the mercy of weather-driven mayhem”, Robert Muggah, Peter Schmidt, and Giovanna Kuele of the Igarapé Institute draw attention to various efforts already underway in the region to build resilience and call for stepped-up support from global powers.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.
In destroying the Amazon, big agribusiness is torching its own viability
- A new study has found that the transition zone between the Amazon and Cerrado in the northeast of Brazil has heated up significantly and become drier in the past two decades.
- The research points to deforestation in the Amazon and global climate changes as factors prolonging the dry season and warming up the region, leaving it susceptible to severe droughts and forest fires.
- Ironically, the changes being driven by the intensified agricultural activity are rendering the region less suitable for crop cultivation.
- The authors of the new study say there needs to be a balance of sustainable agricultural solutions and an environmentally focused political agenda to protect the region’s ecosystems, its economy, and its people.
‘Everything is on fire’: Flames rip through Iberá National Park in Argentina
- Fires in the central Corrientes province of northeast Argentina have burned through nearly 60% of Iberá National Park, home to protected marshlands, grasslands and forests that hosts an array of species.
- Many of the fires originated from nearby cattle ranches, and spread across significant portions of the park due to a prolonged drought.
- Conservationists are working to relocate a number of reintroduced species, including giant river otters and macaws, to places of safety.
- While experts say they expect a substantial loss to biodiversity, they add that the park should mount a rapid recovery thanks to all the rewilding work already done.
Amazon losing far more carbon from forest degradation than deforestation: Study
- Forest degradation — due to human and environmental causes — was responsible for more carbon loss than deforestation between 2010 and 2019, researchers reported at the most recent American Geophysical Union meeting in December.
- Scientists found that the Brazilian Amazon saw more deforestation in 2019 than in 2015, but lost three times more carbon storage in 2015 than in 2019. The likely source of that additional carbon in 2015: forest degradation and biomass loss, possibly brought on by intense El Niño-related drought and storms during that year.
- More research is needed to determine precisely how much forest degradation is caused by human activities, including illegal logging and fragmentation, and set fires to make way for grazing and croplands, but also environmental factors, such as drought which has been significantly intensified by human-caused climate change.
- The large amount of carbon now being lost from degraded forests in the Brazilian Amazon should, researchers say, result in an evaluation of current conservation policies which almost exclusively focus on preventing deforestation rather than on curbing degradation.
Fires threaten vital peatland in Chile’s Tierra del Fuego
- Fires that started in mid-January continue to burn through forest, peatland and grassland near Chile’s Karukinka Natural Park on the island of Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of the Americas.
- Conservationists are especially worried about the damage being done to the peatlands, an ecosystem that sequesters twice as much carbon as the Earth’s entire forest cover.
- Members of the Selk’nam Indigenous group, which was expelled from the area more than a century ago and is now attempting to return, say they’re concerned about the preservation of their ancestral territory.
- Due to the logistical difficulties of combating fires in such a remote area, rangers at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) say they’re hoping for international assistance from Argentina and the United States.
Paraguay’s drought hits biodiversity, Indigenous communities the hardest
- Record-breaking heat waves in Paraguay have led to water shortages and forest fires that threaten local biodiversity and many of the Indigenous communities who steward it.
- Indigenous groups like the Aché and Ava Guaraní have lost their crops and likely face food insecurity should the drought continue throughout 2022.
- Turtles, aquatic mammals and fish that usually occupy now-dried-up wetlands have been forced into the major rivers, where they face a greater threat from overfishing.
Efforts to dim Sun and cool Earth must be blocked, say scientists
- Scientists are calling on political institutions to place limits on solar geoengineering research so that it cannot be deployed unilaterally by countries, companies or individuals.
- Long-term planetary-level geoengineering interventions of this kind are unprecedented and extremely dangerous, say the academics behind the letter, and should not therefore be experimented with outdoors, receive patents, public funds or international support.
- Solar geoengineering’s leading proposal — injecting billions of aerosol particles into the Earth’s stratosphere — could have severe, unintended and unforeseen consequences. Modelling suggests that it may cause drying in the Amazon rainforest
- In addition, if solar geoengineering were deployed, it would need to be maintained for decades. Sudden discontinuance would result in Earth facing what scientists call termination shock, with a sudden temperature rise due to existing atmospheric carbon emissions which would have been masked by cooling stratospheric aerosols.
‘Rural women in Zimbabwe are in constant contact with climate change’: Q&A with Shamiso Mupara
- According to Shamiso Mupara, founder and executive director of Environmental Buddies Zimbabwe, climate change, droughts and food shortages are having a greater toll on women than men in rural Zimbabwe, as seen in the rise of forced marriages during the 1992 year of extreme drought.
- Growing up in a rural community affected by regular periods of drought, Mupara decided to dedicate her life to empowering Zimbabwean women and increasing their financial independence with environmental campaigns and beekeeping trainings.
- Due to land degradation, Mupara told Mongabay, women are finding it increasingly difficult to farm, feed their families or engage in meaningful forest-based businesses.
Sinkholes emerge in rural Kenya after series of floods, droughts
- In recent years, a number of sinkholes have emerged in Baringo county, a geologically active region in western Kenya’s Great Rift Valley.
- According to geologists, their appearance can be linked both to the worsening impacts of climate change through floods and droughts, and local communities drilling boreholes along precarious fault lines to access more water.
- According to members of the community, the sinkholes have yet to spur the county or the government into action, with food aid currently provided by local human rights organizations.
- Increases in floods are driving human-wildlife conflict for space, and pastoralists are having difficulty adapting to environmental changes.
Small coffee farmers lay their chips on smart agriculture to overcome climate crisis in the Cerrado biome
- A long drought followed by a strong freeze in 2020 damaged the coffee harvest in Brazil, the world’s biggest producer and exporter of the crop.
- Small farmers in the Cerrado region who generally don’t use irrigation because of the area’s historically abundant rainfall were hit the hardest.
- To take on the challenges brought on by the changing climate, coffee farmers in the Cerrado have joined a climate-smart agriculture program.
- The strategies adopted for more resilient crops include agroforestry, connected landscapes, and water resource management.
As climate-driven drought slams farms in U.S. West, water solutions loom
- Drought in the U.S. West has been deepening for two decades, with no end in sight. Unfortunately for farmers, water use policies established in the early 20th century (a time of more plentiful rainfall), have left regulators struggling with their hands tied as they confront climate change challenges — especially intensifying drought.
- However, there is hope, as officials, communities and farmers strive to find innovative ways to save and more fairly share water. In Kansas and California, for example, new legislation has been passed to stave off dangerous groundwater declines threatening these states’ vital agricultural economies.
- Experts say that while an overhaul of the water allocation system in the West is needed, along with a coherent national water policy, extreme measures could be disruptive. But there are opportunities to realize incremental solutions now. Key among them is bridging a gap between federal water programs and farmers.
- A major concern is the trend toward single crop industrial agribusiness in semi-arid regions and the growing of water-intensive crops for export, such as corn and rice, which severely depletes groundwater. Ultimately, 20th century U.S. farm policies will need to yield to flexible 21st century policies that deal with unfolding climate change.
Barrage of droughts weakens Amazon’s capacity to bounce back, study finds
- In the last two decades, the Amazon Rainforest has been impacted by increasingly intense and frequent droughts, the most severe occurring in 2005, 2010 and 2015.
- A new study shows that stretches of forest affected by drought have taken between one and three years to recover their growth rate.
- With droughts expected to worsen because of global warming, scientists warn that the Amazon’s capacity for carbon absorption will be increasingly compromised.
- They highlight that efforts to stabilize the climate will depend on combating deforestation in the Amazon.
With La Niña conditions back, is it good news for tropical forests?
- La Niña conditions have developed across the Pacific Ocean for the second year in a row, according to forecasters at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.
- A phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation ocean-atmosphere cycle, La Niña heralds broadly cooler and wetter conditions across the tropics, with above-average rainfall predicted for important tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia and South America.
- Although the current conditions emerge toward the end of the fire season in the Amazon and Indonesia, experts say these biomes will benefit from wet conditions conducive to forest and peatland growth and recovery.
- Studies indicate that climate change will increase the frequency and severity of La Niña and El Niño events, which will occur against the backdrop of a warmer world, with inevitable implications for natural ecosystems and livelihoods.
For Kenyan farmers, organic fertilizer bokashi brings the land back to life
- Farmers in Kenya’s arid Tharaka Nithi county are growing fresh vegetables thanks to the use of an organic fertilizer known as bokashi.
- Made from a mix of farmyard waste, bokashi adds both nutrients and microorganisms to the soil, unlike chemical fertilizers that add only nutrients that are quickly consumed or washed away.
- The use of bokashi is one of many agroecological techniques being shared with smallholder farmers here by the Resources Oriented Development Initiative (RODI Kenya).
- While the cost of initially applying bokashi can be prohibitive for many small farmers, the need for it diminishes each year, and farmers are encouraged to make their own rather than buy it.
Climate change means hunger in our communities, African women leaders at COP26
- Activists and delegates from developing countries, including many African nations, have strained but so far failed to define the debate at COP26 as one of climate justice. They emphasize that developed nations have largely caused the climate crisis, while developing nations often suffer the worst consequences.
- In 2015 when countries signed the Paris climate agreement, the per capita emissions of Madagascar, which is facing the world’s first climate change-induced famine, stood at 0.12 tons/person, compared to 16 tons/person for the United States.
- At a COP session organized by the British philanthropy Campaign for Female Education (CEMFED) this week, delegates from countries in Sub-Saharan Africa underlined the link between climate change and hunger.
- The climate talks have come under scrutiny for poor representation from African nations, some of the most vulnerable to climate impacts.
From flood to drought, Brazil’s Acre state swings between weather extremes
- Extreme weather conditions, from massive flooding to severe water shortages, have rocked cities and small communities alike in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon this year, a trend experts attribute to climate change and human actions.
- The Acre River, which crosses the state of same name in the western Brazilian Amazon, is experiencing its second-worst drought in recorded history, with water levels close to record lows.
- The water shortage comes just months after the same region experienced widespread flooding as the Acre River overflowed its banks and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.
- Brazil as a whole is facing its worst dry spell in nearly a century, which is affecting water supplies for people, agriculture and electricity generation, and is part of a global pattern of increased water stress.
Children born in 2020 will see spike in climate disasters, study says
- The study used climate modeling to determine specialized impacts by region, finding that at the current level of carbon reduction pledges, people born in 2020 will experience many more extreme climate events in comparison to those born in 1960.
- On the world’s current course, those children will experience twice as many wildfires overall, three times as many crop failures, and seven times as many heat waves.
- At a geographical scale, children born in low-income countries that are least responsible for the climate crisis will confront significantly higher spikes in extreme events than in wealthier countries.
- If the world takes a more aggressive approach to limiting warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F) by 2100, the number of climate disasters experienced by younger generations would drop substantially, with the model predicting 45% fewer heat waves, 39% fewer droughts, and 28% fewer crop failures.
‘Join us for the Amazon,’ Indigenous leaders tell IUCN in push for protection
- At the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille, France, Indigenous leaders and conservationists called for support of their effort to protect 80% of the Amazon Basin by 2025.
- Scientists say the Amazon region has already lost 17% of its forest cover and that an additional 17% has been degraded by forest loss, fragmentation, wildfires and drought, and that these pressures are pushing the rainforest toward a critical tipping point.
- While the recognition of Indigenous land rights would be a critical first step, experts say that Indigenous communities need support in enforcing their land rights and their efforts to defend the Amazon.
- A motion that would support area-based conservation targets with the view to protecting at least 80% of the Amazon by 2025 was eventually approved by the IUCN World Conservation Congress.
New coating could help seeds survive in drought conditions
- Water is the limiting factor for agriculture in many of the world’s semiarid regions, where crops are lost to drought in their early stages of life, during germination and as young seedlings.
- Scientists have developed a new seed coating, made from biodegradable waste products and applied directly to seeds before they are planted, to help seeds survive and germinate in dry conditions.
- The new seed coating consists of two layers: an inner one containing a nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and an outer one to hold moisture, much like a chia seed.
- Field trials with the new seeds are underway, but the key challenge to their adoption will be the cost.
As populations grow, how will thirsty cities survive their drier futures?
- The world’s rapidly expanding cities are on a collision course with climate change, presenting unprecedented challenges to municipal and national governments as they work to continue providing residents with access to safe and sufficient water.
- Increasingly, calls are made to rethink the way we develop urban watersheds and the way we live in them — with water sourcing, transport, use and reuse planning key to the process. One approach, water-sensitive urban design (WSUD) entails a complete reimagining of the role and use of water in urban areas.
- WSUD embraces the water cycle, and considers the entire watershed where cities are located. It uses green infrastructure such as permeable pavements, green roofs and rain gardens, to greatly reduce stormwater runoff. Conscious design allows water to be recycled and reused repeatedly for various purposes. Waste is greatly reduced.
- Some cities are already changing their development pathways to be more resilient to inevitable future climate extremes, with Singapore and Cape Town leading the way. Future water stress can be overcome, but work needs to start now before extreme weather events, including mega droughts and floods, hit.
Scientists look to wheatgrass to save dryland farming and capture carbon
- Intermediate wheatgrass is an imported grain that has been grown in the U.S. Great Plains and Intermountain West since the 1930s; but could it be used in marginal fields in dryland areas?
- Kernza, an intermediate wheatgrass bred by the Land Institute, is being planted in eastern Wyoming, where researchers from the University of Wyoming are uncovering whether the crop can help farmers stabilize and bolster their soils, while providing a profitable crop.
- Planting perennial crops, like Kernza, can help soil health and stability, retain moisture, and cut down on planting costs and greenhouse gas emissions from annual plantings.
2015-2016 El Niño caused 2.5 billion trees to die in just 1% of the Amazon
- New research shows how a combination of high temperatures, intense drought, and human-caused fires resulted in dramatic forest loss in the Lower Tapajós Basin in the Brazilian Amazon.
- According to the authors, forest reduction meant that one of the world’s largest carbon sinks generated almost 500 million tons of CO2 emissions, an amount higher than the annual emissions of developed countries such as the U.K. and Australia.
- Due to climate change, more frequent extreme droughts are predicted to affect most of the Amazon basin in this century; in this scenario, the 2015 El Niño could be seen as a window into the future.
Mexico devises revolutionary method to reverse semiarid land degradation
- Land degradation is impacting farmlands worldwide, affecting almost 40% of the world’s population. Reversing that process and restoring these croplands and pastures to full productivity is a huge challenge facing humanity — especially as climate change-induced drought takes greater hold on arid and semiarid lands.
- In Mexico, a university-educated, small-scale peasant farmer came up with an innovative solution that not only restores degraded land to productivity, but also greatly enhances soil carbon storage, provides a valuable new crop, and even offers a hopeful diet for diabetics.
- The process utilizes two plants commonly found on Mexico’s semiarid lands that grow well under drought conditions: agave and mesquite. The two are intercropped and then the agave is fermented and mixed with the mesquite to produce an excellent, inexpensive, and very marketable fodder for grazing animals.
- The new technique is achieving success in Mexico and could be applied to global degraded lands. Experts with World Agroforestry warn, though, that agave and mesquite are highly invasive outside their region, but suggest that similar botanical pairings of native species are potentially possible elsewhere.
A world of hurt: 2021 climate disasters raise alarm over food security
- Human-driven climate change is fueling weather extremes — from record drought to massive floods — that are hammering key agricultural regions around the world.
- From the grain heartland of Argentina to the tomato belt of California to the pork hub of China, extreme weather events have driven down output and driven up global commodity prices.
- Shortages of water and food have, in turn, prompted political and social strife in 2021, including food protests in Iran and hunger in Madagascar, and threaten to bring escalating misery, civil unrest and war in coming years.
- Experts warn the problem will only intensify, even in regions currently unaffected by, or thriving from the high prices caused by scarcity. Global transformational change is urgently needed in agricultural production and consumption patterns, say experts.
Lessons from Brazil’s São Paulo droughts (commentary)
- São Paulo is increasingly facing severe droughts, as is the case in 2021. In 2014 the city came close to having its reservoirs run dry. Brazil’s agriculture and hydropower also depend on reliable rains.
- Anthropogenic climate change is increasing the fluctuations in ocean surface water temperatures, and the frequency is increasing of the combination of warm water in the Atlantic and cold water in the Pacific off the coasts of South America, a combination that leads to droughts in São Paulo.
- The trends in ocean temperatures are expected to worsen these droughts, but what could make them truly catastrophic is the prospect of this variation being combined with the impact of deforestation depriving São Paulo of the water that is recycled by the Amazon forest and transported to southeastern Brazil by the “flying rivers.” The lessons are clear: control global warming and stop deforestation.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
New index measuring rainforest vulnerability to sound alarm on tipping points
- The new Tropical Forest Vulnerability Index (TFVI) will use satellite data to assess the impact of growing threats such as land clearance and rising temperatures on forests.
- Backed by the National Geographic Society and Swiss watchmaker Rolex, TFVI aims to identify forests most at risk, to be prioritized for conservation efforts.
- Researchers combined 40 years of satellite measurements and forest observations covering tropical forests worldwide to come up with the standardized monitoring system.
- In recent years, multiple stressors have pushed forests to a tipping point, causing them to gradually lose their ecological functions, including their capacity to store carbon and recycle water, the study says.
Amazon and Cerrado deforestation, warming spark record drought in urban Brazil
- Southern and central Brazil are in the midst of the worst drought in nearly 100 years, with agribusiness exports of coffee and sugar, and the production of hydroelectric power, at grave risk.
- According to researchers, the drought, now in its second year, likely has two main causes: climate change, which tends to make continental interiors both hotter and drier, and the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest and Cerrado savanna biomes.
- Deforestation has caused the loss of almost half of the Cerrado’s native vegetation, which helps hold vast amounts of water underground, maintaining aquifers that supply the nation’s rivers with water. In the Amazon, rainforest loss is preventing billions of tons of water vapor from reaching the atmosphere.
- President Jair Bolsonaro acknowledges neither climate change nor deforestation as sources of the drought, but attributes it instead to the country and himself being “unlucky.” The administration’s drought response so far is to reactivate fossil-fuel power plants, which pollute heavily and are costly to operate.
Hotter and drier: Deforestation and wildfires take a toll on the Amazon
- Drought and high temperatures amplify the destructive effects of deforestation and wildfires.
- Across the Amazon Basin, tree species adapted to drier conditions are becoming more prevalent, and in the Central Amazon, savannas have replaced floodplain forests in just a few decades.
- While deforestation remains a main concern, the impacts of forest degradation are becoming increasingly important.
Brazil’s Amazon is now a carbon source, unprecedented study reveals
- According to a study published July 14 in Nature, the Brazilian Amazon is emitting more carbon than it captures.
- This study is the first to use direct atmospheric measurements, across a wide geographic region, collected over nearly a decade that account for background concentrations of atmospheric gases.
- Eastern Amazonia is emitting more carbon than western Amazonia, and southern Amazonia is a net carbon source; Southeastern Amazonia, in particular, switched from being a carbon sink to a carbon source during the study period. The reason: a disruption in the balance of growth and decay and emissions from fires.
- These results have important implications for policy initiatives such as REDD+ that rely on forests to offset carbon emissions: Because different regions of the Amazon differ in their ability to absorb carbon, schemes that use one value for the carbon-capturing ability of the whole Amazon need to be reexamined, scientists say.
Fire season intensifies in the Brazilian Amazon, feeding off deforestation
- Twenty-four major fires have burned in the Brazilian Amazon so far this year, all of them set on land previously deforested in 2020, until this week when the first major blaze was set on land cleared in 2021.
- Experts are expecting this to be a bad year for fires, owing to a historic drought, high levels of deforestation, and a lack of funding for environmental law enforcement.
- President Jair Bolsonaro signed a decree on June 23 to send Brazilian soldiers into the Amazon to curb deforestation (which often precedes fires), but one expert calls this a “smokescreen” that would allow deforestation to continue.
- Deforestation rates have been higher under Bolsonaro than any past president: in 2020, Brazil lost a Central Park-sized area of forest every two hours, and on the day with the highest rate of deforestation, July 31, an estimated 2 million trees were cut down.
Humanity’s challenge of the century: Conserving Earth’s freshwater systems
- Many dryland cities like Los Angeles, Cairo and Tehran have already outstripped natural water recharge, but are expected to continue growing, resulting in a deepening arid urban water crisis.
- According to NASA’s GRACE mission, 19 key freshwater basins, including several in the U.S., are being unsustainably depleted, with some near collapse; much of the water is used indiscriminately by industrial agribusiness.
- Many desert cities, including Tripoli, Phoenix and Los Angeles, are sustained by water brought from other basins by hydro megaprojects that are aging and susceptible to collapse, while the desalination plants that water Persian Gulf cities come at a high economic cost with serious salt pollution.
- Experts say that thinking about the problem as one of supply disguises the real issue, given that what’s really missing to heading off a global freshwater crisis is the organization, capital, governance and political will to address the problems that come with regulating use of a renewable, but finite, resource.
Study sounds latest warning of rainforest turning into savanna as climate warms
- A recent study from Brazil shows that heat stress is disrupting a critical component of photosynthesis in tree species found in the Amazon and Cerrado belt.
- Leaves heat up faster than the ambient air, and sufficiently high temperatures can cause irreversible damage to them and endanger the tree.
- The area has become hotter in recent decades and faced increasingly intense heat waves, fueled not just by global warming but also local deforestation.
- Tropical forests could look more and more like deciduous forests or savannas in the future, which are better adapted to deal with higher temperatures, the study found.
We have turned the Amazon into a net greenhouse gas emitter: Study
- In a first-of-its-kind effort, scientists have calculated the balance of all natural and human-caused greenhouse gases coming in and out of the Amazon Basin — and found that the region is now a net emitter.
- In a new study, the scientists say human disturbances, and not natural greenhouse gas emissions, are contributing to climate change.
- Carbon dioxide isn’t the only problem; fires and drying out of seasonally flooded forests release large volumes of methane and nitrous oxide, which are even more potent greenhouse gases than CO2.
- The finding suggests forests alone won’t be enough to slow climate change as long as we continue burning fossil fuels.
Amazon’s Belo Monte dam cuts Xingu River flow 85%; a crime, Indigenous say
- In February, IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency permitted Belo Monte mega-dam operator Norte Energia to drastically reduce flows to the Volta Grande (Big Bend) of the Xingu River for at least a year. That decision reversed an earlier ruling to maintain much higher Xingu River flows and the fishery — as legally required.
- The flow reduction will leave 70% of usually-flooded forest dry this season, causing massive fish mortality and diminished reproduction, experts say. Community group Xingu Vivo Para Sempre denounced the decision as “a death sentence for the Xingu” and demanded IBAMA’s and Norte Energia’s presidents be “criminally prosecuted.”
- Norte Energia has funded projects to mitigate the reduced flow, collecting and dropping fruit into the river for fish to feed on, and releasing captive-bred fish. But scientists say these approaches are unscientific and will likely be ineffective, and can’t make up for the loss of the river’s seasonal flood pulse, upon which fish depend.
- Residents say the government has spread misinformation, telling Brazilian consumers that their electricity bills would go up if Belo Monte released more water to maintain the Xingu’s ecosystem — something Norte Energia is obligated to do. At present, water levels on the Volta Grande have not been restored.
As Amazon forest-to-savanna tipping point looms, solutions remain elusive
- Leading scientists project that if an additional 3-8% of rainforest cover is lost in the Amazon, it may overshoot a forest-to-degraded-savanna tipping point. That shift could mean mega-drought, forest death, and release of great amounts of stored carbon to the atmosphere from southern, eastern and central Amazonia.
- Despite this warning, Brazilian Amazon deforestation hit an 11-year high in 2020. Government clampdowns on environmental crime greatly decreased deforestation in the past, but Brazil is now facing a political backlash led by President Jair Bolsonaro, resulting in agribusiness and mining expansion and deforestation.
- Market efforts to create incentives have been ineffective. A public-private plan to cut deforestation led by Mato Grosso state has not met its environmental targets, even as agricultural lands increased. Amazonas, Acre and Rondônia — Bolsonaro-aligned states — are pushing for the creation of a new agriculture frontier.
- Indigenous communities, because they’re the best land stewards, should be at the forefront of public policy to conserve the Amazon, say experts, but instead they face poverty and marginalization by the institutions responsible for securing their land rights. International response to the Amazon crisis has also lagged.
Dusty winds exacerbate looming famine in Madagascar’s deep south
- At least 1.27 million people need humanitarian assistance in Madagascar’s drought-hit deep south, according to a Jan. 18 request by the U.N. and the Malagasy government for $75.9 million in international aid to cope with the crisis.
- The area is also experiencing dust and sand storms, a natural phenomenon known as a tiomena that is exacerbating the crisis by smothering crops, forests, buildings and roads.
- Tiomenas may be increasingly common as southern Madagascar undergoes a long-term drying trend.
- Experts say upgrading the area’s water supply system is an urgent priority and recommend massive tree planting to provide wind breaks, protect soils from erosion and create more humidity.
Cat fight: Jaguar ambushes ocelot in rare camera trap footage
- Camera trap footage revealed a jaguar killing an ocelot at a waterhole in the Maya Biosphere Reserve of northern Guatemala.
- While this kind of killing event is considered rare, it can occur when two predator species are competing with each other over resources such as water.
- Prolonged drought, compounded by climate change, may have influenced this event by making water scarcer than usual, according to the researchers who documented the incident.
- However, other experts say that climate change wouldn’t have necessarily influenced this behavior since ocelots and jaguars have lived together for a long time.
We’re approaching critical climate tipping points: Q&A with Tim Lenton
- Over the past twenty years the concept of “tipping points” has become more familiar to the public. Tipping points are critical thresholds at which small changes can lead to dramatic shifts in the state of the entire system.
- Awareness of climate tipping points has grown in policy circles in recent years in no small part thanks to the work of climate scientist Tim Lenton, who serves as the director of the Global Systems Institute at Britain’s University of Exeter.
- Lenton says the the rate at which we appear to be approaching several tipping points is now ringing alarm bells, but “most of our current generation of politicians are just not up to this leadership task”.
- The pandemic however may have caused a shock to the system that could trigger what he calls “positive social tipping points” that “can accelerate the transformative change we need” provided we’re able to empower the right leaders.
Industrial agriculture threatens a wetland oasis in Bolivia
- An oasis within dry Chiquitano forest in eastern Bolivia, Concepción Lake and its surrounding wetland provide valuable habitat for 253 bird, 48 mammal and 54 fish species.
- However, despite being officially listed as a protected area, cultivation of commodity crops like soy and sorghum is expanding and supplanting habitat.
- Agricultural activity is also linked to phosphate pollution in Concepción Lake, and some think it may also be contributing to the lake’s dramatic drop in water level.
- While the clearing is illegal, local government sources say those responsible are simply paying fines and refusing to stop.
Top environment stories from Madagascar in 2020
- Madagascar witnessed a convergence of calamities this year, from the pandemic to surging forest fires to an unprecedented drought.
- Despite growing pressures on its forests, new species continue to be uncovered from the island, with the description of a mouse lemur, several chameleons, and even the world’s ugliest orchid.
- Protected Area management has emerged as a bone of contention between the government and NGOs that manage them, underscoring the challenges of doing conservation in a poor country.
- Here are ten key stories and trends from Madagascar in 2020.
In Madagascar’s hungry south, drought pushes more than 1 million to brink of famine
- In Madagascar’s deep south, 1.35 million people, including 100,000 children, could fall victim to malnutrition this year, as the worst drought in a decade grips the region.
- This remote region has witnessed 16 famines since 1896, eight of which occurred in the past four decades. Most were the direct result of rainfall deficits, but misguided or failed policies have deepened the distress.
- This year, with crop failures, pandemic-related restrictions curbing access to markets, and sharp increases in prices of essentials, food has remained out of reach for thousands.
- Such droughts and the attendant famines are likely to become more frequent due to climate change, producing more hunger and distress in one of the poorest countries in the world.
Belo Monte dam’s water demands imperil Amazon communities, environment
- Norte Energia, the builder and operator of the controversial Belo Monte mega-dam is pushing for implementation of a much disputed “consensus hydrogram” — a plan to annually manipulate water releases into the Xingu River’s Volta Grande (Big Bend), with estimated peak April releases ranging from a mere 4,000 – 8,000 m3/s.
- Noting that April average historical river flows in the Volta Grande before the dam was built were 19,985 m3/s, analysts say this dearth of water flow will prevent and imperil annual fish reproduction. One Volta Grande expert estimates that, using the so-called consensus hydrogram plan, at least 80% of Volta Grande fish will die.
- Documents from IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency, which first came to light publicly on December 3, acknowledge “grave and irreparable impacts” from the Belo Monte dam, and signal an urgent need to revise Norte Energia’s planned consensus hydrogram.
- Two recent studies say fish are decreasing dramatically in diets within Belo Monte’s influence area, causing food insecurity. Norte Energia claims fish quantities sold locally remain the same, but their data may mask significantly increased fishing effort, and the need to fish more widely, beyond previous fishing areas.
‘CSI Amazon’: Epic study looks at what’s killing the rainforest’s trees
- A newly published study provides insight into why trees die in the Amazon, and why the rate of tree death may be increasing. The main risk factor explaining tree death was the mean growth rate of species.
- More than half, 51%, of tree deaths observed over the 30-year study were attributed to structural damage, mostly from windstorms.
- Different regions of the Amazon showed different risk factors for trees: Overall, the southern and western Amazon had higher mortality rates; wind seemed to do more damage in the western Amazon, whereas the southern Amazon had more tree death due to water stress and drought.
- The findings have major implications for the fight against climate change, given that the Amazon accounts for 12% of land-based carbon sink, but is losing that capacity as tree mortality increases.
As 2020 Amazon fire season winds down, Brazil carbon emissions rise
- 2,500+ major blazes burned across Brazil’s Legal Amazon between late May and early November. Many were on recently deforested lands, indicative of land grabbers converting forests to pastures and croplands, while others were within conserved areas and Indigenous reserves. Of concern: 41% of burns were in standing forests.
- Estimates say that nearly 5.4 million acres (2.2 million hectares) of Brazil’s Amazon standing rainforest burned this year — an area roughly the size of the country of Wales in the United Kingdom.
- Brazil’s soaring deforestation rates and Amazon fires point to another problem: the nation is not on track to meet its 2020 goals under the Paris Climate Agreement for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, carbon emissions in Brazil did not fall, but rose by 9.6%, in 2019, the first year of President Jair Bolsonaro’s four-year term.
- Under its UN climate commitments, Brazil is only required to measure fire-related greenhouse gas emissions from newly deforested lands, not from fires in standing forests. A questionable practice, say some critics, as fires in the Amazon are routinely set by people and escape into forests. The highest CO2 emissions from forest fires in the Amazon don’t happen during the burn, but years later, a new study concludes, complicating emission estimates.
Chinese demand and domestic instability are wiping out Senegal’s last forests
- After a decade of intensive illegal logging, endangered Pterocarpus erinaceus rosewood trees are becoming increasingly scarce in Senegal’s southern region of the Casamance, which borders the Gambia.
- Despite logging its own rosewood to extinction years ago, the Gambia has become a major trading hub for rosewood and was China’s third-largest source of the rare, valuable timber in 2019.
- An investigation has revealed the rate of trafficking across the border has worsened over the past two years, despite an export ban enacted in 2017.
- A recent move by shipping lines to stop exporting rosewood has led to a lull in trafficking activity; however, observers expect this will only be temporary.
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