Florence and Mangkhut

Published in Folha de São Paulo
(Brazil) on 18 Sep 2018
by (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Domitila Olivé. Edited by Helaine Schweitzer.
Unlike Donald Trump, world leaders take a pragmatic approach to climate change.

Hurricane Florence, which reached Category 4 (out of 5), weakened to a Category 1 before touching down on the North Carolina coast. It was soon downgraded to a tropical storm, with a wind speed of over 38 mph, but it is still causing damage due to flooding.

The storm locally dumped up to 30 inches of rain. There were more than 20 official deaths in the U.S. as of last Monday, September 17, and millions of people remain homeless.

On the other side of the globe, Typhoon Mangkhut plowed through the Philippines leaving dozens of victims, most of whom were miners buried in landslides. (Many are still missing.) Mangkhut then wreaked havoc in Hong Kong and the Chinese province of Guangdong.

The typhoon brought 18 inches of rain to the Philippine area. Like Florence, its destructive force is related to the amount of water it brings about in the form of rainstorms rather than its wind speed.

The cyclones’ rainfall is directly related to the additional energy transmitted to the atmosphere by global warming. Warmer oceans evaporate more, which in turn produces rainfall, ocean surges and stronger floods — precisely some of the more extreme events predicted by climate change simulations.

Still, the American president, Donald Trump, continues to dismantle carbon emissions reduction policies. History’s most polluting country withdrew from the 2015 Paris climate agreement which was arduously negotiated and clearly not enough to contain global warming at safe levels.

However, it is not all bad news. Last week, hundreds of governors, mayors and aboriginal leaders attended the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, striving to follow a different direction than Trump — and not just in speeches.

One hundred big companies in the food and fiber industry revealed billions of dollars in investments in smart agriculture to reduce climate pollution. Nine foundations intend to donate approximately $7.6 billion until 2022 to encourage traditional people to preserve forests.

A group of 27 cities with a total of 54 million inhabitants announced that they have reduced their carbon emissions over a period of five years (but none of the cities are in developing countries).

As evidence is gathered, decision-makers are leaving ideology aside and taking a pragmatic approach to climate change. Let’s hope it is not too little, too late.


Distanciando-se de Trump, líderes adotam postura pragmática diante da mudança do clima

O furacão Florence, que chegou à categoria 4 (numa escala de 5), havia retrocedido ao nível 1 antes de tocar a costa da Carolina do Norte (EUA). Logo foi rebaixado para tempestade tropical, com ventos aquém de 60 km/h, mas segue fazendo estragos com enchentes.

A tormenta despejou localmente até 750 mm de chuva. Contaram-se mais de 20 mortos nos Estados Unidos, até segunda-feira (17), e milhares de desabrigados.

Do outro lado do globo, o tufão Mangkhut castigou as Filipinas com dezenas de vítimas, a maioria delas composta por mineiros soterrados em deslizamento de terra (muitos deles ainda desaparecidos). Depois, provocou caos em Hong Kong e na província chinesa de Guangdong.

Mangkhut levou 450 mm de precipitação a localidades filipinas. Como o Florence, sua força destruidora se relaciona mais com a quantidade de água que mobiliza na forma de chuva do que com ventos.

A pluviosidade dos ciclones está em relação direta com a energia adicional aportada à atmosfera pelo aquecimento global. Oceanos mais quentes ensejam mais evaporação, o que produz chuvas, ressacas e inundações mais fortes —precisamente alguns dos eventos extremos previstos nos modelos que simulam a mudança climática.

Ainda assim, o presidente americano, Donald Trump, prossegue no desmantelamento de políticas de redução de emissões de carbono. O país que mais poluiu na história se retirou do Acordo de Paris (2015), negociado a duras penas e claramente insuficiente para conter o aquecimento em nível seguro.

Nem tudo são más notícias, porém. Na semana que passou, realizou-se em São Francisco (EUA) a Conferência Global de Ação Climática, com centenas de governadores, prefeitos e líderes indígenas empenhados em distanciar-se de Trump, e não só nos discursos.

Cem grandes empresas do setor de alimentos e fibras divulgaram investimentos bilionários em agricultura inteligente, para poluir menos o clima. Nove fundações pretendem doar o equivalente a R$ 1,9 bilhão até 2022 para incentivar povos tradicionais a preservar áreas de floresta.

Um grupo de 27 metrópoles, totalizando 54 milhões de habitantes, anunciou já ter reduzido suas emissões de carbono num período de cinco anos (mas nenhuma delas nos países em desenvolvimento).

Conforme as evidências se acumulam, vê-se, tomadores de decisão deixam as ideologias à parte e adotam uma postura pragmática diante da mudança do clima. Oxalá não seja pouco e tarde demais.
This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

Hot this week

Ireland: Irish Examiner View: Would We Miss Donald Trump and Would a Successor Be Worse?

Turkey: Pay Up or Step Aside: Tariffs in America’s ‘Protection Money’ Diplomacy

Pakistan: Trump’s Gaza Blueprint Unfolds

Topics

Peru: Blockade ‘For Now’

Japan: US President and the Federal Reserve Board: Harmonious Dialogue To Support the Dollar

Austria: The EU Must Recognize That a Tariff Deal with Trump Is Hardly Worth Anything

Mexico: The Network of Intellectuals and Artists in Defense of Venezuela and President Nicholás Maduro

Hong Kong: Cordial Cross-Strait Relations Will Spare Taiwan Trump’s Demands, Says Paul Kuoboug Chang

Germany: The Tariffs Have Side Effects — For the US Too*

Ireland: We Must Stand Up to Trump on Climate. The Alternative Is Too Bleak To Contemplate

Canada: Carney Takes Us Backward with Americans on Trade

Related Articles

Ireland: We Must Stand Up to Trump on Climate. The Alternative Is Too Bleak To Contemplate

Sri Lanka: Trump Is Very Hard on India and Brazil, but For Very Different Reasons

Colombia: US Warships Near Venezuela: Is Latin America’s Left Facing a Reckoning?

Germany: Learn from Lula

France: Climate: Trump Risks Dragging the Planet into a Catastrophic Spiral