More than 100 Amazon river dolphins have died in the sweltering waters of Brazil’s Lake Tefé, which recently hit 102 degrees.
Roughly 120 dolphins have perished in a tributary of the Amazon River over the past week, a mass death that experts think may be linked to an extreme drought and heat that is plaguing the region.
The mass death of these rare river dolphins has underscored concerns about the effects of human-driven climate change, which is exacerbating all types of extreme weather events across the world. Scientists at the Mamirauá Institute, a local research center supported by the Brazilian government, said that more research would be needed to isolate the exact culprits behind the dolphin deaths, especially because an emerging El Niño weather pattern could be a factor.
“It’s still early to determine the cause of this extreme event but according to our experts, it is certainly connected to the drought period and high temperatures in Lake Tefé, in which some points are exceeding 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit),” the institute said in a statement to CNN.
The dieoff of the river dolphins occurred in Lake Tefé, a part of the upper Brazilian Amazon that has experienced sweltering temperatures that are about 10° Fahrenheit hotter than average for this time of year. Locals and researchers in the area have also reported that thousands of fish have died during the drought due to a scarcity of oxygen in the freshwater system.
About 80 percent of the deceased dolphins are “boto,” a species of pink dolphins, while the remainder belong to a gray species called “tucuxi.” These animals have adapted to the freshwater ecosystems of the Amazon, which confines them to a relatively limited habitat that renders them particularly vulnerable to extreme heat. However, mass die-offs of whales and other wide-ranging oceanic species are also occurring in many other regions of the world; many of those events may be linked to climate change.
The Tefé region is suffering due to an anomalous lack of rainfall in recent weeks, which have lowered the depths of some rivers and lakes by an astonishing three meters, or nine feet, compared to average levels at this time of year.
“The past month in Tefé has seemed like a science-fiction climate-change scenario,” Daniel Tregidgo, a British researcher in the area, told The Guardian. “Regular sightings of pink river dolphins are one of the great privileges of living in the heart of the Amazon. Pretty much every time I go to the market to have breakfast I see them come to the surface and it reminds me why I live here.
“To know that one has died is sad, but to see piles of carcasses, knowing that this drought has killed over 100, is a tragedy,” he added.
link: https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvj5vv/the-amazon-is-getting-so-hot-that-dolphins-are-dying-en-masse
I’m in Florida and that’s how hot it is here at night. I’m going to try to migrate north before everyone else does. Eventually people will be forced to.
Get out while you can and move north. I wish I wasn’t being alarmist but you can see the rhetoric in the media. Countries are starting to close their borders. Canada will be no different. We are entering the period where war is going to start and predominantly dark skinned poor people are going to die by the thousands.
lol what counties are starting to close their borders? Only countries that have closed borders have had them for a while Korea, Armenia/Turkey/Azerbaijan and Columbia/Venezuela
You straight up just made this shit up… speaking of rhetoric
I’m always amazed at the amount of international political scholars that are on Lemmy
Far right governments are being elected across the western world. European countries like Italy and Germany are pushing back against the deluge of immigration. Canada right now is complaining about immigration impacting their housing costs.
I apologize in that I should have said countries are starting to tick towards closed borders.
Definitely not a political scholar I’m merely a studier of current events and history.
I hope to be wrong but there are those out there smarter than me that have been seeing this coming for decades.
I find it funny that you talk of rhetoric from the media and then go right ahead and do it yourself, fair enough on how you should have phrased it but then you still stay on the same line… there are those out there smarter than me that have seen this coming
Seen what coming? Possible closing of borders? Limiting immigration? Forced immigration from climate change? Rise in populist politicians?
Straight from the Canadian Government website
So once again you are saying Canada is talking about immigration what are you even trying to say? You are pushing your narrative
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/departmental-plan-2023-2024/departmental-plan.html
Jesus Christ what crawled up your ass? I’m simply stating my opinion and it’s contrary to yours.
What I am experiencing is apparently drastically different than what you are experiencing.
But feel free to double down on your confrontational bullshit.
Hey no problem with having an opinion I just can’t stand people online spewing hyperbolic divisive type stuff, we already get enough of it from every corner of the internet
And sorry that you think having a discussion online is confrontational bullshit maybe you are just being too sensitive
I actually do agree with some of the stuff you are saying which is the funny part, the world is seeing a tilt towards far right/populist types but there is no need to fire up the bullshit with exaggerated statements
Why do you think places like Lampedusa want their borders closed you had an influx of migrants that was more than the total population of the island that’s not sustainable so it’s not just a “Italy bad” scenario
I see in no way how I was being divisive. I was simply stating the sad reality that as the world goes more and more to shit us rich nations are going to lock down at the expense of the poor and not white. If anyone is looking forward to that they’re a psychopath. That said I’m not deluded enough to ignore the world is tilting towards totalitarianism.