Number of People Affected by Rain
The total number of people affected by disasters linked to rainfall in Brazil and the number of these occurrences reached their highest in ten years in 2022, according to data from the National Civil Defense system. In total, there were 890.188 victims, including deaths, injured, sick, homeless, displaced, and missing, 150% more compared to 2012. They were affected by 2.576 records of intense rains, floods, and mass movements (such as mudslides), an increase of 402% compared to 2012. The data comes from S2iD (Integrated Disaster Information System), fed by state and municipal governments. There is still no consolidated information for 2023, the year in which Brazil, once again, saw cities on the coast of Sao Paulo, such as Sao Sebastiao, and cities in Rio Grande do Sul destroyed by the power of intense rainfall. The increase in the frequency of extreme events is proof, according to physicist and USP professor Paulo Artaxo, that the effects of global warming are already here. "What is predicted in the IPCC [UN International Panel for Climate Change] reports is exactly what is happening now. We can see it in Libya, Rio Grande do Sul, and China, there is a strong increase in the concentration of rain." In eastern Libya, floods have already left at least 11,000 dead.