Environmental disaster-Brazil
By Pedro M. Otero Cabañas
Forecasts are sometimes misleading, although they always point to probable events. This is what has been happening with those referring to Climate Change (CC), a topic that capitalizes on conflicting opinions, but which has already demonstrated with sufficient evidence its tremendous impact on the health of the planet.
Today the CC constitutes the greatest challenge facing Humanity. The sustained increase in global temperature due, mainly, to the burning of fossil fuels, causes alterations in climate patterns and reverse steps in the natural reproduction cycle in the Earth's ecosystems. That is, the planet is not capable of regenerating the set of factors that cause its destruction.
The weather disasters that occurred a few days ago in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul are a new chapter in this self-destructive saga in which modern society subjugates the Earth.
Heavy rains, floods and landslides for about two weeks caused an apocalyptic tragedy there. Almost 160 people died, dozens disappeared and thousands of families had to seek refuge after losing their homes and other property. Material damages are substantial.
On December 16, 2022, the General State Forensic Institute warned that the areas affected by illegal deforestation had grown by 187% in three years, which could cause a serious climate emergency situation. The predictions were fatally fulfilled.
The effects of these tragedies generate uncertainty and fear in the population. In the case of Rio Grande do Sul, the Brazilian media has popularized the neologism “climate anxiety” although the term had been formulated in 2017 by the American Psychological Association to define the “chronic fear of suffering an environmental cataclysm due to the effects of the CC".
In Brazil, “eco-anxiety” has been officially recognized as a word by the Brazilian Academy of Letters, which defines it as a “state of restlessness and anguish triggered by the expectation of serious consequences of climate change and the perception of helplessness in the face of irreversible damage to the environment.” environment".
The chaos generated in Rio Grande do Sul by such climatic events extends its disturbing effects to all the work of the people, who today live under agonizing doubt about the future.
The prestigious National Geographic magazine stated that one of the great challenges in the reconstruction process of Rio Grande do Sul is not to be guided by the same developmental models that created the conditions of unsustainability and risk of disasters.
The economic growth model that caused the catastrophe – he added – is the true risk factor. Previous disasters, both in Brazil and in other parts of the world, have revealed that the reconstruction process is marked by the dominance of groups with political and economic power, who use the “emergency government”, the “state of public calamity”, to maximize your opportunities for profit and profit.
