‘This is a preview of hell’: the year Brazil woke up to the climate crisis

Last weekend, Brazil experienced its ninth heat wave of the year, with 15 states placed on alert due to rising temperatures. They are the latest blows in a year that is on track to be the hottest in history. In Brazil, since July, all temperature records have been broken month after month, according to the National Meteorological Institute. The residents of Iraja, in the northern part of Rio de Janeiro, know this well. In recent years, the neighborhood has gained a reputation for being the hottest in the city. Here, 30 kilometers from the beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana, the sea breeze doesn’t even blow…

Last weekend, Brazil experienced its ninth heat wave of the year, with 15 states placed on alert due to rising temperatures. They are the latest blows in a year that is on track to be the hottest in history. In Brazil, since July, all temperature records have been broken month after month, according to the National Meteorological Institute. The residents of Iraja, in the northern part of Rio de Janeiro, know this well. In recent years, the neighborhood has gained a reputation for being the hottest in the city. Here, 30 kilometers from the beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana, the sea breeze is not noticeable, and trees in the streets are rare. It has nothing to do with the bountiful tropical city of the tourist postcard. In one corner, Gisele Silva sells sardines in boxes filled with ice. Every day he slathers himself with level 80 sunscreen to work under the umbrella. Despite the shade, it always ends up burned. “The most stressful thing about this is the heat, it’s unbearable. It’s gotten much worse in recent years. And I’m telling you one thing: This is a preview of hell. This summer is going to be terrible,” she says resignedly.

The people of Iraja know well that the hot sun is not an isolated phenomenon: “For me, deforestation in the Amazon is the main reason,” says Valdir Cavalcanti, a waiting taxi driver sitting on a plastic chair next to the door. Supermarket to feel some freshness from the air conditioning. His taxi spends the day parked on the opposite sidewalk in full sun. Its owner, who remembers his childhood in a completely different neighborhood, says it has little shade until 4 p.m. With dirt roads and many trees. Now, Iraja is a sea of ​​asphalt.

Heatwaves, severe droughts that have dried up Amazon rivers or floods in the south of the country are extreme weather events that have doubled this year due to the El Niño phenomenon. Specialists warn that this phenomenon leads to a natural increase in environmental temperature, but its severity is increasing due to climate change. For Maria Neto, director of the Institute for Climate and Society (iCS), the increase in the frequency and severity of environmental disasters is here to stay, but not only that. “There are impacts that are imperceptible, and are increasing little by little, such as a rise in temperature or variation in the frequency of rainfall, which have a huge impact on agriculture and people’s quality of life, and these impacts in particular affect the most vulnerable groups,” he recalled in a phone conversation.

In November, in the middle of the austral spring, Brazil recorded the highest temperatures in its history. Due to high humidity, a temperature of 59.7 degrees was recorded in Rio at 8 a.m. At a concert held by singer Taylor Swift in the city those days, the 23-year-old girl, Ana Clara Benevides, died of a heart attack. The heat inside the stadium was unbearable, and obtaining drinking water was almost impossible. The government responded by hastily approving a decree forcing event producers to provide free water on days with high temperatures. The pop star’s second concert was postponed a day because the heat did not subside.

Until recently, canceling a concert due to temperatures seemed like science fiction to Cariocas, who were used to living with “one sun for everyone,” as they often say, but recently the limits have been crossed. The city council itself has for the first time included thermal sensation as one of the indicators indicating alert levels in the city, just as when there is a forecast of heavy rain, for example, and residents are asked to avoid going out. .

With widespread congestion, air conditioner sales in Brazil rose 38% and price 14%, the largest increase since 1994, by sector. The increase in price is not only explained by increased demand; It’s about what’s happening several kilometers to the north, in the heart of the Amazon, where the worst drought in 121 years has dramatically reduced river flows. All air conditioners manufactured in Brazil leave the free zone in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state. This industrial center is only connected to the rest of the country by boat, and sailing is becoming increasingly difficult and more expensive. Worse than the manufacturers are the indigenous people and riverside communities that depend on the river for their livelihoods. Although rains have begun to ease the situation in recent weeks, at the height of the drought 62 municipalities were on alert, with 600,000 people needing humanitarian aid to eat, take medicine or even get drinking water. Once again, forest fires engulfed Manaus in an unbreathable cloud of smoke. The fires were also particularly ferocious in another valuable biome, the Pantanal, a wetland that burned like never before because rainfall took longer to arrive than in other years.

If residents of the region with the largest freshwater reserves in the Amazon have to drink bottled water, the problem farther south is excess. Since September, persistent storms have left a trail of devastation: at least 55 dead and thousands displaced. Iguazu Falls reached its highest water level in nine years and the trail had to be closed to visitors. Sao Paulo, the economic engine of which the country is proud, was not spared either. In November, it witnessed a historic power outage. A wind storm reaching speeds of more than 100 kilometers per hour killed seven people and toppled hundreds of trees, damaging power lines when they fell. More than two million homes lost electricity for several days.

As summer approaches, there is now fear, in addition to the heat, of the arrival of violent storms that cause landslides and resulting deaths every year. Another worrying factor is that it is small and uncomfortable Aedes aegyptiThe mosquito that transmits dengue fever and Zika Chikungunya. Dengue cases this year rose by 15.8% compared to 2022, reaching 1.6 million. The Ministry of Health attributes this to the effects of the El Niño phenomenon amplified by climate change, which causes rain and temperatures above average, in addition to the spread of dengue fever type 3, which has not been recorded in Brazil for 15 years. An explosion in cases is expected this summer. With the gradual rise in temperatures in recent years, this typical tropical disease has been advancing toward latitudes where it was not common, such as the southern states, which have a more temperate climate.

For Neto, the frequency and severity of environmental tragedies can mark a before and after, especially in terms of street-level awareness. Climate change is present in neighborhood conversations, on the bus line, at the bakery. This awareness must be translated into action, and it is no longer just about reducing carbon dioxide emissions, but containing the damage, because what we are witnessing and what is to come are truly inevitable. “I think there is not enough sense of urgency about how necessary an adaptation agenda is, because we have already made all the mistakes and now we have to correct them,” the specialist warns.