Brazil and Climate Change and Sea Levels

Our Professor did not ask us to post our blog this week but I thought what I found very interesting and I like what Brazil is doing to help it's country and our world.  After all, I have found out that the teaching in the 60's that taught that Brazil's Amazon land could feed the world was wrong and now we know that the rainforest is so very important.  It is wonderful to see how this great nation is fighting back to improve it's land and protect it's people.

 

Brazil and Climate Change

Climate change impacts in Brazil

Climate change impacts in Brazil - what the IPCC 4th Assessment Report has found:

    In northeast Brazil semi-arid and arid areas will suffer a decrease of water resources due to climate change [3.4, 3.7]. Semi- arid vegetation is likely to be replaced by arid-land vegetation. In tropical forests, species extinctions are likely [13.4]

    Computed groundwater recharge decreases dramatically by more than 70% in north-eastern Brazil (reference climate normal 1961-1990 and the 2050s) [3.4.2.].

     Increases in rainfall in southeast Brazil have had impacts on land use, crop yields and have increased flood frequency and intensity [TS4.2].

    In the future, sea level rise, weather and climatic variability and extremes modified by global warming are very likely to have impacts on mangroves [13.4.4].

     38-45% of the plants in the Cerrado (Central Brazil savannas) committed to extinction with temperature increase of 1.7°C above pre- industrial levels [Table 4.1].

Amazonia:

     Highly unusual extreme weather events were reported, such as Amazon drought in 2005 [TS4.2].

    Potential increases in drought conditions have been quantitatively projected during the critical growing phase, due to increasing summer temperatures and precipitation declines [4.4.5]

    In non-fragmented Amazon forests, direct effects of CO2 on photosynthesis, as well as faster forest turnover rates, may have caused a substantial increase in density of lianas over the last 2 decades [1.3.5.5].

    Conversion of natural vegetation to agricultural land drives climate change by altering regional albedo and latent heat flux, causing additional summer warming in key regions in Amazon region [4.4.1]

    Major loss of Amazon rainforest with large losses of biodiversity with 2.0-3.0°C above pre-industrial levels [Table 4.1]

    Increases in temperature and decreases in soil water would lead to replacement of tropical forest by savanna in eastern Amazonia. [13.4]

 

            WWF work What WWF is doing on the ground in Brazil to protect against climate change: The indigenous population has their own ecological knowledge based on centuries surviving in natural habitats like rainforests. Often this kind of traditional knowledge includes weather prediction.

     WWF is currently setting up an initial Climate Witness project in Boca do Acre, Amazonas State, Brazil to leverage such ´traditional knowledge´.

     WWF will work with several local communities to help them develop adaptation strategies.

    The lessons learned from this first project will be expanded throughout the region, based on partnerships with community groups, NGOs and local and regional authorities

 

Brazil and Sea Levels

The fifth–largest country in the world, Brazil has a population of more than 200 million (as of 2011).13 The Brazilian coastline is roughly 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) long.14 Population density along the Brazilian coast is intensifying, as industrial development continues to grow, people are drawn to urban areas to work, and the tourist industry expands.15

Other areas along the Brazilian coast (from north to south) that are at risk from sea–level rise include:

Belém, Macapá, and São Luís, three capital cities on the northern coast near the Amazon River delta.14 

Atafona, a town just northeast of Rio de Janeiro that has already lost hundreds of homes to beach erosion. 16       

Famous beaches in Rio, such as Copacabana, Impanema, and the Barra da Tijuca, with miles and miles of condominiums and hotels.17 (The Barra da Tijuca will be home of the Olympic Village for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.18)

The Santos region of São Paulo, which has a high concentration of oil and gas fields, refinery complexes, and chemical and manufacturing plants.14

Some 3.7 million people, 2 live in the Metropolitan Region of Recife, on Brazil's northeast Atlantic coast, and many of them have homes near the coast.3 Scientists estimate that a global sea–level rise of around 2.6 feet (80 centimeters) is likely by 2100—and that as much as 6.6 feet (2 meters) is possible.4 Sea–level rise puts this region and its tourist industry at risk, unless people make well–planned adaptations to higher water levels. Efforts around the world to slow sea–level rise by cutting global warming emissions are also important.             

Recife

Sea level has been rising at an accelerating pace, according to a tidal gauge on the region's coast.5

                            The region's most developed area is built on a coastal plain with an average elevation of only 13 feet (4 meters) above sea level.3 Many homes in poor neighborhoods are almost at sea level, and flooding at high tide is already a problem.6 If a storm surge of 2 feet (61 centimeters) were to arrive when sea level is nearly 3 feet (91 centimeters) higher than today, the extra 5 feet (150 centimeters) of water could ruin homes in these neighborhoods.       

What is Being Done?

                            Storm waves can pluck sand just offshore and deposit it inland. That is the way natural beaches migrate, if no roads or buildings stand in the way. However, the extensive line of high–rise buildings close to the beach leaves no room for natural beach migration from storm waves pounding the coastline near Recife.

The height of high tides in Recife ranges from 5 to 8 feet (1.5 to 2.4 meters). 21 If mean sea level rose another 2 to 6 feet (0.8 to 2 meters), which scientists say is possible, 4 high tides would be that much higher, and neighborhoods could be flooded regularly. Homes along tidal rivers will be the first to be affected. Leaders of Recife have already been considering building new apartments on safer ground, so people could move out of harm's way.16

Sea–level rise puts this region—as well as many others along the coast of Brazil—at risk unless they make well–planned adaptations to higher water levels. The steep cost of these measures could drop if people around the world make significant efforts to curb their heat-trapping emissions. If we reduce the activities that overload the atmosphere with carbon—the root cause of accelerated global sea–level rise—we can slow the pace of change and give coastal communities more time to prepare for the changes ahead

 

Brazil Has Done More to Stop Climate Change than Any Other Country, Study Finds

By Emily Atkin Posted on June 6, 2014 at 3:31 pm

 

Thanks to its effort to reduce tropical deforestation, Brazil has kept 3.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere since 2004. That’s more than any other country has done to reduce climate change, according to a new study published Thursday.

“Brazil is known as a leading favorite to win the World Cup, but they also lead the world in mitigating climate change,” the study’s lead author, Earth Innovation Institute director Daniel Nepstad, said in a statement.”

Though climate change is usually traced to the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation in Brazil has also played a huge role in causing it. Brazil’s Amazon rainforest — which once had the highest deforestation rate in the world as of 2005 — absorbs a huge amount of carbon dioxide, effectively preventing the gas from being emitted into the atmosphere.            

When so much of that forest was burned and plowed over, though, a huge amount of carbon was emitted into the atmosphere instead of absorbed, making Brazil one of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters. “Land use” emissions dwarfed those from energy or agriculture.

But now, Brazil seems to be taking steps to reduce their impact. The study, published in the journal Science, showed that Brazil was able to save more than 33,000 square miles of Amazon rainforest since 2004 while still being able increase beef and soy production. Saving those forests amounted to a 70 percent decline in deforestation, putting an enormous brake on greenhouse gas emissions. According to National Geographic, the cuts are more than three times bigger than the effect of taking all the cars in the U.S. off the road for a year.

In Brazil, emissions due to deforestation (green) have taken such a sharp downturn since 2004 that overall emissions have decreased in spite of continued increases from other causes.

A number of policies and campaigns are credited with motivating Brazil to reduce its deforestation, including campaigns by Greenpeace and others to put pressure on companies that buy products that come from Amazon deforestation. Brazil’s forest code was also updated in 2012, requiring landowners to preserve 80 percent of the Amazon’s virgin forest.

“In Brazil, there was rising awareness of the value of nature and how essential it is to our society,” Fabio Rubio Scarano, vice president of Conservation International’s Americas Division, told National Geographic.

Brazil’s contribution to reducing deforestation has also helped fight land-use change-related emissions throughout the world, according to a separate study by the Union of Concerned Scientists, also released Thursday. While the 2007 report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change showed that roughly 17 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation, the UCS says that number has now decreased to 10 percent — thanks to efforts by Brazil and several other tropical countries.

“What’s surprising about today’s report is the number of countries that are effectively protecting their tropical forests and the wide variety of policies and programs that are working,” the UCS report’s author Doug Boucher said in a statement. “There’s no one right way to stop deforestation, but rather a smorgasbord of options.”

 

Work Cited

Atkin, Emily, Brazil Has Done More To Stop Climate Change Than Any Other Country, Study Finds, published by Climate Progress at, http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/06/06/3446097/brazil-cuts-carbon/ , June 6, 2014

 Union of Concerned Scientists, http://www.climatehotmap.org/global-warming-locations/recife-brazil.html

WWF Global, wwf.panda.org