Floods in Brasil as a result of climate emergency and negligence.
Aplaneta
Floods in Rio Grande do Sul as a result of climate emergency and negligence.
(Castellano)
This May, the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil, suffered the worst floods in its history, with 149 people dead, more than 100 missing, and two million people affected. The volume of rainfall in recent days reached 800 millimetres. Although this rainfall was predicted in advance by the meteorological institutes, rivers and lakes overflowed their banks, flooding hundreds of villages.
But we are also facing recurrent phenomena, because similar situations were already experienced in September last year. In June 2023, the floods caused another 116 deaths, in September 54 deaths, and in November five more deaths.
In the case of the Taquari valley, this is the third time in less than a year that the region has been devastated by floods. Residents still trying to rebuild their homes and crops after the floods of September and November 2023 saw the Taquari River rise above 30 metres. In this valley, on 2 May, the rains caused the 14 de Julho reservoir to partially burst, creating an added risk.
Two factors converged in these floods: an economic and growth model with a major impact on the territory and the environment, and on the other hand the extreme weather phenomena resulting from the climate crisis (obviously also caused by the same economic model). Or we could add a 3rd, the product of four years of a government, that of Bolsonaro, a climate denier who has also promoted the dismantling of environmental policies, passive in prevention policies, and as we know, promoting deforestation and the elimination of ecosystems.
This economic model includes the impacts of agribusiness, which leads to deforestation, which in the state of Rio Grande do Sul has increased by 187% in three years. Also urban policies that have not respected boundaries and have fallen victim to real estate speculation. Both correspond to a model of unsustainable development that Naomi Klein has called "disaster capitalism", discussed in her work "The Shock Doctrine" (in itself, this episode has much in common with the New Orleans disaster that she discusses in depth).
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