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Brazil’s Amazon region has experienced both floods and droughts in recent years.
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Rising temperatures around the world are contributing to increasingly intense natural disasters.
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Photos show the impact of extreme weather conditions on residents of towns along the Amazon River.
In 2021, towns along the Amazon River and its tributaries in Amazonas, Brazil, were flooded due to more than normal rainfall.
Just two years later, during months of drought, river beds turned to sand.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, the Amazon region is flooded every year during the rainy season, washing nutrient-rich sediment from the Andes into the rainforest floor.
However, rising temperatures around the world have contributed to increased frequency and intensity of weather-related natural disasters.
Photos show how regions like the Amazon teeter between extreme weather conditions as their residents struggle to adapt.
In the summer of 2021, Anama in the Brazilian state of Amazonas experienced widespread flooding at record levels.
Unusually high rainfall during the normal rainy season caused local rivers to rise to record levels and affected 350,000 people in Amazonas state, the Associated Press reported.
In June 2021, Rio Negro measured 29.98 meters (98.4 feet), the highest elevation recorded since 1903, according to the scientific journal Weather and Climate Extremes.
Most of the small town of about 14,000 people, known as the “Venice of the Amazon”, was flooded.
Neighborhood residents swam and used canoes in the flooded streets.
Farmers had difficulty keeping their animals alive.
Cattleman Francisco Orivan Soares de Bastos used wooden slats to support his cattle.
Local people built elevated platforms from wooden planks inside their homes to stay above water.
“We’re used to it here, but this is going beyond the limits,” Raimundo Sampaio Sobreira, 63, told the AP. said.
Raphael Alves’ photograph of Anama titled “Stranded” won an award in The Nature Conservancy’s 2023 photography contest.
Alves, who grew up in the Amazon region, won first place in the Climate category of the competition.
“Anama has been an ‘amphibious city’ for years,” Alves wrote on the photo taken in 2021. “When there is no work, adults often stay at home. Without classes and public recreation areas, children are left to play in flooded areas.”
In October 2023, a tributary of the Amazon River receded to record low levels due to a prolonged drought.
According to Reuters, the water level in the port of Manaus, where the Amazon River meets the Rio Negro branch, reached 13.59 meters, the lowest level ever.
With no waterways connecting riverside towns along the Amazon, places like Anama and Manaus found themselves isolated.
Since the boats could not reach the riverside settlements, the local people experienced transportation difficulties and had difficulty meeting their needs such as food and medicine.
Amazon residents dug wells in the cracked ground to obtain water.
The drought has affected 481,000 people in Amazonas state, according to local officials.
“We went three months without rain in our community,” Pedro Mendonca, who lives in Santa Helena do Ingles, west of Manaus, told Reuters in November. said. “It’s much warmer than past droughts.”
One of the surprising consequences of the drought was the discovery of prehistoric carvings that had been covered with water for nearly 2000 years.
The faces found carved into rocks in Manaus resembled modern emojis.
“This area expresses emotions and feelings,” said archaeologist Jaime Oliveira of the Brazilian Historical Heritage Institute. Agence France Presse (AFP). “It’s an etched rock record, but it has something in common with existing works of art.”
Vast expanses of dry land once flooded by rivers signaled a worrying trend.
“We are currently experiencing a changing climate scenario, alternating between extreme events such as drought or heavy rains. This has very serious consequences not only for the environment, but also for people and the economy,” said Ane Alencar, Director of Science. the nonprofit Amazon Environmental Research Institute told the AP in October. “I think there’s a very good chance that what we’re experiencing now, which is oscillation, is the new normal.”
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