Opinion – Nabil Bonduki: Let’s look up that the comet is coming faster than imagined

Pictures are worth a thousand words.

The videos that showed the collapse of a rock over boats in Furnas Lake, in Capitólio (MG), and the burial of a fallen mansion in Ouro Preto (MG) were so shocking and didactic that they may have awakened the conscience of many who think that extreme events will only happen in the distant future.

These images reminded me of the title I gave to the column I wrote about the movie “Don’t look up”: “Planet will not be destroyed quickly, as in the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, but gradually”.

Rocks unexpectedly falling on tourists and earth tumbling down a hill to destroy a beautiful piece of colonial architecture are small media examples of an announced disaster. Pieces of the planet are being destroyed little by little, but with an impressive speed and intensity, popping up in different places at the same time.

In Bahia, entire cities and thousands of buildings were under water as a result of unprecedented floods at the end of the year (which is not the rainy season in Bahia), leaving about 130 cities in a state of emergency, 26 dead and about 100 thousand homeless.

In Minas Gerais, at the beginning of the year, the same occurred in 370 municipalities (44% of the state). Twenty-five people died and 52,000 were left homeless or displaced by floods or the risk of dam failure. In the north of the state of Rio de Janeiro, another 25,000 people had the same misfortune. Thousands of families lost everything they had.

Of course, the destruction of an elite mansion, national heritage, filmed live, gains greater repercussion, but dozens of similar scenes took place in cities hit by storms, with precarious houses and poor people being buried and cars being dragged by the current.

While the strip between Bahia and Minas was underwater, Argentina and southern Brazil are suffering from a strong heat wave and drought. Argentina experienced the hottest week since records began in 1906. The heat was accompanied by fires, blackouts and lack of water.

Amid the high temperatures, a blackout hit the north of Buenos Aires, after peaks in demand due to the simultaneous operation of large numbers of air conditioners. The blackout was caused by a fire in the generators of a power plant.

In Córdoba, large fires broke out and the authorities evacuated the tourist town of San Marcos Sierras, where firefighters had difficulty controlling the fire. In Arroyito, in the province of Córdoba, the asphalt of a street was destroyed by the heat.

In Mar del Plata, on the Argentine coast, 27 fires led to hospitalizations of patients with respiratory problems due to smoke ingestion. Fires were recorded in the regions of Bariloche, Entre Ríos and Corrientes.

In Buenos Aires, maximum temperatures reached 46°C. In addition to the power cuts, there was a lack of water and smoke from the fires hampered visibility in the Aeroparque, causing delays in landings and take-offs.

These increasingly strong and recurrent heat waves and droughts are caused by the climate emergency and the advance of the agricultural frontier over the green area, which has accelerated in recent decades, due to the high prices of soybeans on the international market. All very similar to what happens in Brazil.

Soil desertification is advancing while deforestation is intense in the province of Córdoba (only 3% of the original green cover remains), in the Chaco (north) and in Patagonia (south), caused by the expansion of sheep farming and agricultural production.

As soy employs few workers, thousands of people are forced to migrate to the poor areas of large cities. “This is not sustainable. It is necessary to maintain the diversity of local productions, the dynamics of the economy of small and medium-sized cities”, says Enrique Viale, from the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers.

It is clear that without changing the current model of economic development, particularly those related to agribusiness and mining, where immediate profit comes first, as well as the unsustainable pattern of occupation of urban land, events and tragedies such as are occurring in Brazil and in Argentina will be increasingly frequent.

Mining turned Minas Gerais into a ticking time bomb, with 400 tailings dams, like the ones that caused tragedies in Mariana and Brumadinho, scattered throughout the state.

This week, 31 dams had some level of emergency, six at level 2 (where removal is recommended for residents) and three at level 3 (imminent risk of failure and where residents are forced to leave their homes). In Nova Lima, the Pau Branco Mine dam overflowed.

Instead of changing this model of predatory exploitation of the subsoil, it has been deepening, with the support of the government. President Bolsonaro signed a decree authorizing enterprises considered to be of public utility, including mining, in cave areas.

The device allows the destruction of even natural cavities classified by environmental agencies as of maximum relevance, that is, of great importance for the history of humanity and for the diversity of life.

Facing extreme events requires structural and preventive actions, which need to be priorities.

One of the main challenges for candidates in the presidential elections will be to formulate a proposal for sustainable economic and urban development that generates wealth and work, while protecting the environment and reducing emissions, to mitigate the climate emergency. Without structural changes, we will continue to witness announced tragedies.

As changing this model requires time and political will, it will be necessary to implement preventive government actions to make cities, where extreme events cause more damage and deaths, resilient and safe, in line with Sustainable Development Goal 11.

In 2011, after the tragedy in the Serrana region (RJ), the Dilma government created the National Civil Defense and Protection System and the National Natural Disaster Alert Center (Cemaden), linked to the Ministry of Science and Technology, which issues warnings about floods and landslides, providing information that makes it possible to anticipate disasters, a fundamental instrument.

But cities need to prepare themselves, increasing soil permeability, preserving Permanent Protection Areas on the banks of water courses, producing housing for low-income families and drawing up the Risk Reduction Plan.

São Paulo, which this year has been spared both floods and heat waves, is unprepared. The Master Plan determined that the Municipal Risk Reduction Plan be prepared, but so far the city has not formulated it, despite being questioned for years by the Public Ministry. You can’t count on divine help.