This true-color MODIS image highlights the increasing environmentalpressures on South America’s Amazon River basin. The area shown is partof the Brazilian state of Pará. In the far upper right corner is thereservoir created by the Tucuruí Dam on the Tocantins River, a hugehydroelectric project that was constructed amid controversy overnegative environmental impacts and human rights violations. According toa report released in November 2000 by the World Commission on Dams, theproject ultimately displaced over 14, 000 indigenous people, resulted inhigh rates of fish mortality, and provided breeding grounds forincreasing numbers of mosquitoes, which increased occurrence of malaria.
The area shown in this MODIS image, which is south of the Amazon River,also indicates that the region’s forests are increasingly underpressure. With fires (red dots) on all sides, this vast tract ofrainforest is being encroached upon by deforestation for farming andcattle ranching. Deforestation is especially evident in the lower rightof the image, which is virtually denuded except for thin stretches ofvegetation that remain along the banks of the creeks that feed theAraguaia River, which runs southwest from the center of the image’sright edge. The impact of deforestation on water quality in the Araguaiaseems clear; the brown water is likely an indication of sediment thatwashes unchecked into the river. Does a similar fate await the XinguRiver, seen running north to south to the west of the Araguaia? In theheart of the forest, a road deviates southward from the course of theTapajós River (upper left, beneath the smoke), bringing fires with it.
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Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
