Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Al-Quds Governorate: Today, the spatial division of Al-Aqsa Mosque began in a public and dangerous manner, and we warn of a religious war in the region
The Ministry of Health in Gaza: This brings the total number of victims of famine and malnutrition to 175, including 93 children
The Ministry of Health in Gaza: Gaza's hospitals recorded six deaths due to starvation and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, all of them adults
Informed sources to Al Mayadeen: A new chapter in relations between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency will begin within the framework of the new law passed by Parliament
Informed sources to Al Mayadeen: The talks will focus on the political aspect, and the agency's delegation will not be accompanied by any inspector
Informed sources to Al Mayadeen: An IAEA delegation will visit Tehran next week to discuss mechanisms for implementing the parliament's law suspending cooperation with the agency
Palestinian media: Herds of Israeli settlers storm the al-Aqsa Mosque and perform Talmudic rituals in it
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in Gaza: 15 martyrs were transferred to hospitals in the Gaza Strip in the past few hours as the Israeli occupation continues its aggression on the camps of the displaced
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in Gaza: 38 were killed since dawn on Saturday, as the Israeli occupation army targeted aid seekers at distribution sites
Palestinian Red Crescent: One martyr, several injuries among our teams after the occupation bombed the association's headquarters in al-Amal neighborhood, west of Khan Younis.

Climate change, end of environmental protection, cause deaths of 100 people on Brazil-Argentina borders

  • Carlos Tautz Carlos Tautz
  • Source: Al Mayadeen English
  • 8 May 2024 16:13
  • 10 Shares
5 Min Read

More than 200,000 people are homeless; 20 years ago, climate change began producing unprecedented hurricanes and even prompted Al Gore to release the alarming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”.

  • x
  • Since taking office, Leite has repeated the radical strategy of selling off and closing down public companies that carried out environmental planning and control in various areas. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)
    Since taking office, Leite has repeated the radical strategy of selling off and closing down public companies that carried out environmental planning and control in various areas. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

Nearly 100 people have died and more than 200,000 have been left homeless since April 29, when heavy rains that have already accumulated an incredible 800 mm - the equivalent of 800 liters of water per square meter - fell on Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state in Brazil, which is the size of Italy, borders Argentina, and is almost at the tip of South America.

But new storm forecasts, updated several times a day by Brazil's National Meteorological Institute, were causing even more anxiety and despair among regional authorities and population. Unable to cope with the chaos that has ensued, authorities have had to call for help from the army and various other agencies of the Brazilian national government. The heavy rains have also increased the number of missing people (about 200), as well as another 200 children who have been involuntarily separated from their parents. 

Thousands of volunteers helped the nearly 800,000 people who have been affected in some way by the storms, without the official civil defense system of Rio Grande do Sul being able to assist the people who have been isolated on the roofs of their own homes in a predictable tragedy. Last year, this civil defense system had an annual budget of less than $10,000, or 10 cents per inhabitant.

On Monday, a red alert was issued for more heavy rains in some areas of the state, which has a population of 11.2 million, about a million more than the United Arab Emirates. 

Roads and highways in the state have been closed due to river flooding, dam breaches, or precautionary measures taken by authorities. 

Perfect storm: Climate change, hurricanes and the end of environmental protection

Related News

Game meat for hungry communities in Southern Africa

News from Nowhere: Game Over

Critics of the state government say that in the last 20 years, Rio Grande do Sul, a state that has seen consecutive record temperatures every month since April, has been experiencing a "perfect storm". 

According to environmentalists, university researchers and official experts who have denounced the policies of Governor Eduardo Leite, Rio Grande do Sul is experiencing a combination of a change in rainfall patterns due to the intense use of land for agriculture to export agricultural products, and the appearance of hurricanes caused by rising global temperatures. 

Until 2004, typhoons were unheard of in the South Atlantic. The first one even prompted Al Gore, former vice president of the United States, to produce the 2006 documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” about the myths and misconceptions surrounding global warming.

But since taking office, Leite has repeated the radical strategy of selling off and closing down public companies that carried out environmental planning and control in various areas, especially in the fields of hydroelectric power generation, sanitation, and the management and distribution of water resources.

During this period, the governor - a young 39-year-old neoliberal lawyer who has been in office since 2019 and will stay until 2026 - believes in the minimal state. Through his proposal to the regional parliament, 480 points of the state's environmental legislation have been amended to relax requirements and favor developers, even allowing them to apply for environmental self-licensing.

"The government and the regional parliament have made the state, the pioneer of the environmental struggle in Brazil, swim in favor of the climate crisis", explained biologist Francisco Milanez, president of the oldest environmental organization in Brazil. "To understand the dramatic situation, we must add the extinction of the foundations for botanical research, statistics and human resources training, the agency for ports and waterways, as well as the destruction of the first environmental law in the Southern Hemisphere on pesticides, because it included a ban on the use of pesticides not approved in the countries of origin", Milanez recalled.

"The law now allows the use of herbicides that destroy plant life. Now we have unprotected hillsides that don't allow groundwater to recharge. The result is that even if we have less rainfall, we will have more intense flooding. Not to mention allowing the mining and use of coal", he says.

"This policy, the tip of the iceberg of which is the lack of maintenance of the environmental protection system in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, is aimed at opening up urban land to real estate speculation. This is a deliberate policy of unscrupulous neoliberalism, of throwing the city into the arms of privatization. During the tragedy, we found sluice gates that didn't work, dams that broke without maintenance, water pumps that didn't work. This equipment deteriorated and created chaos", said Professor Menegati.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Mayadeen’s editorial stance.
  • Climate change
  • Floods
  • Brazil
  • Rio Grade do Sul
Carlos Tautz

Carlos Tautz

Journalist

Most Read

All
Given ample indications Epstein was collating sexual blackmail material on powerful figures for intelligence agencies, comments made by Mirage's cofounder to Ynet take on a chilling character. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

Zionist spies innovate AI sexual blackmail tech

  • Analysis
  • 27 Jul 2025
The right wing love affair with Zionism has ended

The right wing love affair with Zionism has ended

  • Opinion
  • 23 Jul 2025
Beyond the United States are critical leftist perspectives which underline the reawakening of the Arab left. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

The Reawakening of the Arab Left: Amman to Tunis, new voices challenging empire and capital

  • Opinion
  • 21 Jul 2025
Support for the entity and its genocidal actions is becoming increasingly indefensible, as the monstrous truth becomes writ ever-larger. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

How Zionists control Australia’s media

  • Opinion
  • 20 Jul 2025

Coverage

All
War on Iran

More from this writer

All
People who advocate for the suspension of Brazil's economic ties with "Israel", view Brazil's stance with a mixture of support and skepticism. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

Brazil will also go to the ICJ against 'Israel's' genocide of Palestine

“Maduro's government is going to consolidate, and I have no doubt it will win, but the math of the vote doesn't result in a movement of resistance to the US. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab El-Hajj)

Venezuela elections: Without Chávez, but with the threat of the US

Heavy rains, deaths ongoing in southern Brazil

Heavy rains, deaths ongoing in southern Brazil

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS