From the Amazon to Southern Brazil: find out about the climate crisis hitting the country

Brasil de Fato

While Maurício da Silva, a resident of the São Sebastião community in the city of Porto Velho, northern Brazil, is fighting for the installation of artesian wells that can guarantee access to water – a dwindling resource in the Madeira River –, Marisa Wassem is suffering in Arroio do Meio, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, as she waits to rebuild her house, destroyed by the floods that hit the Taquari Valley last May in Brazil’s southernmost state. Both are experiencing vulnerable situations related to climate change, which is increasingly intensifying and affecting, in particular, impoverished populations in different regions of the country.

In the Amazon, dozens of municipalities have declared a state of emergency due to rivers being at historic lows. Entire communities are isolated and have difficulty accessing food and drinking water. The dry weather has also contributed to spreading fires, which destroy forests and plantations and pollute the air. The extreme situations, however, are not restricted to the Amazonian territory. From north to south, all regions suffer from disproportionate heat, storms, fires or severe droughts.

According to the Natural Disaster Monitoring Center (Cemaden, in Portuguese), Brazil is experiencing the worst drought in recent history. At the same time, three months ago, Rio Grande do Sul recorded the worst flood in the state’s history.

According to data from the Drought Monitor, around 200 Brazilian municipalities are still dealing with extreme drought, especially in the state of São Paulo (82 towns), Minas Gerais (52), Goiás (12), Mato Grosso do Sul (8) and Mato Grosso. According to the Drought Monitor, Amazonas has the largest total area with drought in July, followed by Pará, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais and Bahia. In total, between June and July, the area affected by the phenomenon increased from 5.96 million to 7.04 million square kilometers, equivalent to 83% of Brazil’s territory. Rio Grande do Sul has remained drought-free for ten consecutive months.

Extreme weather events: Brazil’s new “normal”

For researcher Nina Moura, the relationship between devastating floods in Rio Grande do Sul and deforestation in the Amazon makes sense, given that all atmospheric dynamics are connected. Moura, who is a professor in the Graduate Program of Geography at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS, in Portuguese), explains how the recent disasters in southern Brazil, the fires in the southeastern area of the country and the droughts in northern Brazil are all interconnected.

The geologist explains that we are under the climatic variations of El Niño, which is nothing more than the warming of the waters. This phenomenon normally occurs twice every 10 years and usually lasts for 18 months. “But when the water warms up, the faster it evaporates, the heavier the clouds get.” So, according to her, El Niño has intensified by greenhouse gases. Together with natural climatic events, this change has led to the results we’ve seen in recent months.

“It’s all connected. There is El Niño and, at the same time, there is a cold front, which normally comes from the south towards the north. It shocked with extremely hot pressure in the southeast portion of the country and wasn’t strong enough to advance, remaining stuck on Rio Grande do Sul. So, all the rain that supposedly had fallen in the country’s southeastern or northeastern areas was blocked by a large mass of hot air. In other words, the rainfall that should have been distributed to other parts of Brazil was concentrated in this region here in Rio Grande do Sul.”

This explains why Brazilians have experienced extremely harmful natural events. The professor also warns that the warm air mass in southeastern Brazil, which prevented the cold front from advancing, is an example of the relationship between global warming and the intensification of natural disasters. “The atmospheric system doesn’t create a situation for each place; they are intertwined.”

That’s why deforestation compromises the capacity of forests to regulate the climate across the American continent, not just in the Amazon. The consequence is the intensification of extreme events, such as heavy rains that turn into storms and then floods, taking the lives of hundreds of people.

Amazon, the forest that feeds the world

Deforestation affects the forest’s capacity to regulate the climate in the American continent / Photo: Ministry of the Environment /Adriano Gambarini

For Luciana Gatti, a climate change scientist and coordinator of the Greenhouse Gas Laboratory at the National Institute for Space Research (INPE, in Portuguese), there are intense variations in climate. For this reason, in recent years, her research team has focused on analyzing the factors that determine these changes. “We analyzed what had happened over the last 40 years in the Amazon and calculated how much each area had lost. We found a very close correlation between more deforestation and lack of rain and an increase in temperature, especially during August, September and October,” explains Luciana.

These results, according to the scientist, are proof of the connection between vegetation and climate control. “Deforestation reduces rainfall, and that’s kind of obvious because trees release water vapor into the atmosphere. The [Amazon] forest throws into the atmosphere an amount of water similar to what the Amazon River throws into the ocean every day. It’s a huge amount of water. Can you imagine the Amazon River flowing uphill?”

In addition to the reduction in rainfall, Lúcia guarantees that deforestation is largely responsible for the rise in temperature in the region. “For water to leave its liquid state (the state in which it is in the ground) and turn into vapor in the atmosphere, in other words, to change its physical state, it needs energy in the form of heat. For example: to boil water, you need to set it on fire, give it heat. So when the water is doing this process, it is making the temperature cool down, because the water turning into steam is consuming energy in the form of heat in the Amazon,” says Luciana.

“When the number of trees in the forest decreases, this process slows down and the temperature rises. So, the southeast of the Amazon, in particular, has become a source of carbon, because the temperatures there are extremely high and there is a very important water vapor deficit concentrated in this region,” she explains.

For Luciana, living conditions in Brazil depend on a significant transformation in the economic model and public investment priorities. “We needed to declare a moratorium on soy production and prioritize forest restoration projects there, but the Mato Grosso state government is doing the opposite, handing over to deforestation, mining and soy. They only care about money. But agribusiness itself is going to bankrupt, because there is no agriculture without water, without rain,” he said.

What’s the way forward?

Luciana points out a safe path to fight future disasters. According to her, rather than adapting to climate change, it is urgent to combat it with immediate environmental conservation and reforestation measures, both in the Amazon and on the riverside slopes of Rio Grande do Sul. This is the only way to protect not only forests’ socio-biodiversity, but also the inhabitants of the most vulnerable regions.

The scientist also defended the idea that agribusiness, the sector that thrives on deforestation, should financially compensate Brazil. “The only money that counts is the balance of trade. If people were to consider how much tax these agribusiness people don’t pay, how much they borrow at very low interest rates and how much it costs the Brazilian state to repair the damage caused by extreme events, droughts and floods, we’d see that this model causes a lot of damage to the country. And it’s apart from the deaths, which we have no way of pricing. So why do we insist on investing so many resources in monoculture?” she asks.

“The [Amazon] forest throws into the atmosphere an amount of water similar to what the Amazon River throws into the ocean every day. It’s a huge amount of water. Can you imagine the Amazon River flowing uphill?” / Photo: Tadeu Rocha/FAS

Elisa says “We want the government, in its various instances, to look at the population’s demands and invest in projects that protect the lives of those affected [by climate disasters]”.

What do people hit by climate change think?

On September 5, which marks Amazon Day, people all over Brazil hit by extreme climate events took to the streets to demand the protection of the population’s fundamental rights in the face of the impacts caused by the current economic model and deforestation in different territories of the country, from the northern state of Rondônia to the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.

Organized by the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB, in Portuguese), the slogan of the day of struggles was “Save the Amazon! We are all affected!” to denounce the impacts caused by the devastation of the world’s largest rainforest.

“The drama happens every year, but now it seems that the situation is worse. Fishermen have already given up trying to fish. In my community, the wells are getting drier, and soon transportation will be risky, because the river is just over a meter deep,” says Maurício, one of the people affected who took part in the MAB actions in Porto Velho, Rondônia’s capital.

According to Elisa Estronioli, a member of MAB’s coordination team, the new reality to which these populations are subjected by the climate crisis not only aggravates the scenario of insecurity near dams, but also affects the expansion of projects related to the energy transition and worsens the living conditions of the working class in the face of environmental catastrophes.

“Over the years, the economic model adopted in Brazil has led to an enormous concentration of wealth and increased socio-spatial, class, racial and gender inequalities. The populations affected by dams and by major works in general have historically been victims of this process. With climate change, these populations are ‘doubly affected’, as they are more vulnerable due to the risk of dam breaks, landslides and floods, as well as suffering the tragedy of extreme droughts,” says Elisa.

She emphasized that the recurring tragedies throughout the country show that there is an urgent need for a solution to support those affected, through measures to adapt to and confront climate change, but also through reparation policies for the affected populations, with popular participation. For this reason, among the actions planned for September 5 were demonstrations, occupations and public assemblies to discuss the different tragedies underway in Brazil that are radically changing the lives of millions of Brazilians.  

Marisa Wassen gave birth to her second child without a home, furniture, clothes or the baby’s layette, because everything she had bought to welcome her child was washed away in the mud / Photo: Fabiana Reinholz

Hit by the historic flood in May in Rio Grande do Sul, Marisa Wassen, mentioned at the beginning of this news story, was also motivated to take to the streets on September 5. In June she went through a complicated experience. Marisa gave birth to her second child without a home, furniture, clothes or the baby’s layette, because everything she had bought to welcome her child was washed away in the mud. She has lived in Arroio do Meio, Rio Grande do Sul, in the Taquari Valley, for 34 years and has never witnessed such severe flooding. Today, she says she will fight to build a different future for her daughter.

*This news story is the result of a partnership between Brasil de Fato RS and the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB, in Portuguese).