The floods which devastated the south of Brazil show the urgency of "creating resilient cities" in the face of climate change, for which the world "is not prepared", judged Brazilian Minister of the Environment Marina Silva on Tuesday May 14 , in an interview with AFP.
Torrential rains over the past two weeks in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, an important agricultural region, have killed some 150 people, according to a still provisional toll, and caused considerable destruction.
Aged 66, the minister of left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is an emblematic figure, recognized abroad, in the fight against climate change.
Question: What was your reaction to this tragedy?
Reply : From an environmental point of view it is sad and at the same time frightening. During all these years we listened to what science, and people of common sense, told us about what was going to happen. But the time has come for us to see it happen in three dimensions: frightening floods, heat waves, periods of great drought.
From a political point of view, this should encourage us to make structuring changes.
If we do not make the decision to mitigate, adapt and transform the development model in Brazil and in the world (...), we will not be able to make the transition towards the end of fossil fuels, which are the main cause of everything that is happening, in time to avoid ever more damage, ever more damaging to life and the balance of the planet.
Q: President Lula admitted that Brazil was not prepared.
A: "It is not prepared. Brazil belongs to the world which is itself not prepared because we have been talking about the problem of the use of fossil fuels, of deforestation for more than 30 years. But unfortunately we have not done our duty as humanity."
Q: Were there any failures in prevention?
A: "Porto Alegre (the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, editor's note) had a drainage system, water pumping, but unfortunately there was not proper maintenance and when it was necessary to activate it it did not didn't work."
Q: What lesson should Brazil learn?
A: What we are doing is not enough (...). The lesson I draw is that we will have to not only mitigate (the effects of global warming, editor's note) but also adapt, because climate change is already here. Create resilient cities, develop plans to manage risks and not just disasters.
We need the mobilization of all of society to also avoid the risks of denial in the face of climate change. Denial causes enormous damage. A vision fueled by this denial paralyzed (public) policies for four years (under the presidency of far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, from 2019 to 2022, editor's note).
Q: How vulnerable is Brazil?
A: There are 1.942 vulnerable municipalities, not all to the same degree. Public policies in certain cases must result in moving the population, creating more regenerative agriculture, recovering vegetation on the banks of rivers.
We must review the relaxations introduced in the legislation, such as a law passed in Parliament which gives the power to mayors to reduce restrictions on construction on the coasts and on the banks of rivers and lakes.
