The world’s largest river, the Amazon, has fallen to its lowest level on record in the past few weeks, a development that has shocked experts around the world.
Rising temperatures, fueled by global warming, seem to be the driving force behind the powerful drought. They’re parching the largest freshwater reservoir on the planet, Ana Ionova reported, and pushing the Brazilian government to take drastic measures that were once unthinkable.
But, though climate change has fueled much of the Amazon’s problems, it is also true that deforestation has gradually chipped away at the jungle’s ability to replenish its own water supplies. The forest can, in fact, create its own rain, researchers have found.
This brings to mind one of the main lessons I’ve learned from reporting on our planet’s environmental catastrophes: The price for the destruction of nature may not be immediately clear, but someone always pays it, and it’s often steeper than government leaders imagined it would be.
I wanted to share that thought with you because, after two and a half years, I am leaving the Climate Forward team for a new role. I write this with a heavy heart, but also with the hope that I helped you see how the world’s two main ecological crises, climate change and biodiversity loss, are interconnected.
Governments are increasingly aware of this. In two weeks, high-ranking officials from around the world will gather in Cali, Colombia, to discuss how countries are doing on their pledge to protect nature at a global biodiversity summit known as COP16. One of Colombia’s goals is for countries to come out of it with a commitment that addresses the biodiversity and the climate crises at the same time. But with countries falling short on both fronts, it’s a tall order.
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