As Amazon Water Levels Drop, Archaeological Remains Re-Emerge
Guess what, weather and climate have fluctuated before, albeit without much human interference (that we know of)
In today’s posting, I shall bring to you a wonderfully tone-deaf example of ‘climate change™’ reporting in Austrian legacy media. While focused on the current drought in the Amazon river basin in South America, ‘journos’ report on many wonderful sights that are suddenly emerging.
Here’s the original source; translation and emphases mine, as are the bottom lines.
Enjoy, if you will.
Low Water Level of the Amazon River Makes Rock Carvings Visible
Der Standard, 28 Oct. 2023
The faces carved in stone are up to 2,000 years old. Their discovery is one of the few benefits of Brazil's ongoing drought, which has lowered the water level by 15 metres.
The Amazon in South America is not only extremely long, but also wide and, in places, considerably deep: when it was surveyed, it was found to be around 6,400 kilometres long, running through nine states, up to 20 kilometres wide (wider than Lake Constance) and up to 100 metres deep. But the water level of the river and its tributaries, which are on average 30 to 40 metres deep, is particularly low at the moment. There is drought in the Amazon region. The Rio Negro, which flows into the Amazon, has lost 15 metres in depth since July.
At least for archaeologists, this brings surprising advantages. For things become visible that people left behind hundreds of years ago, when the landscape looked different and the rivers had lower water levels [so, river levels were lower without human CO2 messing up the climate; interesting]. Specifically, these are engravings that were carved into stones in the riverbeds of the rivers.
This can currently be seen in Ponto das Lajes, not far from where the Rio Negro flows into the Amazon, which is called Solimões in this area. Simple faces can be seen.
In the past, it has happened that seemingly human engravings were traced back to animal tracks, but this is probably not the case here. Archaeologist Jaime de Santana Oliveira of the National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) told Reuters that engravings had already been discovered in the rock there in 2010. However, he said, the even lower water level this time, exposing large areas of stone, showed images that clearly depicted human faces.
[This is the one and only written attribution to the origins of this piece in Der Standard; please keep this in mind for later.]
It is difficult to say from what period the artworks date. ‘The engravings are prehistoric or pre-colonial’, de Santana Oliveira assumes. Based on the settlement history of the region, they are probably between 1,000 to 2,000 years old.
[note that ‘prehistoric’ conventionally means before the invention of writing some 5,000 years ago, which provides the ‘lower’ bound; ‘pre-colonial’, on the other hand, intimates that everything came to a halt upon arrival of ze Europeans who messed up everything after 1492; in other words, Mr. de Santana Oliveira, as related by Der Standard, doesn’t know and guesses something closer to the end of that roughly 4,500 year-period.]
Because a greater variety of engravings is now recognisable, the origin of individual images can probably be better narrowed down, says the expert. For example, the sharpening grooves in the rock probably date back to a time far before the arrival of European settlers on the American continent from the late 15th and 16th centuries onwards. Indigenous inhabitants may have sharpened arrows and spears in this way.
In other regions of the world, too, droughts have uncovered finds from times when the water level of rivers and seas was lower. Last year, for example, a prehistoric megalithic site was found in southern Spain. In Iraq, a more than 3,000-year-old palace city came to light at the Mosul reservoir, and an [presumed] Inca altar in the Peruvian river Vilcanota.
[so far for stunning and ‘unexpected’ archaeological discoveries; we now resume predictive programming of humanity’s imminent doom due to…well, you know]
In the Amazon region, however, the drought is becoming a severe test for humans and animals. The death of 120 river dolphins is presumably due to the drought [the key word here is ‘presumably’, orig. ‘vermutlich’, which in German is also used in the criminal justice system, as in ‘alleged’]. Their population has thus declined by five percent [remember this aspect]. In Lake Tefé, where the animals lived, the water is on average 32 degrees warm, but now 40 degrees have been measured even at a depth of three metres—a permanently lethal ambient temperature for many creatures [now that’s a different argument, which we shall discuss below, too].
For humans, too, life in the drying waters [I don’t know what that means] is becoming increasingly difficult. Their food sources are drying up, as is access to drinking water, and hundreds of river communities are isolated.
The devastating heat and drought in northern Brazil are also attributed to the climate phenomenon El Niño, which intensifies the usual dry season. Humans also have an influence on this periodically recurring event, which is associated with higher global temperatures, through climate change. According to experts, the climate crisis is the main driver of the heat wave.
What’s in a Word (or Reporting)?
Many interesting things to read here, eh?
In the following, I shall delimit myself to three (exemplary) issues: dying dolphins, water temperatures, and the most likely culprits of the current drought.
About those Dolphins Dying ‘of Climate Change™’
That five percent decline ‘due to the drought’ sounds bad, right?
Too bad that no-one is doing their due diligence here: yes, river dolphins are listed as ‘endangered’, but guess what else:
A long-term (25-year) study of the biology and ecology of I. geoffrensis in and near the Mamirauá Reserve in Amazonas state, Brazil, has produced estimates of survival and reproductive rates based on the individual recognition of > 650 animals…With the known parameters as input, programme Vortex predicted population extinction in all scenarios and a 95% loss of dolphins within 50 years. With default parameters, the model predicted a 5.5% annual decline, which is consistent with that observed. We conclude that the Amazon river dolphin population is in severe decline because of human pressures, even in one of the better protected parts of its range.
In case you’re wondering about that quote—it is by A. Martin and V. Da Silva who, in a dedicated study that appeared just last year (2022) with known BS factory (/irony) Cambridge University Press wrote the following paper: ‘Amazon river dolphins Inia geoffrensis are on the path to extinction in the heart of their range’, Oryx, 56(4), 587-591. doi:10.1017/S0030605320001350 (source).
Yes, you read that correctly: the decline by anyone attributed to this year’s drought cannot be distinguished from the background rates.
Let’s move on, shall we?
About those Water Temperatures of Lake Tefé
I’ve looked around, esp. at the website of the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development near Lake Tefé, but for the love of God, I couldn’t find any data about water temperatures that was linked there.
Searching around, I did find tons of alarming pieces, the most cit-able of which, I think, is this piece in the NYT (archived, non-paywalled version):
On Thursday [28 Sept. 2023], the lake’s temperature reached 102 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 39 degrees Celsius—about nine degrees hotter than usual, according to the [Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development], which said it had recovered the first carcasses on Sept. 23. While scientists are investigating other causes, including possible diseases or polluted water, the only known factor is the exceptionally high water temperature, which Dr. Marmontel described as a ‘soup’.
By Tuesday, the water had cooled to 36.5 degrees Celsius, but scientists remain concerned for the dolphins, which are disoriented and circling around, unable to dive as they usually do—using their extremely flexible necks to navigate hazy waters and submerged sea branches.
Strangely, once I widened my search parameters, I found other ‘stuff’, most notably this paper by Yu-Chiang Lao et al. (2020). Entitled, ‘Amplified seasonal cycle in hydroclimate over the Amazon river basin and its plume region’, which appeared in Nat Commun 11, 4390 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18187-0 (source).
I know this is far from the only study to consider here, but it makes the following points:
This study finds that an amplified seasonal cycle of Amazonia precipitation during the period 1979–2018 leads to enhanced seasonalities in both Amazon river discharge and APR [Amazon Plume Region] ocean salinity, using a combination of observations and reanalysis datasets…
Within the APR…it is noted that the increasing precipitation trend in the wet season (mostly January–February–March) contributes more than that in the dry season (mostly July–August–September) to the increasing seasonality trend…However, the near-linear relationship in our modeling results does not include the atmosphere–land–ocean feedback processes. There may exist limitations to tie the seasonality changes of Amazon river discharge and APR ocean salinity, and unrealistic seasonality responses. In addition, previous studies have shown that the Amazon river discharge can affect tropical Atlantic air–sea interactions, regional sea-level height, and have potentially far-reaching impacts on the AMOC [Atlantic meridional overturning circulation]…
It should be noted that the decadal and multidecadal natural modes of variability, such as Pacific decadal variability (PDV), interdecadal Pacific variability (IPV), or Atlantic multidecadal variability (AMV), are possible large-scale drivers of the precipitation seasonality changes at longer timescales, which have been shown by some studies to be more influential than anthropogenic forcing in the Amazon river basin in observations and climate model simulations.
I’ll stop quoting here, for two things stand out: first, the Atlantic Ocean appears to be more important than, say, other oceans, for whatever happens in the Amazon river basin.
And, second, whatever happens in the Pacific specifically (here’s looking at you, El Niño) ‘have been shown by some studies to be more influential than anthropogenic forcing’.
About the Main Drivers of the Drought
Finally, let’s briefly turn to a piece by Lucas Ferrante in The Conservation who kinda gives away the game (which I think you should read if you’re interested in this subject; emphases mine):
Deforestation has been particularly devastating in the region of Highway BR-319, in the south of Amazonas state, driven by land grabbing which has provided cheap land to cattle ranchers from other states. In turn, this deforestation has increased the number of fires that feed back into the climate crisis [sic]. When they occur near riverbanks, deforestation also intensifies the phenomenon known as fallen land, which has drastically affected the draught of rivers…
Another factor that has played a significant role in affecting navigation is mining activity…
Hydroelectric dams also play a role in contributing to the drought scenario, especially on the Madeira River. This is mainly due to the decomposition of organic matter in reservoirs created by dams, which releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. In addition, deforestation associated with the construction of dams, as well as soil degradation and erosion resulting from the alteration of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, can increase emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other pollutants, contributing to the impact of hydroelectric dams on climate change [the ‘reductio ad climate crisis™’]
The Madeira River, now at its lowest level in almost 60 years, has been drastically affected and transformed by the Jirau and Santo Antônio hydroelectric dams. This was due to the drastic alteration of the river’s natural flow caused by the damming of water for power generation…[that] directly affects the region’s aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, since the basin’s hydrological cycle is interrupted. The reduction in the volume of water in the Madeira River, for example, can lead to prolonged periods of drought, affecting not only aquatic fauna and riparian habitats, but also local communities that depend on the river for their livelihoods.
We note that largely standing bodies of water, such as reservoirs, also heat up more easily than rivers that flow due to, well, the dam.
We do learn that Mr. Ferrante is mainly pointing fingers at humans, which speaks, in a way, to specifically anthropogenic contributions, albeit not ‘directly’ to ‘climate change’.
All other things being equal, that’s not a too scientifically sound way of attributing anything; if I’d as a parent may weight in on this one, I’d say it resembles my kids coming to me claiming that whatever the outcome (or proximate origin) of their kerfuffle, it’s all a he said, she said kind of argument. You cannot ‘win’ this, and neither can anyone make sense of it.
Bottom Lines: A Tale of Two ‘News Items’
As the ancients knew too well, one cannot step into the same river twice.
And, as we learn literally everyday, you cannot read one legacy news item without wondering about its spin, proximate origins, and intended effects.
Having dissected what I consider the three core arguments in the above piece, I wish to briefly address how ‘journos’ are ‘doing’ their ‘work’ these days.
As I mentioned, whoever cobbled together the above piece by Der Standard (which appeared in a ‘interesting stuff’, or their Ansichtssache section but did not contain a reference to any one staff writer), they had at least the courtesy of pointing to the following Reuters piece, which was written by one Suamy Beydoun (while they didn’t link to it, I found it easily). See if you can spot Der Standard’s commitment to ‘journalistic integrity’:
Human faces sculpted into stone up to 2,000 years ago have appeared on a rocky outcropping along the Amazon River since water levels dropped to record lows in the region's worst drought in more than a century.
Some rock carvings had been sighted before but now there is a greater variety that will help researchers establish their origins, archaeologist Jaime de Santana Oliveira said on Monday.
One area shows smooth grooves in the rock thought to be where Indigenous inhabitants once sharpened their arrows and spears long before Europeans arrived.
‘The engravings are prehistoric, or precolonial. We cannot date them exactly, but based on evidence of human occupation of the area, we believe they are about 1,000 to 2,000 years old’, Oliveira said in an interview.
The rocky point is called Ponto das Lajes on the north shore of the Amazon near where the Rio Negro and Solimoes rivers join.
Oliveira said the carvings were first seen there in 2010, but this year's drought has been more severe, with the Rio Negro dropping 15 meters (49.2 feet) since July, exposing vast expanses of rocks and sand where there had been no beaches.
"This time we found not just more carvings but the sculpture of a human face cut into the rock," said Oliveira, who works for the National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute (IPHAN) that oversees the preservation of historic sites.
Yes, you read that correctly: Der Standard has simply translated the Reuters piece, and they should be glad that this was no course assignment—for doing so actually brings with it consequences, such as expulsion.
In my opinion, plagiarism in academia is tantamount to fraud (much like, say, doping in professional sports). Doing what Der Standard did in journalism is—malpractice and fraud.
If there was one thing that Der Standard did that might be construed as ‘own work’, it is adding the unquestioning spin demanded by the Climate Inquisition, hence we may infer ‘intent’ in terms of the agit-prop and propaganda content.
As regards the Climate Inquisition, see this:
Epilogue
Look, I don’t mean to say that that I know everything there is to know about the ‘climate crisis’. But I do know qualitatively more about it than your average ‘journo’.
So, if anything, this piece is yet another clarion call to ‘do your own research’.
And—do click on the Reuters piece for more pictures from the Amazon, esp. the archaeological remains.
Finally, much like with Norwegian archaeologists stumbling repeatedly over awesome artefacts from the past but fail to even ask the one all-important question: IF the mainstream narrative (‘hockey stick’) of ‘climate change™’ is correct, how can one explain these findings?
Avoidance of asking this question means, to me at least, but one thing: liar, liar, pants on fire.
Biggest worry for all of Scandinavia, climate-wise, used to be the Gulf Stream starting to turn west at an earlier point, meaning arctic winds would hit us unimpeded and still be very cold.
Doesn't havr to change more than a little either for yearly mean and average temps to drop two degrees, resulting in rapidly growing glaciers, longer and colder winters and permafrost forming in the northernmost parts.