Amazon’s Worst Drought

Nature, third prize stories

26-10-2005

Huge sandbanks at Alter do Chão and surroundings. The Amazon region experienced its worst drought in many decades. Low water levels stranded river-life and boats. Those communities who relied on river transport were isolated and had to depend on airlifts for supplies. Greenpeace blamed the drought on global warming and deforestation, claiming that forest burning had raised temperatures and prevented cloud formation. Brazilian government meteorologists said the dry weather had been caused by unusually high temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and also linked it to the year's devastating hurricanes.

Commissioned by: Greenpeace

Location: Barreirinha, Amazonas, Brazil

Photo Credit: Daniel Beltra

Daniel Beltrá is a photographer based in Seattle. His passion for conservation is evident in his evocative images of the environment. Since the early 1990s, Beltrá's work has taken him to all seven continents, including expeditions to the Amazon, the Arctic, the Southern Oceans, and the Patagonian ice fields, many of those in partnership with Greenpeace.

His prints are regularly exhibited, and are held in gallery and museum collections around the world. Beltrá has received a Wildlife Photographer of the Year award, and a Lucie International Photography Award—as Deeper Perspective Photographer of the Year—for SPILL, his series on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Other accolades include the prestigious Prince Charles Rainforest Project, the inaugural Global Vision Award from the Pictures of the Year International, and two World Press Photo awards (in 2006 and 2007). He was a jury member in 2012, and is a fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers.