Climate change: Cyclone in the South punishes bolsonaristas – 07/15/2023 – Marcelo Leite

“We are part of the problem for life on Earth right now, but our solution is very small.” It is inescapable to agree with the former executive secretary of Climate Change for the city of São Paulo, Antonio Fernando Pinheiro Pedro.

In good time he was exonerated by Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB), even though the denialist should not have been appointed. No doubt the mayor already knew the aspone’s conviction, perhaps he chose him precisely because of it.

It is not the case here to process intentions, but to explain why, in his clumsy way, the defenestrated person is right. Humanity can do little, at this point, to counter the more threatening impacts of global warming.

However, he said this to discredit such efforts, not to intensify them. It is what still remains to be done, not so much to avoid climate change, already contracted, after three decades of stalling after Rio-92, but to reduce the scale of the disaster and prepare the cities for what is to come.

By unfortunate coincidence, the late overthrow of the climate flat-Earther took place in parallel with the cyclone that left more than 1 million residents of the southern region without electricity. Yes, that part of Brazil that voted heavily for Jair Bolsonaro, another climate flat Earther, but that’s better left aside.

More than a third of the population of Rio Grande do Sul was affected in one way or another. According to Civil Defense, 52 cities in Rio Grande do Sul suffered losses. More than 600 homeless or displaced.

Winds of 140 km/h, caspite. On the Saffir-Simpson scale, it corresponds to a force one hurricane, the weakest, described however as “very dangerous winds that will produce some damage”.

Only two or three people died… Much less, in fact, than the 16 victims on June 15th. Yes, another cyclone had hit the south in less than a month. In fact, there were three in total.

A week ago, torrential rains displaced 27,000 inhabitants of Alagoas and Pernambuco. A little over four months ago, 65 people died in the tragedy at Barra do Sahy beach, in São Sebastião (SP).

More than 600 millimeters had fallen in areas of the municipality of São Paulo in 24 hours, rain that northeasterners of the semi-arid region welcome when it comes in a whole year. There were 600 liters of water per square meter, which soaked the soil and dragged it down the slope, along with the forest and everything else, burying vacationers’ servants.

Anyone who thinks this has something to do with global warming is on the right track. The first week of July was the hottest in measuring the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere. The last eight years have been the warmest on record.

In 1992, in Rio de Janeiro, governments around the world adopted the UN Convention on Climate Change. The purpose of the treaty was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate global warming.

What happened after that? Climate pollution continued to rise. Especially with the burning of fossil fuels, but also with deforestation and other impacts of agriculture on an industrial scale.

Less than a decade remains to reverse this trend and have a chance to contain warming by 1.5°C, the security target set in 2015 in the Paris Agreement. But who still believes that by 2030, 40% or more of global emissions will be cut?

The good news, if there is any, is that today even the Bolsonarist mayor of São Paulo is forced to dismiss an assistant who disdains the climate crisis. It must be because more and more voters are waking up to the obvious — climate change is here.

They finally agreed. Too late.

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