In 2023, the Amazon rainforest experienced its worst drought on record. The Amazon rainy season generally starts in October, but the region remains dry and hot until late November this year, the BBC said 26**. This is mainly because El Niño causes the Pacific Ocean to warm, which pushes hot air over the Americas.
Oliveira, a 49-year-old resident of the Amazon rainforest, complained that he had never seen such a severe drought, that there was no water to bathe, and that crops such as bananas and chestnuts had gone bad before they could be transported from the rainforest to the city. In the past, fires caused by drought mostly occurred in degraded or deforested areas, but this year there have also been fires in undamaged forests or areas of primary forest, the report said.
Costa, a plant ecologist from the Amazon Forest Research Institute, said that the 2015 drought was estimated to have killed 2.5 billion plants locally in the Amazon, and that this year's drought was more severe than in 2015. Widespread plant deaths in the rainforest are destroying the Amazon's ecosystem.
According to Brazilian climatologist Nobre, if the Amazon rainforest is deforested at 25 percent, global temperatures will rise to 2 to 2 percent above pre-industrial levels5 degrees Celsius. The deforestation rate in the region is currently 17 per cent, and global temperatures are already 1 per cent above pre-industrial levels1 to 12 degrees Celsius. This year, countries in the Amazon have all controlled the rate of deforestation, and they are committed to reducing deforestation to zero by 2030.
*: Global Times).