Johnathan Ramirez

English 301
Professor Leslie Bruce
November 14, 2015
Brazils Deforestation causes Drought
Sao Paulo is known as the wealthiest area of Brazil for its beautiful rivers,
huge dams, and having one-eighths of the worlds freshest water, making them
known as the Saudi Arabia of water (Romero 2015). Now, Brazil is going
through one of the most drastic droughts in the 21 st century. Dry seasons are
longer, pollution in rivers have risen, rainfall continues to decrease and reservoirs
are becoming scarce to the point where are going days without water, public
schools prohibiting water usage on their lunch menus, families are even trying to
build their own wells in order to use the water for things like flushing the toilet and
washing dishes and washing fruits and vegetables (Romero 2015). The reason
for this drastic drought is the deforestation in Brazil, creating a domino effect in
the ecosystem and environment causing climate change, negative effects on
their agriculture, and new reservoirs to dry out.
Deforestation results in the major climate change in Brazil because it
continues to decrease the humidity/moisture in the air within the Amazon basin
rainforest causing longer dry seasons (Davidson 2012).

To further elaborate, the illustration shows a

timeline of how the drought will effect their temperature, precipitation, and
humidity (Marengo 2015). These high temperatures and dryness in the region
have continued to increase in Brazil and if this continues by the year 2100, the
probability of desertification will be inevitable (Marengo 2015). These issues
have accumulated over time because of the negligence of the Brazilian
government not taking the initiative to prevent the deforestation in Brazil,
especially in Sao Paolo, which is suppose to be the Saudi Arabia of water in the
country (Romero 2015). In Jan Rochas article, Drought bites as Amazons flying
rivers dry up, he exemplifies on a climate scientists research explicitly stating
without trees there would be no water, and without water there is no
food(2014), the trees are what helps bring moisture and humidity which bring
the vapour clouds from the Amazon that normally bring rain (Rocha 2014).
Since most of the rainforests have been destroyed (22% Amazon, 47% of the
Cerrafo in central Brazil, and 91.5% of the Atlantic forest that covers the coastal

area of Brazil) has been destroyed, that the drought continues to worsen since
there is no rainfall. When there are no trees, there are no vapour clouds to bring
rain, which creates more trees and affects their agriculture as well (Rocha 2014).
Which leads me to the next issue caused by deforestation, Brazils agriculture.
The graph below illustrates Brazils Climatic gradient across the Amazon basin,
showing certain areas that have been affected by the drought, which has been
caused by deforestation.

Brazils agriculture had significantly been impacted by this severe drought

because the Amazon forest produces the humidity and moisture to the region
because it brings the humidity of the Atlantic Ocean into the continent and
guarantees the irrigation of the region, hence, if there no humidity, there is no
rain, when there is no rain, food and crops cannot grow, leading to the downfall of
their agriculture (Rocha 2014). Unfortunately, massive deforestation continues all
over Brazil, causing less rainfall, higher temperatures, dryness, and no water to
grow food within the region (Rocha 2014). Conditions have grown worse to the
point where the indigenous people are surviving on famine food (plant foods that
are consumed when food is scarce for a large population of people) for survival
(Nascimento 2012). Those who are fortune, some are able to receive

governmental subsidies and pensions to help their families (Nascimento 2012).

Nascimento elaborates in his article that knowledge about emergency food is
restricted to a small portion of the populationthe existence of knowledge about
plants used as famine foods in a population suggests that the population has
experienced problems with food acquisition(2012). This indicates that there is a
massive population of people going without food because of the shortages of
famine foods as well. Hence, because of the domino effect from deforestation,
countless people have been going through starvation, dehydration, and
malnutrition.
Another important issue that deforestation has affected is Brazils new
reservoirs. In Claudia dos Santoss article, she exemplifies how one of the
Cantareira water supply was at a record low since the early 2000s even though
there has been massive floods over the years (2014). However, there were
massive floods that had occurred within these regions of Brazil, unfortunately,
these floods were still not enough to increase the reservoir levels for Sao Paulo
(Santos 2014).
In conclusion, this country is at the border of desertification if the
government continues to neglect the damage done by deforestation. They need
to put an end to deforestation before consequences escalate any further. In doing
so, they should create laws prohibiting deforestation and create preservations to
conserve what is left of the rainforest. In addition, they should create non-profit
organizations that would help plant new trees and stop pollution within the
amazon rivers. With temperatures rising, less rain, and longer dry seasons, it is

only a matter of time before Sao Paulo and the rest of the country will be without
any water supply. As Eric Davidson declared, continued improvements in
scientific and technological capacity and human resources will be required in the
Amazon region to guide and manage both biophysical and socioeconomic
transitions (2012). Therefore, it is critical that the Brazilian government takes the
initiative to stop deforestation because its affect on climate change, agriculture,
and new reservoirs that has caused the their massive drought.

Bibliography
Davidson, E., de Araujo, A., Artaxo, P., Balch, J., Brown, I., et al. (2012). The
amazon basin in transition. NATURE, 481 (7381), 321-328.
Nascimento, V., Vasconcelos, M., Maciel, M., & Alburquerque, U. (2012). Famine
foods of brazils seasonal dry forests: Ethnobotanical and nutritional aspects.
Economic Botany, 66(1), 22-34.
Marengo, J., & Bernasconi, M. (2015). Regional differences in aridity/drought
conditions over northeast brazil: Present state and future projections. Climatic
Change, 129 (1), 103-115

Rocha, Jan.(2014). Drought bites as Amazons flying rivers dry. Climate News
Network.
Romero, Simon. (2015). Taps Start to Run Dry in Brazils Largest City: Sao Paulo
Water Crisis Linked to Growth, Pollution and Deforestation. The New York Times.
Santos, C., & Pereira Filho, A. (2014). Water demand forecasting model for the
metropolitan area of sao Paulo, brazil. Water Resources Management, 28(13),
4401-4414.