When dolphins began washing up dead by the dozens on Lake Tefe in Brazil’s Amazonas state, hydrologist Ayan Fleischmann was sent to find out why.
What he and his colleagues discovered was startling: a brutal drought and extreme heat wave that began in September 2023 had transformed the lake into a steaming cauldron. The lake’s waters reached 41 degrees Celsius, or 105.8 degrees Fahrenheit — hotter than most spa baths.
Their findings, published Thursday in the journal Science, spotlight the impacts of planetary warming on tropical regions and aquatic ecosystems, and come as the United Nations’ COP30 climate talks kick off in Brazil.
We don’t have too many more years before this is common throughout the globe. Remember that this is a canary in a coal mine, or the first domino to fall. It is not going to stay exclusive to this lake, this country, or this hemisphere.
I’ve gone through the stages of grief when it comes to climate change more than I’d like to admit. I wished the evidence I saw was wrong. I hoped the predictions were incorrect. Yet here we are, watching river dolphins boil alive and people saying, “huh, that’s weird. I wonder why that happened.”
Grief on climate change is a very real thing. I recommend the book “climate, psychology, and change” if you’re interested. It at least made me feel less alone.
Thank you for suggesting that book. It looks potentially helpful.
Or a dolphin in a jacuzzi.