Over the Edge - November 16

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THE RAMPANT RISE
OF FIERCE FLOODS AND
DANGEROUS DROUGHTS

The Onslaught of Climatic Consequences Presents
Daunting Challenges

LAURA BEVACQUA
FEATURES EDITOR

will always remember the lead-
[= selection of Brazilian tele-

vision shows that dominated the
networks (at least in terms of basic
cable) when I first moved to Rio de
Janeiro at the beginning of the year:
soap operas, Big Brother Brasil, and
the news. Oh! I nearly forgot to men-
tion the beloved football (soccer)
matches that aired in every bar and
household on Wednesday and Sunday
evenings. The balance between over-
ly dramatic soap stars, Ronaldinho’s
fancy football moves, and national
news coverage was all very interest-
ing and concerning.

I was sitting in the small sixteenth
floor apartment on a hot summer’s
night catching the midnight news.
Reports of extreme floods and mud-
slides in the state of Rio de Janeiro
killed more than 600 people and left
thousands homeless in the towns of
Nova Friburgo, Teresopolis and the
Imperial City of Brasil known as
Petropolis, less than a 2-hour com-
mute from Rio. The unsettling feeling
in the air and the dismay across cities
and neighbourhoods were moments
[ll never forget. What would hap-
pen if torrential floods hit the centres
and communities of Rio? Living on
the sixteenth floor didn’t seem so bad
after all.

Just weeks within her presidency,
Dilma Rousseff had a lot on her plate:
violence within favelas between po-
lice and gang rivals; preparing for
Obama’s visit; the securitization of
oil royalties; and, natural disasters.
Rousseff visited Nova Friburgo with
Governor of Rio de Janeiro, Sergio
Cabral in the days following the dis-
aster. Rousseff spoke at a press con-
ference and described the suffering of
the people as “very great.”

Extreme weather disasters are not
uncommon. History shows the world
has experienced plagues, fires, earth-
quakes, droughts and even ice ages as
indicated in the Geographical Journal
series. The difference today however,
is in the frequency and the mass re-
percussions of extreme weather con-
ditions, which have been predicted
to “last longer and stronger,” says
Ghassem Asrar, the Director of the
World Climate Research Program at

the UN’s World Metrological Organ-
ization.

The onslaught of climatic conse-
quences presents daunting challenges.
The Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees indicated
the scarcity of natural resources such
as drinking water, are likely to be-
come even more limited. Many crops
and some livestock are unlikely to
survive in certain locations if condi-
tions become too hot and dry, or too
cold and wet. Food security is an im-
mediate concern in many parts of the
world.

In 2004 the deadliest tsunami in
history hit Southeast Asia leaving
257,000 dead and 1.7-million forced
into displacement. The tsunami
threatened the very existence of the
islands in the Republic of the Maldi-
ves as the highest point is only eight
feet above sea level. Floods that hit
Pakistan in the summer of 2010 killed
more than 1,600 and affected 20-mil-
lion people from various provinces.
The Government of Pakistan and the
humanitarian community expanded
aid operations in order to deal with
the vast number of those requiring
assistance. The Japanese authorities
predicted 80,000 to be missing after
the tsunami hit the country earlier this
year and at least two million people
have been affected by widespread
flooding in Thailand last month.

Historic drought and fires in Rus-
sia in 2010 killed an estimated 56,000
people and caused wheat and other
crops in Russia, Ukraine, and Kaz-
akhstan, to be removed from the
global market: contributing to the
record spike in food prices. Extreme
droughts in central China this year
dried reservoirs, disrupted rice plant-
ing and threatened power shortages.

Climate consequences are a
global problem. Canada too, has wit-
nessed its share. “Strange and severe
weather is becoming hard to ignore,”
said climatologist and author of The
Weather of the Future, Heidi Cullen.
“We will see more extremes engulfing
Canadian territory.”

In an article by Cathy Gulli and
Tom Heneffer in Maclean’s entitled
Extreme Weather Warning, anticipat-
ed that Canada’s prairies are likely to

experience more droughts and rising
sea levels on the West Coast, which
makes the region particularly vulner-
able to floods and tidal forces. Places
like Ontario and Southern Quebec
are likely to experience longer heat
waves and higher temperatures, in-
cluding during the winter months.
For now the developed
world can cope with these changes
because of advanced technologies, fi-
nancial and other resources. The same
cannot be said about less developed,
marginalized and highly vulnerable
regions of the world where millions
of people are already dealing with
poverty and lack sufficient resources.
“Tt is very likely that the largest
number of environmental refugees
will come from some of the world’s
poorest countries who don’t have the
resources to deal with the problem
and ironically these countries usually
had almost nothing to do with creating
the problem,” said Andrew Simms,
author of Ecological Debt: Global
Warming and the Wealth of Nations.
“It would be beyond an injustice to
expect the poorest countries with the
fewest resources who had least to do
with creating the problem of global
warming to then expect them to deal
with the problem afterwards. The re-
sponsibility must be shared across the
international community.”

In 1992, 172 Nations of the world
recognized their share of respon-
sibility of environmental problems
by signing The Rio Declaration of
Environment and Development. The
first world summit was considered a
historic moment although many argue
that nothing fundamentally has been
accomplished since.

Climate change damage is un-
raveling at an alarming rate as seen
through unusual differences within
varying temperatures, prolonged
droughts and rising sea levels. While
the world continues to pursue mitiga-
tion efforts and strive to meet the Mil-
lennium Development Goals (MDGs)
in 2015, it has become essential to
produce comprehensive adaptation
strategies for those that are most dir-
ectly vulnerable to the consequences
now, and those who are predisposed
to the unavoidable realities ahead.

People Moving Through the Flooded Streets
in Bangkok, Thailand on October 24th, 201 |

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