Brazil and global warming

In a few days to start the summer in the Southern Hemisphere here in Brazil, tens of millions are preparing for their trips in January. The preferred places of Brazilian tourists? Beaches. Beaches from the north to the south of the country will be invaded by millions of Brazilians and foreigners wanting to enjoy the "delicious" tropical climate that prevails in Brazil.

In fact, yesterday in Rio de Janeiro, the most famous city in Brazil, the temperature reached 39.5 ° C. However, only 700 km away (to the south) the reality was different. The state of Sao Paulo was taken by surprise end to end through storms that caused havoc in many places. Gales hit several cities and Sao Paulo metro area, dozens of places were flooded due to a storm that changed the "day into night." But why are this sudden change of climate in such areas as close are happening?

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Sao Paulo

(Photo: Luis Gonzaga de Silos Carvalho)

The explanation is simple: while Rio de Janeiro has an equatorial climate, Sao Paulo has a subtropical climate. But this is still insufficient to explain what happened yesterday.

Over the past 30 years began to occur a climate change in Brazil. Phenomena such as tornadoes, storms and massive higher incidence of lightning (only yesterday were registered about 43 thousand), for example, increased 30% in the 80's to the present day.

Increasingly violent rains are hitting the South-Central region of Brazil, razing cities. I will use my city as an example. Earlier this year, my city (Capivari) was hit by a rain that lasted 3 hours. Soon after came the rain damage: there was a flood of the Capivari river (the water level rose 4 meters in just one hour). It rained in one day what was expected for the whole month. The previous year, an "electrical storm" hit my city. And six years ago, a tornado came through here, something that had never occurred.

Right now as I write, the temperature is below normal (about 20 degrees) and it rained for almost 24 hours straight; to the south of Brazil, there are places where the temperature reached 2 º C, something rare to happen when you're so close to summer.

The explanation for this climate change so radical and surprising is just one, according to forecasters: global warming.

Increasingly, this issue must be addressed urgently. Researchers and experts say that for years, but it seems nothing is being done. United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP-15 was the greatest example of this (even the Wikileaks showed what happened behind the scenes of that meeting).

United States and China pollute the atmosphere and prevent advances on the pursuit of a goal to reduce greenhouse gases. While the COP-16 has not been a failure, nor was there any significant agreement because important issues like the Kyoto Protocol has been postponed.

And the more the agreements and resolutions are delayed, the greater the chances that climate change occurs. And that is not good (remember the examples I wrote above?).

Brazil is probably one of the most "green" countries on the planet. The share of renewable energy sources represents around 80% of the Brazilian energy matrix, not to mention the flex-fuel cars (which use both gasoline and ethanol as fuel).

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Cubatão

(Photo: Luiz Fernando Figueiredo)

The Brazilian environmental legislation is rigid, so much so that if in 80 years Cubatao was the most polluted city in the world, now has one of the biggest areas environmentally preserved. That is, Brazil is doing its part to prevent the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere; however is one of those who suffer most from global warming.

Be honest, do you think that's fair? You think it's fair to those who pollute the least suffer the most due to the negligence of others?