Most of the Brazilian population acknowledges that poor people are the most affected by extreme climate events. That was revealed by research released on Tuesday (10) by Greenpeace. The survey was conducted by IPEC Institute and interviewed 2,000 people in a sample proportional to the reality of the Brazilian population regarding gender, place of residence, social class, education and other data.
According to the survey, 62% of the country’s population acknowledge that the poor are the most affected by extreme climate events. For 36%, the poor and the rich are equally affected.
The research showed that, although the general population's worries about climate change are above the others, such as health, education, unemployment and criminality, in classes D and E there is an intense feeling of insecurity regarding the possibility of natural disasters.
More than that, the survey showed that most people (67%) have little to no trust in public administration (particularly City Halls) to prevent or reduce the impacts of disasters caused by the current changes. When considering only Black people, this rate is even higher: 72%.
“The recent tragedies in different Brazilian states resulted from the lack of effective public policies to prevent, adapt and respond to climate change and extreme events. We are not dealing with a new or unexpected fact. How many more need to die to make rulers guarantee safe cities for everyone?" asked Igor Travassos, the spokesperson for Climate Justice at Greenpeace Brazil.
The interviewees also listed actions they see as efficient for combating extreme events. The top cited suggestion was the creation of better infrastructure to drain water, such as ditches and sewer tunnels. There were also significant votes for improvements in housing policies (20%) and basic sanitation and urban cleaning (19%).
Amid a wave of disinformation, 38% of the participants considered television the most trustworthy media to keep updated about climate change. The second action was social media platforms, websites and news sites (13%). However, other sources of information were mentioned but with lower percentages of preferences, such as WhatsApp groups, meetings in religious spaces, blogs and podcasts.
The full research can be accessed at this link.
Edited by: Nadini Lopes e Rodrigo Durão Coelho
