#cemaden

Cost of Not Adapting to Climate Change Would Be at Least Five times Higher

Like other coastal cities, Santos, at the shore of São Paulo State, Brazil, is experiencing a situation reminiscent of Aesop’s fable of the ant and the grasshopper. Sea levels are expected to continue rising in the years ahead, and the city faces the dilemma of adapting or having to pay the high price of increasingly frequent storm surges and floods.

Adapting to climate changeinvolves public…

Hydrological Model Can Help Predict Floods

The Doce, one of Brazil’s most important rivers, is some 850 km long and traverses Minas Gerais State and Espírito Santo State, with several major tributaries. Its catchment area, which covers 83,400 sq. km., contains more than 200 towns and cities. For the past year the river has suffered the consequences of the worst environmentaldisaster in Brazilian history. Over 60 million cu. m. of toxic…

Temperatures in the Pantanal could rise by 7°C by 2100, scientists predict

Annual average temperatures in the Pantanal, the world’s largest floodplain wetland, could rise by up to 7°C by 2100. Warming on this scale would significantly reduce rainfall in the region, especially during the winter months. These effects of climate change combined would affect evaporation, and the very existence of the Pantanal as we know it would be threatened.

These and other projections…