The Brazilian government recently released the largest and most comprehensive report that has been done on the climate change impacts to their country. Despite the critical importance of the issues raised in the study entitled Scenarios and Alternatives for Adaption to Climate Change (Monga Bay highlights the study in English here ), it "was published with surprising discretion at the end of October and might have passed unnoticed, had it not been for the watchful eyes of the OC (Observatório do Clima), a civil society network that promotes discussion on climate change”.
The report highlights the severe drought that has been torturing Brazil ( particularly impacted is the mega-city of Sao Paulo with it’s 11.8 million residents). It warns that staple agricultural crops currently under cultivation such as corn, rice and beans will suffer serious decline. Brazil will become hotter, and drier with regional differences, “the south receiving more rain while the Amazon and the north-east get considerably less, particularly in the summer”. Electrical output is threatened throughout Brazil.
One of the report’s studies used rainfall predictions to construct a model to assess the impact on Brazil’s hydroelectric output, which produces about 78% of its electricity.
A scientist from the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA) has shown that hydropower stations have their emissions problems, producing large amounts of the two principal greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane – sometimes in greater quantities than the emissions from fossil fuel power plants.
The scientists in the SAE study looked not only at projected rainfall as climate change intensifies, but also at the predicted impact on river flows, because energy generation at hydroelectric power plants depends on how much water is flowing through them.
Results suggest that the flows at the country’s four largest power stations – Itaipu, Furnas, Sobradinho and Tucuruí – will decline between 38% (RCP 4.5) and 57% (RCP 8.5). Brazil has suffered serious water shortages in the last three years, so this projection prompts considerable concern.
Brazil has already exploited most of its hydro-generation potential in the rest of the country, so the government expects the Amazon basin to play a starring role in the future, with no fewer than 30 of the 48 planned dams destined for the Amazon rainforest. Some have already been built, and the study suggests that all will be seriously affected.
Brazil Dam Disaster – Toxic Mud Flows from Rio Doce to Atlantic Ocean
RICARDO MORAES Men look on from the banks of Doce River, which was flooded with mud after two dams burst, as it meets the seaClimate change has had no direct role on the recent catastrophic mining dam disaster in SE Brazil. But it’s effects could make the situation even worse according to Climate News Network.
Scientists believe the soil may take centuries to recover from the accident, which released millions of tons of iron ore waste into the River Doce in Brazil´s south-eastern state of Minas Gerais. Many plant and animal species have been wiped out locally.
Some fear that the drought which affects most of Brazil and has already reduced river volumes – and which many attribute to the changing climate– could prevent the river from fully dispersing the toxic matter.
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On 5 November an earthen dam at the Samarco mine containing tailings, waste from the ore, collapsed, sending a tidal wave of mud and water roaring through the nearby village of Bento Rodrigues, sweeping away men, women and children. At least 11 people were killed, and 12 are still missing.
The mining company had rejected a recommendation to install a warning siren, saying it was unnecessary, because they could call or text people on their mobile phones.
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As inquiries into the cause of the dam burst continue, scientists say there could also be lead, cadmium, zinc and mercury, but nobody knows for sure. They fear the Doce’s low volume means a lot of the mud will end up as silt on the riverbed, instead of being carried downstream and dispersed into the ocean.
In August the river fell so low it did not reach the sea, but ended up trickling into a sandbank; in some places it was only three cm deep.
Polignano believes the quantity of tailings in the water is so great that local ecosystems will be unable to recover.
“It is irreversible. They talk of remedying the situation, but in the case of this mud in the rivers, it is impossible, there is no way of removing it from there”.
A bio-diversity collapse of a large river watershed in SE Brazil is not the only area that has been impacted. The toxins have also reached the Atlantic ocean. The Guardian reports:
According to the latest models used by the environmental agencies studying the flow, the mud plume is expected to disperse along the coast around six miles south of Regência, two miles north and 1.5 miles out to sea.
The area is rich in marine life, including humpback whales and La Plata dolphins, but Almeida’s greatest concern is for the endangered leatherback turtle. The beach is one of the only regular nesting grounds for the creature in Brazil.
“If the mud ends up on the beach, this could have a devastating effect on the population,” Almeida said.
With the oxygen levels in the Rio Doce drastically reduced by 50m cubic metres of mining waste, the plant and animal life along the river has been devastated in what the environment minister, Izabella Teixeira, described as “the worst environmental disaster in Brazil’s history”.
Fears over the presence of heavy metals and other toxins in the mud have also led ANA, the national water agency, to suspend the use of the Rio Doce for human consumption.
Geovani Krenak laments the death of the Rio Doce: “we are one, people and nature, only one,” he says. Photo: Reproduction.Intercontinental Cry reports on the impact to the Krenak indigenous people. Left with no potable water and their supply of fish dead, they are demanding that their territorial land be expanded to include the State Park of Sete Salões so that they can relocate.
“We find the strategy interesting, given that the existing area no longer provides conditions for survival. Something must be done”, attests Cerqueira. At present, the demarcated area of Krenak territory covers 4700 hectares. In this zone, extending more than three kilometers along the Doce River have been impacted and rendered unfit for drinking, fishing, bathing and irrigating vegetation in the vicinity, in the municipality of Resplendor, where 126 Krenak families live.
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Seated along the tracks, under a 41C. degree sun, Indians chanted music in gratitude to the river, in the Krenak language. "The river is beautiful. Thank you, God, for the river that feeds and bathes us. "The river is beautiful. Thank you, God, for our river, the river of all of us," the words of shaman Ernani Krenak, 105 years of age, translated for the press.
His sister, Dekanira Krenak, 65 years old, is attentive to the impact of the death of the river affecting not only the indigenous peoples, being a source of resources for many communities. "It is not 'us alone', the whites who live on the riverbank are also in great need of this water, they coexist with this water, many fishermen [feed their] family with the fishes," she points out.
Camped on site in tarpaulin shacks and sleeping mats in the open air, the Indians, now, must also face an unbearable swarm of insects. "It was never like this," says Geovani Krenak. "These mosquitoes came with the polluted water, with fish that once fed us and that are now descending the river, dead, he reports.
Vox reports that a recently introduced virus named Zika has alarmed the Brazilian government enough to warn women in Brazil to not get pregnant.
The Zika virus is transmitted to humans by the same type of mosquito (Aedes) that transmits the dengue and chikungunya viruses.
Zika produces very mild symptoms — rash, headaches, pain in the bones, and fever — that usually show up between three and 12 days after a mosquito bite. These symptoms usually go away within a week, and one in four people don’t even develop any symptoms after being infected with the virus.
This means people don’t usually go to the doctor for Zika, and many cases go unnoticed. There’s also no vaccine or treatment for the virus, so doctors just work on controlling and alleviating its symptoms.
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The most pressing question about the virus is whether it causes serious developmental disorders like microcephaly, the congenital condition that's associated with a small head and incomplete brain development.
There's a bit of panic about this link in Brazil right now because some of the regions with the most Zika cases have also seen an uptick in microcephaly births.
Espinal said that researchers from the CDC and the Brazilian health authorities are investigating the link, but right now it's unclear whether the two are related. He explained that microcephaly can be caused by many different factors — including other viruses like rubella or Down syndrome — and researchers still don't know whether Zika can even cross the placental barrier in mothers.
"There’s an ecological link there, but causality is very difficult to determine and we need more research," he added.
The Guardian reports on the impact of Zika on women of child bearing age.
About eight weeks into her pregnancy, Patricia Campassi’s body began to ache and she developed a rash. Doctors at her local maternity clinic in Campinas, in the state of São Paulo, put her condition down to a food allergy.
After a few days, she recovered and for the next five months everything appeared to be fine. But in the final weeks before the birth of her son, Lorenzo, the scans began to show that his brain was not developing properly.
“It was a terrible shock,” she said. “It still is.”
Now aged one and half months, Lorenzo was born with microcephaly, a neurological disorder that stunts the growth of the baby’s cranium, limiting it to a circumference of less than 33cm. Typically, life expectancy for babies born with the condition is reduced. In 90% of cases, brain function is also reduced.
“It’s not easy,” said Campassi, 21. “There are days when I cry a lot, but we love each other very much. When he looks at me, that gives me strength.”
Lorenzo is one of four babies born with the condition recently in the city of Campinas, amid a nationwide rise in incidences of the condition. So far this year, 1,248 cases have been reported in 14 states across Brazil, compared with just 59 in 2014.
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An autopsy on a baby born with microcephaly in the neighbouring state of Ceará revealed the presence of the zika virus, a disease carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also transmits dengue, yellow fever and chikungunya.
In an unprecedented move, on 28 November the Brazilian health ministry linked the zika virus to the microcephaly epidemic. Previously, the condition had been attributed to radiation or drug use by the expectant mother.
Europe Surveillance, a journal on infectious disease epidemiology, prevention and control, is warning about zika virus, chikungunya and dengue spreading throughout the world due to climate change. They note that temperature determines viral replication rates and growth rates of mosquito populations and also the timing between their meals of human blood which all contribute to increased infection rates. Due to globalization, there is no area on earth that will not be impacted at some point by these viruses.
Pathogens and vectors are bound to disseminate rapidly through globalised transportation Networks: over 100 million air travellers alone enter continental Europe annually, connecting it to international ‘hotspots’ of emerging infectious diseases.
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