OF THE MISFORTUNE PROVOKED AND IGNORED

At the moment, as it should be in a country with an educated elite, we are worried about the infernal heat in European countries, such as Spain, France, Greece, among others, and in the United States, where in the World Cup they take an intermediate break to refresh the players while throwing water on the lawn. In summary, in the northern hemisphere the infernal heat, as the cyclists of the Tour de France also say, and the fires, as in the vicinity of Paris, where 2000 ha of one of the most beautiful parks in France, Fontainebleau, were destroyed. In Spain, the fires also caused destruction and deaths.

For some, the misfortune of others is refreshment and the most fierce nationalists in Brazil even say that this is good for us who are grown up and nothing affects us, on the contrary we can only benefit. Total deception, because according to the study sponsored by FAPESP, a São Paulo research funding agency, nine out of ten Brazilian cities have been affected in recent years by climate disasters. Thus, 92% of Brazilian municipalities suffered. And 130 million people, more than half of the Brazilian population, were affected and almost five thousand people died. The economic loss, not to mention social, exceeded 124 billion dollars or 620 billion reais.

Eight months ago, the news of the day was the COP, climate conference in Belém. Does anyone even remember what was decided there, or rather what was not decided? The world today no longer puts the climate issue as a priority. Governments have relaxed environmental standards, starting with the world's biggest polluters, the United States and China, and we are in a save yourself who can. Climate disasters affect the population and the economy as a whole. It is false to say that agriculture will be the most affected. The cities are being destroyed, the glaciers of Switzerland are melting, and groundwater is increasingly scarce. The so-called energy transition was not enough to stop the changes.

In our region we still have this year the El Niño phenomenon, which deeply affects the rains and dry periods, fundamental for the agricultural sector. Well, from disasters we are great, from government failure both in the formulation of relief policies and in prevention, too. No one is discussing investment in infrastructure, not only in Brazil, it is also worn out and without maintenance, for example in Germany and the United States, to avoid deaths and all losses. And in Brazil, it is arguing even less in the campaign about what to do in the future.

At the level of natural disaster prevention, we have a good technical and scientific infrastructure. Now, relying only on the state will not be enough.