Page 14 - MONTT LATIN AMERICAN MAGAZINE, AUGUST 2021 (English)

global supplier of food, go out to the world. In Chile, where there is the worst drought since 1968, it was reported that, according to the Ministry of Public Works and the Directorate of Meteorology of Chile, last July was the driest month in history in the Metropolitan Region, with a deficit 86 percent of rainfall and 85 percent in the accumulation of snow, even reaching 100 percent in some sectors of Coquimbo. The reservoirs of the national territory have only 28 percent of their capacity. To these data was added the study carried out by the University of Chile, the Catholic University and the Water Directorate (DGA), which indicated a fall of between 12 to 40 percent in the ows of the Aconcagua, Maipo, and Rapel basins. , Mataquito and Maule. Regarding another point of great relevance that the report addresses, that of the Andean glaciers, it is indicated that the res that burn the Amazon jungle and savanna have another incredible e ect: they thaw, in an accelerated way, these areas. Soot from Amazon res was discovered in the Andes Mountains.
There was a historical incident: On August 23rd, 2010, 148,946 res were registered in the Amazon region. That southern summer was the worst of the century in terms of re, even greater than in recent years. The smoke, which carries black coal produced by combustion, clouded the mountains; days after the wave of res that year there was a strong discharge of water from several glaciers as a result of the accumulation of 800,000 tons of soot. Carbon-covered snow additionally absorbs more than seven percent of the incident radiation. If pollution from other sources (dust, urban pollution, etc.) is added to this, the reduction percentage could reach over 20 percent. The case of Colombia is even more serious; in a work in collaboration with the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (Ideam), it was established that in the last six years that country lost 17 percent oftheglacialarea.Thatis,thereareonly37 square kilometres of ice left. “The increase in global temperature in equatorial areas is much more intense,” explains Jorge Luis Ceballos, Ideam glaciologist, and one of those responsible for the report. “While in the rest of the world it will rise two degrees, in these regions it is estimated that it could be double.” This does not only happen in Colombia; it may soon happen in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru, the Latin American countries that account for 99 percent of the glaciers in tropical areas of the planet.
The Oceans, Mystery for the Future
Another aspect addressed by the report is marine life, coastal ecosystems and human communities that live from the shing and tourism industries, given that the sea level shot up due to the thaw in the extreme north and south of the planet. More than 93 percent of all the heat added to the planet by human activities since the 1950s has been absorbed by the oceans, but at a price we are only beginning to understand. The rise in temperature and the increase in its acidi cation are now being evident in the melting of the Arctic sea ice and, among other things, in the bleaching of corals. The warming of the oceans in the last 60 years has occurred on such a scale that it is di icult to assimilate. A study carried out in 2015 by the Grantham Institute concludes that, if the same amount of heat that was added between 1995 and 2010 in the rst two kilometres of depth of the oceans had been added to the lower 10 of the atmospheres, the temperature of the Earth would have increased by 36 degrees Celsius. Therefore, the oceans have protected us from the worst e ects of climate change. But there is great uncertainty about its ability to absorb carbon dioxide in the future. If the oceans were until now our best allies, there is a risk that they will begin to collect the bill: a large part of the emissions that we have generated since the beginning of the 20th century, now stored can return to the atmosphere. By absorbing more CO2 “the ocean has undergone increasing acidi cation” and there has been “a loss of oxygen”.
On the Pacific coasts, the populations and the industrial and artisanal sheries of countries with a history and fishing tradition such as Chile and Peru su er. It is expected that by 2050, coastal ooding could generate around USD $ 940 million to USD $ 1.2 billion in average annual losses in the 22 largest coastal cities in Latin America. The researchers calculated that the oceans are home to up to 1 million di erent species. Increased temperature can cause mass migration of sh, and with it a homogenization of biodiversity on a planetary scale. This would imply a decrease in maritime biodiversity in the warmer water regions and a drastic increase in the colder regions around the poles. This change could have a very serious impact on sheries and aquaculture around the world. “Fish populations will move towards the poles to locate their preferred temperatures; this will particularly a ect tropical countries in terms of sheries; already in Europe we have seen mackerel and cod moving further
north“, explains Alex Rogers, professor of Biology at the University of Oxford that: “Fish also get smaller as temperatures increase“, adds this specialist .
Need to Protect the Environment
Another aspect to consider is the importance of crops and livestock. Latin America and the Caribbean is the second region that generates the most agricultural emissions globally (17 percent), only surpassed by Asia (44 percent).
The study warns that the increase in temperature will continue at least until the middle of this century, whatever happens. As of 2050, things can get really complicated, because the level of warming will not be achieved between 1,5 and 2 degrees Celsius “unless there are profound reductions in emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the coming decades”. In the worst- case scenario, if no action is taken and emissions continue to grow at the same rate as up to now, the report estimates that by the end of this century there would be an increase of 4,4 degrees Celsius, something that would also multiply the intensity and frequency of extreme events.
Developed countries announced stimulus packages - four trillion dollars in the United States and 750 billion euros in Europe - re ecting unorthodox scal and monetary expansions, with commitments in green investments to tackle this problem.
In Latin America, stimulus packages were smaller, at 4,7 percent of GDP (USD $ 211 billion), and of these only 3,2 percent would be consistent with environmental and climate goals.
Spending on environmental protection in Latin America and the Caribbean experienced a decline in recent years. Between 2016 and 2019, it averaged just 0.4 percent of central government spending, and in 2020 it dropped to just 0,2 percent. Thesolutionstothisproblemofinternational entities indicate that the new approach must be a paradigmatic change oriented towards a new civilization, with a better quality of life and with a relevant concern for environmental sustainability, a style that allows a positive projection towards future generations. However, this will not happen without a deep and structural transformation, and it will not be possible without an equally intense cultural change, which cancels the current tendencies towards individualism and allows the recovery of the value of solidarity, not only with human beings, but with all forms of life that populate the Earth.
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