The chaos in Buriticupu is a microcosm of the climate crisis unfolding around us
In the Brazilian city of Buriticupu, alarming environmental issues are causing residents to abandon their homes as the ground slowly sinks beneath their feet. In this northeastern Amazon region, a state of emergency has been announced as approximately 1,200 individuals face the prospect of displacement due to hazardous landslides, which have already claimed several buildings.
The situation stems from years of heavy rainfall combined with poor construction practices, a problem residents have endured for about three decades.
The situation in Buriticupu reflects a broader trend in climate crisis-related natural disasters around the globe.
Severe natural phenomena: surging in the past fifty years
According to Roman Vilfand, the scientific director of the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia, the number of hazardous natural phenomena—ranging from severe cold snaps and heatwaves to intense storms and tornadoes—has surged by five to six times over the past 50 years.
Vilfand noted that these extreme weather events are closely tied to global warming, which increases thermal energy and intensifies climate anomalies, leading to erratic weather patterns worldwide.
So, Buriticupu is a microcosm of the climate crisis chaos unfolding around us.
Further illustrating the consequences of climate change, Indonesia experienced powerful rains in January, which resulted in devastating floods and landslides that destroyed infrastructure, including bridges and homes. The seasonal rains are not uncommon, but this particular episode led to the loss of 21 lives and compelled around 300 people to seek emergency shelter.
In China, a significant earthquake on January 7, the largest in the past five years, struck the Tibet Autonomous Region, resulting in 95 fatalities. The epicentre of the quake was located near Shigatse, a city with a population of around 800,000.
In the US, experts are monitoring the potential eruption of Mount Rainier, a stratovolcano that presents a risk to nearly 90,000 people living in the surrounding urban areas. The threat of lahars—rapid mudflows caused by melting snow and ice—raises concerns similar to those witnessed during the 1985 eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia, where such phenomena resulted in a tragic loss of life.
Buriticupu and the Global South: affected by the Global North’s greed
Meanwhile, scientists have updated their predictions regarding a large asteroid, previously thought to impact Earth in 2032, now believed to potentially hit the Moon instead. Regardless of its trajectory, its impact could lead to dramatic changes in the planet’s climate, sparking discussions about historical extinction events linked to similar cosmic impacts.
The power of volcanic eruptions also poses a significant threat. If extremely intense, these eruptions can release ash into the stratosphere, creating cooling effects on a global scale by blocking solar energy from reaching the Earth’s surface. A notable example is the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, which led to a drastic temperature drop in the Northern Hemisphere.
As scientists progress in their studies, some predict the year 2025 will be marked by an increase in natural disasters, including flooding, hurricanes, and geomagnetic activity alongside abnormal heat and melting glaciers, which may lead to more flooding in cities across the US and parts of Asia. Climate scientists theorise that these forthcoming events would have severe impacts, including possible displacements similar to those seen in Buriticupu.
While the impacts of climate change disproportionately affect regions of the Global South – like in Buriticupu – the role of countries in the Global North in causing these crises through industrial emissions and other practices cannot be understated.
Featured image via the Canary
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I try to live green but there is only so much I can do as an indivudual. Governments must do more. And yet Starmer’s entire economic policy is summed up in one word: ‘growth’. Without exactly defining growth or explaining how it will fix any (still less every) problem affecting Britain, Labour is gung-ho about promoting it. They follow every lobbyist, influencer, snake-oil sales pitch that promises ‘growth!’ and never count the cost. They ignore genocides or support foreign wars because selling arms counts as economic activity and thus as ‘growth!’ They want AI no matter the harm it does because it is hyped as the golden key to prosperity (for oligarchs) and thus aids ‘growth!’ never mind that using AI requires energy-guzzling data centres that drive climate change and use up limited water supplies. They want more houses so they rip up planning rules to help speculators build housing that only the rich or BTL investors can afford and never mind the environmental costs because it all counts as ‘growth!’ Labour’s economic policy is so stupid it defies belief. It is a kind of death cult where the cult leaders are so far gone on the ‘kool-aid’ they are not even aware of their own death-wish. Yet no one calls them out on it? Are we all lemmings, then?
The only other principle behind Starmer’s Labour besides ‘growth!’ is ‘popularity!’ Starmer and Reeves are fixated on ‘growth!’ because the rich advisers they listen to want it and the politicians have never educated themselves beyond the 1990s ideas of Blair’s Nu Labour so they have nothing newer to argue against the fat cat hegemony. They are equally fixated on ‘popularity!’ because this is their entire political strategy (Johnson used to rely on three word slogans instead of actual policies e.g. ‘get brexit done’, now Labour have outdone Boris and reduced their entire government to two one-word slogans, if one word can even be a slogan – maybe its an Orwellian one?). Chasing ‘popularity!’ is how they hope to avoid being destroyed by people angered by economics that just make the rich richer and the poor poorer. So, Starmer goes all out for whatever is popular but does not derail ‘growth!’ which is why he backs Ukraine – a popular cause (according to polls and focus groups) and a foreign war where Britain supplies the arms (thus pushing up ‘growth!’) and this ticks his whole two boxes. What could go wrong?
Labour cannot see the cliff they are rushing over, but I think most British voters can. And anyone unsure will find out the hard way over the coming months as Labour’s mindless ‘growth!’ policy unravels in conflict with its equally mindless ‘polpularity!’ strategy. You cannot do government on this threadbare basis. There is no substitute for well-reasoned political principles and reality-based policies. Labour used to be able to do that. Now, I suspect they haven’t got the talented people to do it. This is their ‘unknown unknown’ – they simply do not know how stupid they are so they cannot fix their stupidity.