Summer has come and at long last it’s raining heavily in densely populated southern Brazil and its biggest city São Paulo — but not enough to dispel effects of a long-lasting drought that has exasperated city-dwellers, worried farmers – and caught politicians and planners on the back foot. These two videos explain why changes in rainfall patterns have left South America’s largest city dangerously short of water and its reservoirs dry.
For centuries, Brazil northeastern region jutting into the Atlantic toward Africa, has experienced drought and poverty. But now this drought pattern has swung southward towards the continent’s thirstiest city, and is also affecting the country’s most prosperous agricultural region.
To find out more, watch the Portuguese language video with experts Monica Porto from the Polytechnic School at the University of São Paulo and Antonio Donato Nobre from Brazil’s National Space Research Institute (INPE). The two videos entitled “Rain Dance Part I and II” were produced by the media team at the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP).
Review the first video here:
View the second video here:
http://www.scienceforbrazil.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Danc%CC%A7a-da-chuva-parte-2-Manancial-subterra%CC%82neo.mp4?_=2