Workers Farm at Night to Avoid Intense Heat – but It Can Lead to Other Negative Effects

For years, Josana Pinto da Costa ventured out every morning on to the waterways lining Óbidos, Brazil, in a small fishing boat. Gliding over the murky, churning currents of the Amazon River basin, her flat nets brought in writhing hauls.

Scorching temperatures have now made that routine unsafe. The heat has “been really intense” this year, said Pinto da Costa, forcing her to shift her working hours to the dead of night.

She now sets off in the pitch dark to chase what fish are also awake before dawn. It’s taken a toll on her catch, and her wellbeing. But it’s the only way she can continue her work in the face of increasingly dangerous temperatures.

Many of the communities that catch, grow and harvest the world’s food supply are beginning to work when it’s still dark out, or even shifting to a fully overnight schedule as a way to cope with rising temperatures.