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 just read an article today where scientists were saying that we had reached the 1.5 C limit since preindustrial levels that we had set during the Paris climate agreement. We hit that limit this year. We were supposed to hit it for another 10 years.
Basically these scientists were saying we were actually starting the boiling period. I don’t find it hard to believe at all.
It’s October and we have to run the AC during the night so we can sleep well without feeling too hot up here in Montreal Canada. It used to start getting really chilly around this time of year, but it’s really hot right now. Temperatures reached 28C today.
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
- In the 2023–2025 Immigration Levels Plan, Canada aims to welcome from 410,000 to 505,000 new permanent residents in 2023, from 430,000 to 542,500 in 2024 and from 442,500 to 550,000 in 2025. These targets are incremental record highs for Canada and reflect the government’s belief that newcomers are instrumental in driving economic growth and building our communities. Achieving these levels will also mean reuniting more families and protecting democratic and human rights on a larger scale than ever before.*
So once again you are saying Canada is talking about immigration what are you even trying to say? You are pushing your narrative
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
We didn’t have proper Winter here em São Paulo, Brazil. We had some sparse cold days and a lot of very hot ones. It was very bizarre. I don’t even wanna know how the summer, which is beginning now, will be.
Actually, we just entered spring, on late September. And we did so in the midst of a heatwave that broke heat records for this year - we had days with 37C, which is high even for summer, and it won’t be summer here until December.
Yes, I’m scared af as well. My family is sort of ignoring my warnings and actually planning to move to the coast (Santos), which is even hotter.
Some guys here in the comments said about migrating to the north, and that’s something that has been on my mind as well as a long term plan, although I find it unlikely I can move to North America in the short term, so I’m thinking more realistically maybe southern Argentina?
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Can you retrieve the article? Would give it a read
Sure, but it’s in French. There’s a paragraph with that statement near the end if I recall.
oh hey, my French language studies may come useful. Thanks
The article by LeDevoir seems to be saying that the 1.5C will be reached by 2034. Still bad, but we have not reached the 1.5C yet
Both wrong. The year average of 1.5C was expected around 2030, but the immediate 3 month average already hit 1.5C.
Our planet is on fire. This is literally the this is fine meme.
Remember this next time someone says there are some good conservatives. They’re at war with everything that lives.
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This is terribly sad news.
Quick reminder that the polar bears completely lost their habitat years ago since the north pole is completely melting each summer.
Every fossil fuel executive
Children of the future will demand to know our excuses for the lack of terror
I feel like I see this story almost daily from different sources
When will it be humans turn?
30-40 years Max. It’ll start a huge refugee crisis to the north first as the regions near the equator start heating up.
Damn straight! Its about time, the earth needs to be cleansed.
If you haven’t seen Amazon river dolphins before, you really need to consider it. They’re quite incredible creatures.
Changes to the climate are happening faster than creatures can adapt.
Thanks Exxon
Anyone else surrounded by dumbass conservatives that will say global warming isn’t real until they’re literally on fire and dying in the streets? I’ve grown pretty fucking tired of a whole part of humanity that constantly wants to destroy it out of intentional ignorance.
Hint: they won’t admit it even then. Sunk Cost Fallacy. Those people have put too much into their effort to believe something incorrect that they cannot admit defeat at all costs, even their lives. They could literally be on fire and would still say they are right.
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I often wonder which group of people is dumber, those that don’t believe in climate change or those that cheer it on like “humans need to die!”
If you are so high and mighty, why don’t you go first?
The rest of us sane people would like to fix the problem and live on this beautiful planet.
river dolphins
It’s also worth noting that the Amazon is coming out of Winter and heading into Spring.
oh uh that seems bad
So much for smartest animal on Earth!
Take that Douglas Adams!
So is anyone going to do anything to temporarily cool the rivers down or will everyone stand around with their thumbs up their asses while the dolphins go extinct?
