Issued on: 08/10/2021 -
A massive dust storm is seen engulfing the neighborhood of Nossa Senhora do Carmo at the city of Frutal, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, on September 26, 2021
Sao Paulo (AFP)
Unusually powerful sandstorms have left at least six people dead in Sao Paulo in recent weeks, local media said, as southeastern Brazil grapples with severe drought.
Scenes of huge orange dust clouds rumbling across the countryside -- with winds of up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) an hour -- have been seen at least three times since the end of September, terrifying residents in urban and rural areas of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais states.
The six people killed in Sao Paulo were victims of falling trees and houses and other direct consequences of the storms, local media reported.
"In some ways, they're a common occurence, but not of this magnitude that we've seen in 2021," meteorologist Estael Sias of the Brazilian weather channel Metsul told AFP of the storms.
"It's the result of a long period of a lack of rain, high temperature and low humidity," he explained.
After the dry season, rain arrives, usually accompanied by wind storms.
"The wind gusts come in contact with the sandy ground and churn up into the atmosphere pollution, waste and the leftovers from fires, which also happen during the dry period," Sias said.
The strong storms "can't be separated from climate change," he said.
"In this century, every year has had record temperatures. There is more heat in the atmosphere, which has just been transformed into energy for extreme (weather) events: rain, storms, floods, but also drought, cold and heat, what has just been unleashed with events like these dust storms," Sias said.
Such storms, which can be frequent in desert regions, can reach thousands of meters into the sky, be up to 160 kilometers wide and last for several hours, according to Sias.
In addition to dealing with extreme drought, the mostly agricultural region also has large open areas uncovered by vegetation, which also leaves land vulnerable to soil being caught up in high winds.
Brazil is facing its worst drought in 91 years, which has led to a critically low water level in hydroelectric reserves in the central-western and southern part of the country, driving up electricity costs.
© 2021 AFP
Brazil first post-pandemic oil auction finds few buyers
Issued on: 07/10/2021 -
Issued on: 07/10/2021 -
An environmental activist dressed as a dinosaur is seen in front of a line of riot police during a protest against an oil auction held in Rio de Janeiro on October 07, 2021
Mauro PIMENTEL, MAURO PIMENTEL AFP
Rio de Janeiro (AFP)
Brazil's oil auction ended in disappointment on Thursday, with the government selling offshore drilling rights in only five out of 92 blocks on offer.
The dismal results reflected the weakened state of the oil industry during the Covid-19 pandemic as well as environmental concerns, according to experts.
The auction brought in just 37.14 million reais ($6.7 million) compared to the $2 billion raised at the previous auction held in October 2019, before the pandemic started.
Crucially, in a win for environmental activists, no offers were made for the blocks in the northeastern Potiguar Bay, which is close to the Fernando de Noronha and Rocas Atoll archipelagos, the former a UNESCO World Heritage site and the latter a biological reserve.
Around 50 protesters demonstrated in front of a hotel in Rio de Janeiro where the auction took place, notably against the projects' risks to traditional fishing.
One demonstrator carried an iconic AFP photograph of an oil-stained Brazilian boy following an oil spill off the coast of northeast Brazil in 2019.
All the five blocks were bought by Royal Dutch Shell. They are located in the southeastern Santos Bay, close to the oil-rich pre-salt layer on Brazil's coast.
Brazil's state oil company Petrobras, usually very active at auctions, made no bids.
Rodolfo Saboia, the director of the National Oil Agency, which organized the auction, insisted the result was "positive" given how hard the industry has been hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
"We cannot call it a failure, we couldn't expect all the blocks to find a buyer," he said.
But Fernanda Delgado, a researcher at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, told AFP that "everyone expected there to be interest in more areas."
The lack of bids was because companies "did not want to take the political risk or environmental risk," Delgado added.
© 2021 AFP
Rio de Janeiro (AFP)
Brazil's oil auction ended in disappointment on Thursday, with the government selling offshore drilling rights in only five out of 92 blocks on offer.
The dismal results reflected the weakened state of the oil industry during the Covid-19 pandemic as well as environmental concerns, according to experts.
The auction brought in just 37.14 million reais ($6.7 million) compared to the $2 billion raised at the previous auction held in October 2019, before the pandemic started.
Crucially, in a win for environmental activists, no offers were made for the blocks in the northeastern Potiguar Bay, which is close to the Fernando de Noronha and Rocas Atoll archipelagos, the former a UNESCO World Heritage site and the latter a biological reserve.
Around 50 protesters demonstrated in front of a hotel in Rio de Janeiro where the auction took place, notably against the projects' risks to traditional fishing.
One demonstrator carried an iconic AFP photograph of an oil-stained Brazilian boy following an oil spill off the coast of northeast Brazil in 2019.
All the five blocks were bought by Royal Dutch Shell. They are located in the southeastern Santos Bay, close to the oil-rich pre-salt layer on Brazil's coast.
Brazil's state oil company Petrobras, usually very active at auctions, made no bids.
Rodolfo Saboia, the director of the National Oil Agency, which organized the auction, insisted the result was "positive" given how hard the industry has been hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
"We cannot call it a failure, we couldn't expect all the blocks to find a buyer," he said.
But Fernanda Delgado, a researcher at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, told AFP that "everyone expected there to be interest in more areas."
The lack of bids was because companies "did not want to take the political risk or environmental risk," Delgado added.
© 2021 AFP
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