Seca no Rio Branco
Drought on the Branco River
Roraima
More extreme weather in the Amazon
Scientists have been predicting for years that climate change will lead to increased rainfall and droughts around the world.
Unfortunately, the climate problem has rapidly worsened and is now affecting daily life in the Amazon, where extreme weather conditions have led to longer droughts and periods of severe flooding.
The haunting images of deforestation, biomass burning, and the suffering of Amazonian peoples captured by photographers such as Raphael Alves, Bruno Kelly, Alberto César Araújo, and others evoke the ancient apocalyptic prophecy of Bob Dylan’s 1962 A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall: “I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’.” From the same song also comes the line, “I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests.” As if the singer foresaw what would become of the rainforests near the hydroelectric dams that successive Brazilian governments, driven by a thirst for power and, as we now know, bribes, have built in the Amazon.
In the Brazilian Amazon, the state of Acre is currently experiencing severe flooding. Meanwhile, the state of Roraima is still dealing with the aftermath of a historic drought that recently nearly dried up the Rio Branco riverbed near the capital, Boa Vista.
Follow the level of the Rio Branco here: Companhia de Águas e Esgotos de Roraima
Seca no Rio Branco – Drought on the Branco River – Roraima
A series by photographer © Raphael Alves