More in this series We traveled deep into the Amazon to investigate deforestation. Smoke from rampant forest fires has so polluted Rio Branco’s air that dozens of people are sent to hospitals every dry season with respiratory illnesses. ![]() Acre state was struck by an outbreak of acute diarrhea last year that killed two children, and cases surged again this year. The impact on public health is already apparent, particularly among the young. ![]() And nearly every dry season ushers in a drought, when a growing number of people are forced to choose between using dirty water or none at all. Every rainy season seems to bring floods, when the rivers swell with runoff once caught by the forest. One place in its stranglehold is the remote city of Rio Branco in Acre state, where scientists fear that the climate has already changed. Local journalist Alexandre Cruz-Noronha photographed the city monthly from April to September during another punishing dry season. Terrence McCoy, who covers Brazil for The Washington Post, made three visits to Rio Branco this year, following one family's story as they tried to survive an extreme drought with insufficient water. And in the devastated transitional forests of Mato Grosso state, researchers believe a local tipping point is imminent. In the southwestern Amazon, fast-growing bamboo is overtaking lands ravaged by fire and drought. In the southeastern Amazon, which has been assaulted by rapacious cattle ranching, trees are dying off and being pushed aside by species better acclimated to drier climes. In fire-scorched areas of the Rio Negro floodplains, one research group noted a “drastic ecosystem shift” that has reduced jungle to savanna. More than three-quarters of the rainforest, research indicates, is showing signs of lost resilience. Whether or not the tipping point has arrived - and some scientists think it has - the Amazon is beginning to collapse. If somewhere between 20 and 25 percent of the forest were lost, models suggested, much of the Amazon would perish.Ībout 18 percent of the rainforest is now gone, and the evidence increasingly supports the warnings. Enough water will come.”įor years, scientists have been warning that the Amazon is speeding toward a tipping point - the moment when deforestation and global warming would trigger an irreversible cascade of climatic forces, killing large swaths of what remained. “I have to hope,” she says, glancing down at her mismatched socks. He needs a washing, too.įor Franco, this makes three drought-racked years in a row, living in a landscape she never imagined: an Amazon gone dry. And inside her wooden shack this Monday morning is a stack of dishes, unwashed a pile of clothes, unwashed and an infant great-grandchild named Samuel. A water hole they’ve dug in desperation hasn’t conserved a drop. The community pond that Franco and her neighbors used during the rainy season has dried to a muddy puddle. It hasn’t rained in more than a month, and probably won’t for another. “He’ll come,” Franco says, looking into the distance. But never in the forest, with its heavy rains and endless rivers, had she known a life without water - not until she moved to this city along the southern crest, where her reserves are now down to the last gallon and the deliveryman is nowhere to be seen. That is to provide them an opportunity, not a handout or a gift, but a chance to invest in themselves and pursue healthy activities during their entire childhood.RIO BRANCO, Brazil - In her 60 years of life in the Amazon, Antonia Franco dos Santos has never had much money. Our staff and board consist of individuals with a passion to help the children in the most impactful way we know. Angels of America’s Fallen was designed to offer positive outlets for the children’s grief during the entire period of these most crucial developmental years. There was no program providing opportunities for the children to be engaged in healthy activities the entire year, with long term support every year of their childhood, in between initial grief counseling and scholarships once they became adults. ![]() He created Angels of America’s Fallen in 2012 to address a gap in support he saw for the children of his fallen friends in all branches of the military and first responders. Angels of America’s Fallen is a national 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by a retired Lt Col with 25 years of service as an enlisted Army field artillery canon crewman, a Marine Corps fighter pilot, and an Air Force Reconnaissance pilot.
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