Climate Change Impacts and Mitigation

1. The IPCC predicts that over the next century, central and south america are going to warm. They predicted that the southern section of South America will be relatively similar to the rest of the globe. The rest of the region, however, is predicted to warm more than the average amount seen in other places on the globe. What I found interesting was that Central America was predicted to be rainier while South America was not. I also found it interesting that the spring in Central America would be drier than usual. 2. South America could see some hard times over the next century, the IPCC predicts that: "In drier areas, climate change is expected to lead to salinisation and desertification of agricultural land. Productivity of some important crops is projected to decrease and livestock productivity to decline, with adverse consequences for food security. In temperate zones soybean yields are projected to increase." This would not be good for S America, but the news isn't all bad. Certain crop yields like soybeans are predicted to increase, but other important crop yields and livestock are predicted to decrease. Also, coastal areas could run into problems with flooding, the IPCC predicts that low lying areas will be subject to flooding and could be damaged due to sea level rise. 3. Like I said in the previous question, the next century isn't looking to bright for south america. The IPCC is predicting "Climatic variability and extreme events have been severely affecting the Latin America region over recent years (high confidence)," and "Land-use changes have intensified the use of natural resources and exacerbated many of the processes of land degradation (high confidence)." Basically, the weather is getting more and more extreme for S America, and the natural resources are being used up quickly. Some serious changes need to be made quickly for the continent. 4. I think the most interesting threat to Brazil/South America is the sea level rise and flooding. As with most places in the world, most of the population lives in coastal areas, and if the warming continues, the sea level will rise and greatly affect these coastal regions. With a lot of the population near the coast, many homes/infrastructure would be damaged and possibly even kill people. The threat is actually a huge problem all over the world, as so many people live near the coasts and the sea level rise would really mess up a lot of communities. 5. Image showing the drought Brazil is in and how climate change will affect poverty

Severe Weather in Brazil

A tornado starts due to vertical air (mesocyclone) and wind shear. In the US, tornadoes usually move SW to NE. This is because tornadoes move in the same direction as the thunderstorms that start them, and SW to NE is the direction of most storms in the US. Tornadoes do happen in Brazil, but mainly in the southern section of the country. An average of 1,253 tornadoes happen per year in the U.S. (NOAA). I couldn't find a number for Brazil as they are just barely in the South American "Hall of Tornadoes," but Argentina which is near there has the second highest number per year behind the U.S. with about 300 (Wikipedia). The attached map shows the Hall of Tornadoes in South America, and Brazil is just barely inside the medium risk zone. The statistics on the graph may not be true, it may be a possibilitiy that over the past 30 years we have just gotten better at documenting them which would make it seem as if there were more. The three main requirements for hurricanes are: warm ocean temps (>80 degees), deep warm ocean layer (200m) in depth, and coriolis force is needed to initiate the spinning. The three main regions are: Hurricanes = atlantic and E pacific, Cyclones = Indian Ocean near Australia, Typhoons = China or Indonesia. In the U.S. hurricanes generally move from E to W because of the Bermuda High and the Trade Winds. Brazil has only been hit by one tropical cyclone of hurricane force in recorded history. I could only find hurricane numbers by decaded but the U.S. usually sees 17.7 hurricanes per decade (cat 1-5) so that would be 1.7 per year. (Wikipedia)