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world news Diaranson 2 Maart 2022

Climate change brings extreme, early impact to South America

(AP) — Scientists have drought of the Parana River regulation.
long been warning that dried much of it out; its wa-
extreme weather would ters are in the lowest level Even in Colombia, where
cause calamity in the fu- since 1944. Since January it President Iván Duque has
ture. But in South Amer- has been the stage of raging attempted to rein in illegal
ica — which in just the fires. logging, a recent increase in
last month has had deadly forest fires led more than 150
landslides in Brazil, wild- And this week, 70% of the international academics and
fire in Argentine wetlands remote city of Jordao in Bra- activists last week to send a
and flooding in the Ama- zil’s Amazon rainforest was letter urging the government
zon so severe it ruined submerged by the overflow to take a more aggressive
harvests — that future is of two rivers. It has shattered stance.
already here. the lives of thousands of peo-
ple in the region, including in Indeed, local prosecutors and
In just three hours on Feb. 32 Indigenous communities. police have said the region is
15, the city of Petropolis, nes- more and more dependent
tled in the forested moun- Central and South America on activists for preservation, for blazes that spread rapidly. time, unlike last year, show-
tains above Rio de Janeiro, is the second most urban- either to prevent defores- ers arrived not just too early,
received over 10 inches of ized region in the world af- tation that leads to drastic Brazil’s south and south- but also brutally, he told the
rainfall – more than ever reg- ter North America with 81% changes in climate or to deal east regions last year faced AP.
istered in a single day since percent of its population re- with the consequences of en- their worst droughts in nine
authorities began keeping re- siding within cities. In this vironmental degradation. decades, raising the specter He added that the small city’s
cords in 1932. The ensuing context, forests are playing a of possible power rationing agricultural production is
landslides swallowed the lives vital role to stabilize local cli- Alejandra Boloqui, 54, man- given the grid’s dependence “virtually all destroyed.”
of more than 200 people, and mates and to help the world ages a private natural reserve on hydroelectric plants. Si-
left nearly 1,000 homeless. meet the ambitious tempera- in Argentina’s Ibera Wetlands, multaneously, in Manaus, This jibes with the IPCC re-
ture goals set by the 2015 and has been helping fire- the largest city in the Ama- port, which says changes in
A report published Monday Paris Agreement, experts say. fighters wage their desperate zon, rivers swelled to levels the timing and magnitude of
by the Intergovernmental fight against the flames. Last unseen in over a century of precipitation along with ex-
Panel on Climate Change The entire Amazon rainfor- week, she recorded a scene record-keeping, flooding treme temperatures are im-
(IPCC) corroborates what est stores between 150 and on her phone that over- streets and houses and affect- pacting agricultural produc-
many on the ground are wit- 200 billion tonnes of carbon whelmed her with sadness: ing some 450,000 people in tion across Central and South
nessing with their own eyes. in the vegetation and soil, ac- a dozen alligators fleeing the the region. America.
Global warming is altering cording to Carlos Nobre, a flames and walking down a
the intensity and frequency of prominent Brazilian climate dirt track in search of water. This week, with most of Am- Acre state’s government said
extreme weather events, such scientist who has studied the azonian city Jordao plunged at least 76 families have lost
as El Nino and La Nina, the biome for several decades. They, along with many other underwater, Indigenous their homes in Jordao and
natural heating and cooling animals, found temporary leader and forest guard Josias around, most of them In-
of parts of the Pacific that al- But most governments across refuge in a nearby lagoon that Kaxinawá is working to bring digenous and now living in
ters weather patterns around the region have failed to heed had dried up due to lack of any support he can to dozens a local shelter. But Mayor
the globe. These events have the IPCC’s warnings and rain and has since been artifi- of communities. He spent Naudo Ribeiro admitted the
also become more difficult stop the destruction. Many cially refilled with solar water all day Wednesday rescuing count was underestimated.
to predict, causing additional South American leaders have pumps. people and their belongings
damage, the report said. remained silent about illegal using his small boat equipped More than 3,400 kilometers
logging and mining activities Local authorities attributed with an outboard motor. (2,100 miles) away in Pet-
Until 2020, there was plenty in sensitive regions. Brazil’s the fires to the burning of ropolis, the Brazilian city rav-
of water, swamps, stagnant President Jair Bolsonaro has pastures for cattle ranching, The Jordao and Tarauaca riv- aged by landslides last week,
lakes and lagoons in Argen- gone further, outright en- which has been prohibited ers join during the rainy sea- Mayor Rubens Bomtempo
tina’s Ibera Wetlands, one of couraging it both with his since December. IPCC ex- son, which Kaxinawá and his provided journalists with a
the largest such ecosystems words and by weakening perts stress in the report that neighbors didn’t expect for similar comment just days
in the world. But an historic environmental agencies and droughts lay the groundwork several more weeks. But this before.

With men fighting in Ukraine, women and children flee alone

(AP) — Of the hundreds of refugees
gathered on the grounds of a small Irina Yarimchuk, an accountant from the
village school in eastern Hungary, al- western Ukrainian town of Kalush, trav-
most all are women and children who eled the five hours to the Hungarian vil-
left their husbands, fathers, brothers lage of Tiszabecs early Tuesday with her
and sons behind to fight in Ukraine’s 14-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter.
resistance to the deadly Russian in-
vasion. Through tears, she said her brother had
joined the Ukrainian army, and she was
The exodus of refugees from the war in “very worried about his life.”
Ukraine is rapidly growing in the east-
ern countries of the European Union, After a missile hit the nearby Ivano-
with more than 675,000 people fleeing Frankivsk airport as the Russian invasion
to neighboring countries since the Rus- began Thursday, Yarimchuk — who is
sian invasion began — a number that will planning to stay with relatives in Prague
only grow, according to the U.N. refugee — spent her days and nights shuttling her
agency. family from their home to a bomb shelter
as air raid sirens blared every few hours.
Shabia Mantoo, a spokeswoman for the
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, “From that day ... we stay outside our
said in Geneva Tuesday that “at this rate, home every evening,” she said of the five
the situation looks set to become Eu- panicked nights before she left. “I was
rope’s largest refugee crisis this century.” afraid for my children.”