I’d be curious how much of this can be directly attributed to logging roads. Not the logging that they enable, but the actual path the roads allow water to take. I’ve seen mention of the fractal patterns of roads developed to log the amazon, and genuinely wonder, since roads have notoriously big effects in urban hydrology.
I have done a LOT of work on hydrology/hydraulics/drainage of rural unpaved roads in the rugged coastal mountains of the PNW, which is basically a rainforest (just a colder one). Many of those roads were haphazardly constructed and needed fixing.
I can't read the language of the parent article so I can't comment on the likelihood of effects mentioned here being caused by road making.
However, I can say that it's quite common for local hydrology to be severely interrupted by poorly designed roads. Now... in terms of dewatering effects, that would typically be only very local in nature. The biggest issue is typically concentration of flows where they shouldn't be and tremendous sediment delivery to receiving water courses. This can happen in a large variety of ways: more frequent concentration of smaller events, large events, catastropic failure of drainage systems like small culverts or just blowout of the whole road prism, anthropogenic landslides, etc.
Sending extra water to places it doesn't belong will almost always lead to problems.
Very well put, there is no other way to get to some places in the rainforest if not by the river. The river are our ROADS, to get food, supplies, and other issues to the people in the amazon.
With this drought people are lacking of supplies and even dying by not being able to get to the doctor or nearby hospital.
Yes and yes. It depends, and is highly situation dependent, I have experience with the entire spectrum. Rural areas blur lots of lines and defy neat categorization. There's a patchwork of private land and forestry land. If there's miles of logging road and 1-4 people use it to access their property outside the wet season, which category are you putting that in? What about 10-20 properties?
The roads are the tip of iceberg, as a Amazon Rainforest Native the forest claims the road back to itself after only a few months. The majority of illegal logging is transported by ferries.
We went to the Manu National Park during our honeymoon trip to Peru. It’s hard for those of us who have lived in temperate areas our whole lives to imagine little things like rinsing a shirt in the evening meaning that you will have a damp shirt the next day (or two) and bigger things like not being able to see more than a few dozen meters ahead when not on the water or up on an observation tower.
It was so far outside any place I’d ever experienced before (or since).
And it breaks my heart to see what we’re doing to it.
How much is cattle ranching a driver of the deforestation? Brazilian beef is often the cheapest option in Germany - I don’t buy it, but obviously someone here does.
We heard about the fires that Bolsonaro did nothing (really) to prevent or fight, and that a lot of them were to gain land for cattle ranching. That’s what made me start making sure I wasn’t buying beef from Brazil.
I’ve heard about, marveled at, and generally known about the amazon my entire life. I’d say it’s easily as important in my mind as anything else critical for life on earth as we know it. Genuinely would be willing to pay more for goods/services to ensure its continued health.
Not OP, but as an American consumer, what i would like are:
- better labeling on products i buy to know they didn't contribute to the deforestation. Ideally these products are cheaper (or at least not more expensive) than unsustainably produced ones
- more accessible/cheaper tourism opportunities so I can visit the Amazon as easily as possible. I would like to know my tourism dollars go to conservation efforts
- wrt narcotrafficking, investing in campaigns to legalize drugs in America (along with the rehab/support facilities). I suspect much of the illegal drug supply chain will disappear if the drugs were simply legal.
Yes, and maybe some networked cameras out in the middle of it. If people could interact with it remotely like that they might have a wider appreciation. I’m thinking cameras on gimbals and solar powered with wireless internet one or another way. Perhaps have them track motion or something. Night vision.
