Waiting for Rain

Waiting for Rain
Author: Nicholas Gabriel Arons
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2004-10
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 9780816524334

"Drawing on interviews with artists and poets and on his own experiences in the Brazilian Northeast, Arons has written an account of how drought has impacted the region's culture. He intertwines ecological, social, and political issues with the words of some of Brazil's most prominent authors and folk poets to show how themes surrounding drought - hunger, migration, endurance, nostalgia for the land - have become deeply embedded in Nordeste identity. Through this tapestry of sources, Arons shows that what is often thought of as a natural phenomenon is actually the result of centuries of social inequality, political corruption, and unsustainable land use."--BOOK JACKET.

Technocrats and the Politics of Drought and Development in Twentieth-Century Brazil

Technocrats and the Politics of Drought and Development in Twentieth-Century Brazil
Author: Eve E. Buckley
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2017-07-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1469634317

Eve E. Buckley’s study of twentieth-century Brazil examines the nation’s hard social realities through the history of science, focusing on the use of technology and engineering as vexed instruments of reform and economic development. Nowhere was the tension between technocratic optimism and entrenched inequality more evident than in the drought-ridden Northeast sertão, plagued by chronic poverty, recurrent famine, and mass migrations. Buckley reveals how the physicians, engineers, agronomists, and mid-level technocrats working for federal agencies to combat drought were pressured by politicians to seek out a technological magic bullet that would both end poverty and obviate the need for land redistribution to redress long-standing injustices.

Drought in Brazil

Drought in Brazil
Author: Erwin De Nys
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2016-08-05
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1315350378

Drought is a slow-onset natural hazard that is often referred to as a creeping phenomenon. The challenge of monitoring drought’s onset and evolution, and identifying its termination or end is one that scientists, natural resource managers, and decision makers have been struggling with for decades. However, drought management must be aimed at reducing the risks of future drought events on economies, the environment, and the social fabric of regions. As with many countries, droughts are often managed as a crisis in Brazil, rather than events for which officials and communities proactively prepare. Although droughts are not new to Brazil, the recent spate of droughts in the poverty stricken semi-arid Northeast and the industrial hub of São Paulo in the Southeast has forced the country to think more seriously about finally changing its drought policies and management approaches. The book is told through the perspectives of the ministers and secretaries, state policy and technical officials, civil society organizations, and development practitioners that helped to facilitate the shift in paradigm in Brazil from crisis management and towards proactive management of droughts. It is written in a style that is appealing to both technical and non-technical audiences, and aims to provide a framework and lessons for other countries to consider when embarking upon similar efforts to improve their own drought policy and management systems.

The Realities of Images

The Realities of Images
Author: Gerald Michael Greenfield
Publisher: American Philosophical Society
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2001
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780871699114

In Feb. 1877, a letter from the county council of Telha, a town of 600 people located in the Serra da Mattos in Brazil reported that people were dying from starvation. The previous year's rainy season had been sparse, and the harvest, poor. Now, this season's rains still had not appeared. This was the Great Drought -- three years of failed rains enshrined in Brazilian memory as the worst drought ever to hit Brazil's northeast. Drought had visited the region throughout its history, with the earliest recorded occurrences dating back to the 16th century. The failure of rains in 1877 was devastating, for it caught the provinces of the north totally unprepared. The specter of periodic droughts producing dislocation and death continues to haunt the region.

Waiting for Rain

Waiting for Rain
Author: Nicholas Gabriel Arons
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2004-10
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 9780816524334

"Drawing on interviews with artists and poets and on his own experiences in the Brazilian Northeast, Arons has written an account of how drought has impacted the region's culture. He intertwines ecological, social, and political issues with the words of some of Brazil's most prominent authors and folk poets to show how themes surrounding drought - hunger, migration, endurance, nostalgia for the land - have become deeply embedded in Nordeste identity. Through this tapestry of sources, Arons shows that what is often thought of as a natural phenomenon is actually the result of centuries of social inequality, political corruption, and unsustainable land use."--BOOK JACKET.

Religion and Brazilian Democracy

Religion and Brazilian Democracy
Author: Amy Erica Smith
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2019-03-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108482112

Evangelical and Catholic groups are transforming Brazilian politics. This book asks why, and what the consequences are for democracy.

Evaluating Climate Change Action for Sustainable Development

Evaluating Climate Change Action for Sustainable Development
Author: Juha I. Uitto
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2017-01-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 331943702X

This book is open access under a Creative Commons license. This authoritative book presents the ever progressing state of the art in evaluating climate change strategies and action. It builds upon a selection of relevant and practical papers and presentations given at the 2nd International Conference on Evaluating Climate Change and Development held in Washington DC in 2014 and includes perspectives from independent evaluations of the major international organisations supporting climate action in developing countries, such as the Global Environment Facility. The first section of the book sets the stage and provides an overview of independent evaluations, carried out by multilateral development banks and development organisations. Important topics include how policies and organisations aim to achieve impact and how this is measured, whether climate change is mainstreamed into other development programs, and whether operations are meeting the urgency of climate change challenges. The following sections focus on evaluation of climate change projects and policies as they link to development, from the perspective of international organisations, NGO’s, multilateral and bilateral aid agencies, and academia. The authors share methodologies or approaches used to better understand problems and assess interventions, strategies and policies. They also share challenges encountered, what was done to solve these and lessons learned from evaluations. Collectively, the authors illustrate the importance of evaluation in providing evidence to guide policy change to informed decision-making.

Climate Change and Water

Climate Change and Water
Author: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change / Working Group Technical Support Unit
Publisher:
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2008
Genre: Climatic changes
ISBN: 9789291691234

The Technical Paper addresses the issue of freshwater. Sealevel rise is dealt with only insofar as it can lead to impacts on freshwater in coastal areas and beyond. Climate, freshwater, biophysical and socio-economic systems are interconnected in complex ways. Hence, a change in any one of these can induce a change in any other. Freshwater-related issues are critical in determining key regional and sectoral vulnerabilities. Therefore, the relationship between climate change and freshwater resources is of primary concern to human society and also has implications for all living species. -- page vii.

Waters of Brazil

Waters of Brazil
Author: Carlos Eduardo de Mattos Bicudo
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016-10-10
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9783319413716

This book is a product of Brazilian Academy of Sciences Study Group about water issue. The water cycle was addressed based on an integrated point of view, aiming at joining technological and ecological solutions and integrating quantitative and qualitative aspects of this important environmental asset. Issues such as the water resources management and irrigated agriculture, water and health, water and economy, conservation and reuse as management tools, water in the Brazilian semi arid, water in Amazon, urbanization and water resources, education for the sustainability of water resources, groundwater, availability, pollution and eutrophication of water and science, technology and innovation are of the utmost importance for this exact moment in Brazil, and particularly to the State of Sao Paulo. Addressing these issues will undoubtedly contribute towards a sustainable management of water resources trough the coordinated work of different fields of science, progressing a systemic view about water, that would then finally allow management professionals the possibility of an integral action in anticipating problems and thus anticipate solutions.