More than a hundred dolphins have been found dead in the Brazilian Amazon amid an historic drought and record-high water temperatures that in places have exceeded 102 degrees Fahrenheit [38.8 °C].

The dead dolphins were all found in Lake Tefé over the past seven days, according to the Mamirauá Institute, a research facility funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Science.

The institute said such a high number of deaths was unusual and suggested record-high lake temperatures and an historic drought in the Amazon may have been the cause.

The news is likely to add to the concerns of climate scientists over the effects human activity and extreme droughts are having on the region.

  • Tygr@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    123
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    If we stopped the economy and stopped all emissions worldwide, this progression would still occur for more than 2 decades.

    This is just the beginning for stuff we did since y2k.

    By the time we actually make serious change, it will be far too late.

    Happy Sunday. Enjoy football.

    • Marxism-Fennekinism@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Sad part is we’ve more or less figured out on paper how to cut our emissions while retaining a fairly high quality of life. Not perfect obviously and we’ll lose a lot of the amenities people in developed countries have gotten used to, but to say the path to sustainability is uncharted is simply not true, and it could have been implemented 20 years ago, it can also be implemented today. But it would require gutting the wealth of the rich, totally overhauling the economy, government, and society as a whole, and everyone from all socioeconomic statuses agreeing that it should be done. So it’s basically impossible under capitalism. Most of the upper class/upper middle class people in the West won’t even entertain the idea of not owning a car, living in an apartment, or cutting out meat from their diets, let alone the radical changes needed for our species to actually be sustainable.

    • set_secret@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      2 decades is likely optimistic. 5 is probably more likely. that said at what point do we just reach absolute nihilism and just stop giving a fuck. We’re well past the point of no return. Our emissions are still INCREASING despite knowledge that it’s going to destroy the liveable planet as we currently know it causing mass extinction events.

      If we don’t have any sense of urgency at this point, I can’t see it starting anytime soon.

      Everyday we delay we make it worse. what’s worse than catastrophic?

      I’ll point out we did have a brief decline in emissions during covid and in 2009 during GFC but that was accidental becuse people stopped spending and travelling.

    • GreenMario@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      Don’t invest in the future, don’t have kids. Be here for a good time not a long time. Fuck the world.

        • GreenMario@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Because FUCK YOU you destroyed the fucking world and simp.for billionaires, corporations and dictators!

          This shit is NOT worth preserving let it burn the fuck down and die. Humanity is a failed experiment. Death is Inevitable just fucking embrace it, just don’t bring others into this shit fucking hole.

    • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      1 year ago

      By the time we actually make serious change, it will be far too late.

      Optimistic of you to assume that we will ever make serious change.

      • matter@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        1 year ago

        We will, one way or another. At some point simply enough people will have died that we will stop making things meaningfully worse 🤷‍♂️

    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      If we stopped the economy and stopped all emissions worldwide, this progression would still occur for more than 2 decades.

      The economy did basically stop for a month in March 2020, and pollution dropped incredibly.

      Change is possible. We just don’t want it.

    • TheDorkfromYork@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m surprised that there isn’t an open source guide on how to be an effective eco terrorist and what the most vulnerable global chock points are. People have gone to war over less.

      • K0W4LSK1@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 year ago

        Oh there are some out there just the people who want to go to war over this are poor

  • foggy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    57
    ·
    1 year ago

    It’s tough to see stuff like this and not think that we are helplessly doomed.

    All the flooding… water temps over 100…

    And crude oil is like $90 a barrel.

    • Nudding@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      33
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      It gets easier to process the more you accept that we are bound for civilizational collapse, due to runaway climate catastrophes.

      • Slwh47696@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        25
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I figure we’ve got about 10 years of relative normalcy left. After that I feel like the world will be so unstable, famine, wars, mass migration, natural disasters etc. will just cripple humanity

      • EdibleFriend@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        It gets easier to process when you remember you can always just fucking kill yourself when society starts to collapse. So, sit back…have some fun, and remember where the exits are.

    • chemicalprophet@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      I heard some heavy machinery magnate saying it’s all a ruse you should come experience the winter they just had in North Dakota…

      • Railing5132@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        1 year ago

        That’s been a refrain among the great plains dwellers since I was a kid and the term “global warming” was first ideated. Every winter, some chucklefuck would “lol, I’d like some of that global warmin’ right about now!”

        And they still do it, while complaining about persistent summer drought diminishing crop yields, bitching about government “handouts”, and being the biggest recipients of them in the form of farm subsidies to produce corn that gets shoved into high-fructose corn syrup and spiking morbid obesity across the entire country.

        /rant

  • FUCKRedditMods@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    56
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    Nevermind all the birds and insects dying, the crop and literal drinking water shortages. We’re gonna have front row seats to the collapse of civilization as we know it. What a fucked up time to be alive for anyone like me who cares deeply about nature. This shit is ruining my mental health.

    Humanity does not deserve to exist. It has been decided, greed is our great filter. If there were 100 people to blame for all of this I could go out and kill them, but 100 million? What the hell can any of us do about that?

    We still have the whole republican party denying climate change… these people are hopelessly fucking greedy and stupid.

    • Dojan@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      You can take heart in that once we’ve wiped ourselves out, nature will slowly but surely find its way back. We like to think that we’re special, and we certainly are loud and boisterous. Yet we underestimate how small and fragile we are.

    • Syrc@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      If there were 100 people to blame for all of this I could go out and kill them, but 100 million? What the hell can any of us do about that?

      Oh you could definitely go a long way by killing the right 100 people. I think killing even one of those would require a coordinated effort by way too many people though, so not that it changes much.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    34
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    It’s too bad there isn’t some huge forest somewhere that would be a big carbon sink and help stop the river from getting so warm. I hear there used to be though…

    • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      28
      arrow-down
      13
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I don’t want the rainforest to be deforested, but it’s kinda fucked up to tell all the South American countries covered in trees they aren’t able to do exactly what Europe did. Most of Europe used to be covered in trees 200+ years ago and they deforested it all for industrialization and profit. America cleared untold amounts of fields for farming and building suburbs. Just because this was done before global warming was a real concern we now all feel entitled to tell countries like Brazil they can’t do the same. It’s basically just the same old story of the west wanting to exploit the developing worlds resources for themselves all over again. Just now the resource is air.

      • HurlingDurling@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        25
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        True, however letting them make the same mistakes just because America or Europe did isn’t the right answer either. All 3 regions should be reforested and all push towards deforestation should be stopped.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        18
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        While I agree that it’s a bit hypocritical, we didn’t know what clearing those forests would do in the Renaissance and Industrial Revolution. It wasn’t widely known until the post war era. Now that we do know we need to act.

        But we shouldn’t just tell them they can’t do stuff. We should be pouring massive amounts of money into helping them skip over coal, farm vertically, and get away from slash and burn farming.

        There’s more we can do than just tell them they’re being bad.

        • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          1 year ago

          Ya, the whole issue is there’s almost zero willingness to help them economically to avoid deforestation. It’s much cheaper to just tell them not to and that it’s bad.

        • CALIGVLA@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          But we shouldn’t just tell them they can’t do stuff. We should be pouring massive amounts of money into helping them skip over coal, farm vertically, and get away from slash and burn farming.

          Not to be rude, but South America’s energy production is overall greener than many developed countries. If anything, it’s you guys that need to start reforesting, going greener and lowering your carbon emissions.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            The thing is it’s not just energy production and you know it. But again I’m of the opinion that rather than pointing fingers we should be identifying problems and throwing trillions of dollars (collectively) at them.

      • Happenchance@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        It’s almost like, we as a global entity, need to provide these countries with the resources to protect their environment and still prosper.

        • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 year ago

          But the billionaires are buying carbon offsets when they fly around on their private jets. Surely that’s doing the trick right? There’s no way that entire concept is a scam and doesn’t do anything.

      • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 year ago

        And from what I’ve read, replanting projects sponsored by the timber industry, planting all pine trees six feet apart, created the ideal setting for massive wildfires. I may have the details wrong but that was the gist.

        • Dojan@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 year ago

          Just plopping trees down won’t cut it anyway. The saying “can’t see the forest for the trees” is so apt because a forest is so much more than just trees.

          Here in Sweden we’ve long since cut down our forests and replanted them with industry wood, then we got shocked when pests started eating the entire buffet we served for them.

        • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          The timber industry only replants in hopes that they’ll get to come cut it down again. Making that easier and more efficient is likely the only concern.

      • naalo@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        I understand what you’re saying, but why is there so little replanting everywhere?

      • R0cket_M00se@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Bingo on that one. We rose to economic power before the problem became acute and now want to dictate that other countries can’t do what we did to get here.

        Meanwhile we have the resources and technology to mitigate some of the effects of global warming for our citizens and the global south will end up bearing the brunt of it.

        • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Just went to a great mcmansion neighborhood for a child family members birthday party. They all look like castles, have 2-3 garages and are huge. Almost every house looks unoccupied when I go there. I’m sure there’s a couple and a kid max in every one of those huge fucking things. It’s absurd. Will never understand people wanting a tacky 6,000 square foot fake castle.

          • Lyricism6055@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Wasteful shitty practice. It’s somewhat the fault of the home builders too. I tried building and they wouldn’t do much OTHER than mcmansions unless I pushed real HARD. They love all those upsells

            • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              We really need to pass some laws requiring some small, affordable homes get built. It’s so obvious that in a capitalist system given the option builders are going to prefer to build bigger more expensive home builds as they have a larger profit. So builders only build the biggest houses they think they can sell. Every. time.

              • Lyricism6055@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                Yup, homebuilders are getting record profits. They have 0 incentive to build smaller homes.

                Starter homes are like minimum 300k now anyways as well so yeah… Idk what to do but wait for this house of cards to come crashing down

        • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Congratulations you found the line where sarcasm makes you sound stupid and then did a nice long jump.

  • grue@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    On the bright side, Amazon river dolphins are “only” endangered, as opposed to possibly extinct, like some other river dolphins.