BRAZIL ON THE FRONTLINE OF CLIMATE CHANGE – CSM

Framed by the brightly coloured sails of the wind-surfers and kite-surfers dancing on the Atlantic Ocean, Robson Barros’s beachfront restaurant sits amid the palm tree lined white sandy cove of Icarai.

Up until recently such idyllic beaches that dot Brazil’s northeast shoulder were uncharted territory for international visitors but a growing reputation as a Mecca for water sports enthusiasts has spawned an explosion of tourism.

The tables at Robson’s are abuzz with Europeans and North Americans trading superlatives about this little slice of paradise but Robson offers a paradoxical warning that Icarai has one great “Achilles heel”.

As he points to a haphazard stack of rocks shoved crudely against the sand embankment he explains, “First my father’s home is being destroyed by sand, now my restaurant is being swallowed by the sea, we cannot stop it and the government does nothing.”

While Robson cites local officialdom for his consternation, Icarai is not alone in its plight and the perils of many of the northeast’s tropical beaches are rooted far beyond the control of the federal government of the state of Ceara.

“We are talking about the coalface of global climate change, rising sea levels and their effects are not just something in the future they’re happening now,” says Jeovah de Meireles, a Professor of Geography at the University of Ceara.

While coastal erosion has become a byword for climate change in the region, Brazil is not unfamiliar to the gamut of environmental assaults. In recent months unusually heavy rains in the northeast left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and killed over 55. Meanwhile, southern Brazil is ebbing and flowing between floods and the worst droughts that the country has seen in over 80 years.

It all has President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva concerned; “Brazil is feeling climate changes that are happening in the world, when there is a drought in a place where there’s never been, when it rains in places where it never rains”, he said on a recent visit to the state of Pernambuco.

Bordering Ceara on the northeast, Pernambuco offers the most striking example of climate change. The average temperature rose from 30 to 34 degrees in the last 40 years – 1 degree per decade.

According to the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, further increases in temperature could cost the northeast over 11 percent in economic earnings by 2070.

Such prospects have the Government under pressure to find answers. While in the past Brazil has shooed off responsibility to “industrialised countries” the Lula administration now talks of “being an example to the world of taking care of our own things.”

With the jury still out on the cause of these abnormal increases in temperature all agree that human activity is playing a prominent role.

“As well as deforestation in the neighbouring Amazon region, the increased soy-ization of the interior and the disorganized development along our coast are all making this the perfect environmental monitor,” explains Professor Jader de Morais, head of Geosciences and Oceanology at the University of Ceara.

Morais has been sited to head up an unprecedented Government investigation into the correlation between rising temperatures and the annexing of the regions beaches by the sea.

The study that encapsulates the 356 miles of the state of Ceara’s coastline aims to identify priority areas for monitoring, protection and sustainable re-planning.

On the far west it will take into account the famed Jericoacoara beach, often touted as one of most beautiful on the planet. Its neighbouring village of Tatajuba, a former fishing community was buried by moving sand dunes – it’s now a tourist attraction.

Morais says, “It’s not just about erosion, it’s about the transforming effects of the coastline and the seas deposits.”

The state capital of Fortaleza and its hotel draped facade sitting on the east coast will also be under scrutiny.

New beaches that are appearing just off its shore are sending murky messages about the exponential effects of large-scale development.

Jose Brabo, Meteorologist from FUNCEME, the Cearense Foundation of Meteorology and Water Resources says, “While there is not a way to turn back the barometer, an important factor in the future will be how we interact with the coastline.”

As the tourist buck increasingly permeates the local economy there is no doubt big development is set to continue. The first direct flights between Fortaleza and the United States opened in December of last year and news of the city hosting games for the 2014 soccer world cup have everyone a flutter with ideas.

Brabo emphasises that the least we can do is learn from our past mistakes and other parts of the world can take note of what is happening here, “You know”, he says, “For one thing let’s think about what we mean by living at the beach, it doesn’t have to mean living on the beach.”

This article was written for Christian Science Monitor

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