Story

A Drier Amazon

The Amazon River was at its lowest ever measured this year. Image by Anna-Katarina Gravgaard. Colombia, 2010.

When the river is runs too low, indigenous communities in the forest who depend on the river for infrastructure become isolated. Image by Anna-Katarina Gravgaard. Colombia, 2010.

Computer, camera, sound equipment, three batteries, 52 G flash drive, mosquito lotion, socks, note books, a travel guide and antibiotics are packed into two small bags. A page of my note book is filled with contact information for sources, hotels, a fixer and a driver in Leticia, a Colombian port between Peru and Brazil. Tomorrow morning I am leaving for the Amazon River.

The Amazon, the largest hydrographic basin in the world, is five years into its worst drought ever. A 40 percent decrease in rainfall has sapped the once mighty river of its strength. In dry seasons the river runs like a creek. The thousands of Amazonians in remote rural villages, who depend on its currents for everything from sustenance to transportation, are now stranded for parts of the year, with little access to fish and other food.

Scientists believe the roots of the drought are to be found thousands of miles away in the warming currents of the Atlantic. In an example of how complex and connected the planet's climate system is, those changes in the Atlantic actually block the formation of rain clouds above the rainforest—the same phenomena that triggered a disastrous drought in Darfur.

In Leticia, the waters had retreated about 50 meters from the harbor just a month ago. Here in November, when the rain should be hitting hard, the waters have risen back to within 15 meters of the harbor, and fishermen still have to push their boats the last few meters into port. I hope to talk to some of them as well as to farmers and the indigenous people whose lives and livelihood are threatened by the drought.

I am traveling alone and there are some risks to a trip like this: the equipment might break, I can get sick or my sources might not show up. My hope is to find a beautiful area that tells an important story about climate change in the Amazon.