In this small village north of Rio de Janeiro, the Atlantic Ocean advances an average of six meters (almost 20 feet) per year, causing tremendous erosion that is now exacerbated by climate change.

More than 500 houses have already been sunk by the sea, turning the once-peaceful coastline into an underwater graveyard of shattered ruins.

Extreme erosion 

Atafona, a 6,000-person community, has long been subjected to severe erosion. It's one of the 4% of coasts throughout the world that lose five meters or more every year.

Global warming, which is driving sea levels to increase and making currents and weather patterns more extreme, is exacerbating the problem, according to geologist Eduardo Bulhoes of Fluminense Federal University. However, Atafona claims that he has had a "chronic condition" for decades.

Because of mining, agriculture, and other activities that drain it upstream, the Paraiba do Sul river, which has its mouth near Atafona, has diminished.

"In the last 40 years, that has drastically reduced the river's volume, meaning it transports less sand to Atafona," says Bulhoes.

The town's beaches have stopped rebuilding naturally due to a lack of sand, giving land to the sea.

Construction along the coast has exacerbated the situation by removing the natural barriers of the beaches, such as sand dunes and vegetation. The tourism and fishing businesses have suffered as a result. 

"Large boats can't come through the river delta anymore... and the money disappeared along with them," says Elialdo Bastos Meirelles, head of a local fishermen's community of some 600 people. "The river is dead."

Abandoned 

Local officials have looked into building dikes to limit the force of the ocean's waves and moving sand from the river delta to the beach as ways to stop the erosion.

Bulhoes, the geologist, proposed the latter, which is modeled on similar initiatives in the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States. But the projects exist only on paper so far.

The county under-secretary for the environment, Alex Ramos, told AFP no one had yet come up with a definitive solution, and that any plan would have to gain environmental regulators' approval first.

It is worth noting that before Jair Bolsonaro’s term began in Jan. 2019, the Brazilian Amazon hadn’t recorded a single year with more than 10,000 square kilometers of deforestation in over a decade. Between 2009 and 2018, the average was 6,500 square kilometers. Since then, the annual average leaped to 11,405 square kilometers, and the three-year total is an area bigger than the state of Maryland.