Climate change worsens NE Brazil’s drought
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Climate change worsens NE Brazil’s drought
The drought affecting Brazil’s huge north-eastern region threatens to render it completely arid – and scientists say the warming climate is to blame.
By Jan Rocha
SÃO PAULO, 2 October, 2016 – A recently published study suggests that the droughts which have traditionally affected Brazil´s semi-arid northeast are being worsened by the effects of climate change.
The region covers 18% of Brazil’s total area and is home to 53 million people, a quarter of the population of South America’s largest country. With 34 inhabitants per square mile, it is the most densely populated semi-arid region in the world.
Droughts have been recorded there since the earliest days of Portuguese colonisation in the 16th century. Many of Brazil’s leading painters and writers have portrayed the dramatic effects of the resultant famines in their works, like Candido Portinari’s 1944 portrayals of drought refugees, Os retirantes, or Graciliano Ramos’ 1938 book, Vidas Secas (Barren Lives).