Global Heating Decreases Rainfall, Increases Heat In Amazon Making Drought 30 Times More Likely

(Photo : Getty Images/MICHAEL DANTAS)

A recent study said that global heating decreases rainfall and increases heat in Amazon Rainforest.

This phenomenon has made drought 30 times more likely in the area.

Worst Recorded Drought

Experts said the drought was the worst recorded in many places and hit the maximum "exceptional" level on the scientific scale.

They said that without planet-warming emissions from the burning of oil, gas and coal, the drought would have been far less extreme than what is being experienced.

Researchers pointed out that the drought was made 30 times more likely to happen due to global heating.

They said that the return of the natural El Niño climate phenomenon is associated with drier conditions but played only a small role on the weather condition in the area.

The World Weather Attribution said that the river basin contains the largest rainforest in the world, making it a global hotspot of biodiversity.

It is also considered as a key part of the global hydrological and carbon cycle.

The river levels are reported to be at lowest levels in 120 years, threatening the estimated 30 million people living in the Amazon basin across several nations including Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia.

This condition brings disruption in transportation, isolating communities and killing wildlife.

The analysis noted that the large riverine system powers significant portions of the affected countries' energy through hydropower, with Brazil relying on hydro power for 80% of its electricity, Colombia 79%, Venezuela 68%, Ecuador and Peru 55%, and Bolivia 32%.

Experts said that the drought has been significantly impacting dam capacities and energy output and led to power cuts in the region as early as June 2023.

Scientists from Brazil, the Netherlands, the UK and the US had utilized published peer-reviewed methods to assess whether and to what extent the drought has been influenced by climate change as well as the occurrence of El Niño, which is known to be associated with drought in the Amazon.

While the drought started earlier in the west of the basin, it was found out that the whole basin has been in severe or exceptional drought for the second half of the year.

Regional Warming

Studies have shown that there are several ways to characterize a drought.

Experts explained that meteorological drought considers only low rainfall, while agricultural drought combines rainfall estimates with evapotranspiration.

They said that the increased evapotranspiration due to regional warming can play a major role in exacerbating drought impacts. In the study, they assessed agricultural drought as well as meteorological drought.

Climate change, which was the primary driver of the massive drought in the Amazon basin in 2023, will likely cause future extreme droughts.

This is seen to have potentially dire consequences for global efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The Amazon basin, which extends into parts of nine countries but lies mostly in Brazil, is the single biggest land-based sink of carbon on the planet.

This basin can store up to five times the world's annual greenhouse gas emissions. Its survival as an intact ecosystem is critical to stabilizing Earth's atmosphere.