Amazon hit by worst drought for 40 years
`Parts of the Amazon rainforest are enduring the worst drought for 40 years, prompting local government to declare several cities in the Brazilian state of Amazonas as disaster areas. Researchers say that rising sea temperatures in the North Atlantic, perhaps prompted by climate change, are probably to blame.
Researchers at a forest monitoring station in Santarém, where the Amazon and Tapajós rivers meet, report that water levels are some 15 metres lower than usual.
“Everybody has been taken by surprise,” says Paul Lefebvre, a researcher at the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, which runs the station.’
