Rivers run dry as drought hits Amazon

Droughts are growing more severe. Has the world's largest rain forest reached its tipping point?

MUTUM, Brazil — A motorboat barreling through the night up a shallow Amazon stream could only beat the odds for so long.
Just after 9 p.m., the aluminum canoe slammed to a halt with the sound of a thunderclap. Passengers and cargo lurched into the air. Shouts of surprise, profanity and a man-sized splash echoed in the dark.
A swift lesson on Newtonian physics and the risks of night boating had been delivered by a large, semi-submerged tree.
The mishap demonstrated what everyone in this remote corner of the Brazilian jungle had been saying for days.
The world’s largest rain forest was dangerously dry, and may well be drying out.

October marked the end of one of the worst Amazon droughts on record — a period of tinder-dry forests, dusty cropland and rivers falling to unprecedented lows. Streams are the highways of the deep jungle and they’re also graveyards for dead trees, usually hidden safely under fathoms of navigable water.
But not this year, and the drought’s significance extends far beyond impeded boats.
While the region has seen dry spells before, locals and experts say droughts have grown more frequent and severe. Scientists say there’s mounting evidence the Amazon's shifting weather may be caused by global climate change.