Explaining Brazil #292: Southern Brazil’s climate emergency

Author

Gustavo Ribeiro
May 08, 2024 • Reading Time: 3 minutes

Hundreds of cities in southern Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state are underwater, suffering the effects of historic floods caused by all-time high river levels.

As of Tuesday afternoon, local authorities had confirmed a death toll of 90 people, with another 132 missing. More than 200,000 have been forced to leave their homes, and these numbers are certain to continue rising over the coming days.

Experts are already comparing the path of destruction and its effects on the local health system to the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe in 2005 in New Orleans.

Beyond the human toll, the disaster has had massive effects on the local economy, affecting agriculture, logistics, commerce, infrastructure, and everything in between.

In today’s episode, we’ll discuss the extent of the crisis, how this catastrophe came to pass, and what could have been done to prevent it.

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This episode used music from Uppbeat and Envato. License codes: Country Acoustic by _Blacksmith_ (E4H7D3BRNL), Aspire by Pryces (B6TUQLVYOWVKY02S), Lo-Fi Loop by Sawtooz (HUK2FSPMJ4), Latin Festival by simonleng (NSJRKTQE59), and Vlog Lo-Fi by (5LKY6FU472) 

Background reading on the Rio Grande do Sul floods:

  • The flooding in Rio Grande do Sul is a harrowing example of how climate events have repeated themselves in recent years.

  • Flooding in southern Brazil has disrupted logistics, with hundreds of cities in Rio Grande do Sul cut off from infrastructure networks.

  • For those who live abroad and want to help by donating to the rescue efforts, well-known NGOs and the local state government are making channels available for donations in foreign currency.

  • With their stadiums under water and flights suspended, clubs in Rio Grande do Sul got the national football authorities to suspend games in May, though fear grows over the future calendar problems this may cause

  • Follow all of our coverage of the Rio Grande do Sul floods here.

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