Seeing Deforest Through the Trees

The weather forecast that scientists have been warning about for decades is here. In some places it’s more obvious than others. Which brings us to Brazil, where human-caused climate change exacerbated by human-caused deforestation (sensing a theme?) is cooking the north of the country. “Even in a country that has grown increasingly inured to the damage wrought by drought — which in recent years has dried out swaths of the Amazon forest, killed scores of river dolphins and caused some territory to be reclassified as arid — recent scenes of privation and struggle have been startling.” WaPo (Gift Article): More than half of Brazil is racked by drought. “Along the Rio Madeira in Amazonas state, locals are trekking miles on the hot sands of the dried riverbed in search of water. In the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland, fires have scorched an estimated 20,000 square kilometers (7,720 square miles). The vast Cerrado region is in the grip of the worst drought in at least 700 years, according to researchers at the University of São Paulo. And the air in São Paulo state has grown so heavy with forest fire smoke that authorities have urged people to avoid physical activity outside.”

+ When life gives you extreme heat-ripened bananas, make banana wine.

+ If you missed my coverage of Tuesday’s debate, it’s right here: The Wrath of Concepts.