After torrential rains and historic flooding in southern Brazil, the country expects severe drought in some areas, the environment minister said on Wednesday.
Brazil has been hit by a series of extreme weather events, the most recent being a single flood in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, which killed 172 people.
Environment Minister Marina Silva said the floods were due to a mix of natural phenomena such as El Niño and climate change, a double whammy seen elsewhere.
“The same thing happens in the Pantanal, in the Amazon,” he said, referring to the climatic extremes of one of the world’s largest tropical wetlands and its largest rainforest.
He said that the northeast of Caatinga, a semi-arid biome exclusive to biodiversity, “was already experiencing moments of severe drought, and in the case of Rio Grande do Sul, we are going to experience a severe drought. “
Silva, who spoke with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, warned of new fires after the records recorded in the first months of the year.
An immediate study by scientists around the world after the Rio Grande do Sul floods concluded that climate change made the event twice as likely, and that El Niño played an equally important role in the crisis.
El Niño, which is transforming rainfall patterns around the world, causing some regions to suffer torrential rains or droughts, is lately weakening.
After a brief unbiased period, La Niña, which can lead to droughts in parts of Latin America, is expected to return.
Silva, a well-known activist in her field, returned to head the Ministry of Environment and oversaw Brazil’s climate update policy when Lula returned to office in January 2023.
It had good news for Brazil’s Cerrado region, a vast tropical savannah famous for its biodiversity where deforestation increased by as much as 43% in 2023, while in the Amazon it was halved.
Silva said that between January and May deforestation decreased to 12. 9 in the Cerrado, but “it is too early to say that this is a long-lasting curvature of the curve. “
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