Droughts, fires show LatAm climate change impact

As Earth's climate temperature is getting hotter, prompted the United Nations to call the situation a "code red for humanity," environmentalists in Latin America describe the associated extreme climate events in the region.

The authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which calls climate change clearly human-caused and "unequivocal," makes more precise and warmer forecasts for the 21st century than it did last time it was issued in 2013.

The consense about the future scenarios is that the world will cross the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming mark in the 2030's earlier than some past predictions.

The 3,000-plus-page report from 234 scientists said warming is already accelerating sea-level rise, shrinking ice and worsening extremes such as heatwaves, droughts, floods, and storms.

In Brazil, whas seen Pantanal, one of the largest wetlands in the world ravaged by fire.

By Monday, a wildfire in the Pantanal Region in Southern Brazil, has consumed almost a thousand hectares in two days, worsened by a drought and wind stimulating fire to spread quickly.

This active fire started Saturday and is still not under control after two days of firefighting actions. According to the Environmental Emergencies Battalion, this is the largest occurrence recorded this season.

"Today, with climate change, its even more difficult to control this fire," said Ane Alencar, Science Director for Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM).

At the site of the fire, Alencar said the fire puts the biome at risk.

The environmental expedition from the IPAM and the U.S. based Woodwell Climate Research Institute aims to create solutions for more efficient control of fires, closely watching the fires in Mato Grosso province, the Pantanal and the Amazon.

In Chile, Claudio Huepe, Director of Sustainable Energy and Develop Center at the Diego Portales University, said the fires will be harder to control as they will spread relatively quickly.

Scientists from the Wetlands Center at the Austral University in Chile said the expected reduction of water supplies will "redraw" the map of the country.

The Parana River, crossing through Argentina and Brazil, has seen it's lowest level in over 77 years due to a prolonged drought.

Some of its tributary branches, have dried up to the basin.

Environventamists Jose A. Marengo, Research and Development Director, Brazil's National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters, agree the drought reflects the problems generated by climate change.

The waterway and its underground aquifers supply fresh water to some 40 million people in different South American countries, including Brazil and Argentina.

In turn, it receives water from the Paraguay River, which has among its main sources the Pantanal area.