As reflexões em torno dos elementos contidos no tema desenvolvimento sustentável remontam a década de 1950, no entanto, o surgimento desse conceito é relativamente recente, datando de 1987 quando Gro Harlem Brundtland, apresentou os resultados do relatório “Nosso Futuro Comum” à Assembleia Geral da Organização das Nações Unidas – ONU. Tem como ponto central a ideia de um crescimento econômico eficiente e racional, que satisfaça as necessidades das gerações presentes sem comprometer o direito das gerações futuras em ter suas necessidades supridas. Percebe-se que o conceito de desenvolvimento sustentável – motivo cada vez maior de revisões críticas – nos dias atuais, ainda está popularmente ligado simplesmente aos aspectos ambientais, e as políticas públicas de desenvolvimento adotadas, via de regra, restringem-se à perspectiva econômica. O presente ensaio propõe-se a refletir sobre os aspectos relacionados às dimensões da sustentabilidade propostas por Ignacy Sachs (1993), com foco especial para a dimensão social. Para tanto, utilizou-se como metodologia a revisão literária das contribuições de Richard Sennett (2012), Hassan Zaoual (2006), Milton Santos (2009), Paulo Freire (2013) e Suely Chacon (2007), adotando como premissa a negação dos elementos que comprometem esta dimensão.

A Climate Change Index (CCI) was designed to assess the degree of susceptibility to the climatic extremes projected for the future. Climate projections for the period 2041-2070 are extracted from the numerical integrations of INPE’s Eta-HadCM3 model, using the SRES A1B emissions scenario. Five indicators were chosen to represent the climatic extremes: Total annual precipitation, precipitation on the days of heavy rain, the maximum number of consecutive dry days in the year and the annual mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures. The methodology was applied to the state of Paraná. The results point to a very strong warming in 99% of the municipalities, with temperature increases between 6 and 8 times greater than the variance observed in the present climate. On the other hand, projections of precipitation do not indicate major changes in relation to present behavior.

Environmental equity is a concept derived from the (un)equal exposure to environmental degradation by different social groups, usually minorities and low-income people exposed to major environmental risks, also known as environmental justice. It is assumed that no group of people, independent of race, ethnicity or socio-economic class, should support, either in concentrated or unevenly distributed form, the negative environmental impacts resulting from industrial, agricultural, commercial and infrastructure activities or government programs and policies. In this paper the concept of environmental equity is explored as a criterion for water management through the analysis of a typical coupled human–natural system: the Epitácio Pessoa Reservoir, located in the semi-arid region of Brazil. Inefficient water resource management has caused unequal access to water by the population, particularly during drought periods. However, census data indicate that population have practically the same access to water, which actually is not able to reflect the actual picture. This study argues that environmental equity can be an additional criterion to improve water management.

Tropical Atlantic (TA) Ocean-atmosphere interactions and their contributions to strong variability of rainfall along the Northeast Brazilian (NEB) coast were investigated for the years 1974–2008. The core rainy seasons of March-April and June-July were identified for Fortaleza (northern NEB; NNEB) and Recife (eastern NEB; ENEB), respectively. Lagged linear regressions between sea surface temperature (SST) and pseudo wind stress (PWS) anomalies over the entire TA and strong rainfall anomalies at Fortaleza and Recife show that the rainfall variability of these regions is differentially influenced by the dynamics of the TA. When the Intertropical Convergence Zone is abnormally displaced southward a few months prior to the NNEB rainy season, the associated meridional mode increases humidity and precipitation during the rainy season. Additionally, this study shows predictive effect of SST, meridional PWS, and barrier layer thickness, in the Northwestern equatorial Atlantic, on the NNEB rainfall. The dynamical influence of the TA on the June-July ENEB rainfall variability shows a northwestward-propagating area of strong, positively correlated SST from the southeastern TA to the southwestern Atlantic warm pool (SAWP) offshore of Brazil. Our results also show predictive effect of SST, zonal PWS, and mixed layer depth, in the SAWP, on the ENEB rainfall.

Tropical Atlantic (TA) Ocean-atmosphere interactions and their contributions to strong variability of rainfall along the Northeast Brazilian (NEB) coast were investigated for the years 1974–2008. The core rainy seasons of March-April and June-July were identified for Fortaleza (northern NEB; NNEB) and Recife (eastern NEB; ENEB), respectively. Lagged linear regressions between sea surface temperature (SST) and pseudo wind stress (PWS) anomalies over the entire TA and strong rainfall anomalies at Fortaleza and Recife show that the rainfall variability of these regions is differentially influenced by the dynamics of the TA. When the Intertropical Convergence Zone is abnormally displaced southward a few months prior to the NNEB rainy season, the associated meridional mode increases humidity and precipitation during the rainy season. Additionally, this study shows predictive effect of SST, meridional PWS, and barrier layer thickness, in the Northwestern equatorial Atlantic, on the NNEB rainfall. The dynamical influence of the TA on the June-July ENEB rainfall variability shows a northwestward-propagating area of strong, positively correlated SST from the southeastern TA to the southwestern Atlantic warm pool (SAWP) offshore of Brazil. Our results also show predictive effect of SST, zonal PWS, and mixed layer depth, in the SAWP, on the ENEB rainfall.

Water availability for a range of human uses will increasingly be affected by climate change, especially in the arid and semiarid tropics. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the infrastructure sufficiency in meeting water demand under climate-induced socio-hydrological transition in the Capibaribe River basin (CRB). The basin has experienced spatial and sectoral (agriculture-to-urban) reconfiguration of water demands. Human settlements that were once dispersed, relying on intermittent sources of surface water, are now larger and more spatially concentrated, which increases water-scarcity effects. Based on the application of linked hydrologic and water-resources models using precipitation and temperature projections of the IPCC SRES (Special Report: Emissions Scenarios) A1B scenario, a reduction in rainfall of 26.0% translated to streamflow reduction of 60.0%. We used simulations from four members of the HadCM3 (UK Met Office Hadley Centre) perturbed physics ensemble, in which a single model structure is used and perturbations are introduced to the physical parameterization schemes in the model (Chou et al., 2012). We considered that the change of the water availability in the basin in the future scenarios must drive the water management and the development of adaptation strategies that will manage the water demand. Several adaptive responses are considered, including water-loss reductions, wastewater collection and reuse, and rainwater collection cisterns, which together have potential to reduce future water demand by 23.0%. This study demonstrates the vulnerabilities of the infrastructure system during socio-hydrological transition in response to hydroclimatic and demand variabilities in the CRB and also indicates the differential spatial impacts and vulnerability of multiple uses of water to changes over time. The simulations showed that the measures proposed and the water from interbasin transfer project of the São Francisco River had a positive impact over the water supply in the basin, mainly for human use. Industry and irrigation will suffer impact unless other measures are implemented for demand control.

Este artigo apresenta um trabalho teórico que pretende analisar o documentário enquanto gênero discursivo, a fim de entender como é construído o discurso nos documentários de temática ambiental. Para tanto, trabalhamos com o pensamento sócio-interacionista de Mikhail Bakhtin, abordando conceitos como dialogismo, gêneros discursivos e polifonia e com os estudos de Bill Nichols acerca do filme documentário.

Climate change leads to species’ range shifts, which may end up reducing the effectiveness of protected areas. These deleterious changes in biodiversity may become amplified if they include functionally important species, such as herbivores or pollinators. We evaluated how effective protected areas in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest are in maintaining the diversity of tiger moths (Arctiinae) under climate change. Specifically, we assessed whether protected areas will gain or lose species under climate change and mapped their locations in the Atlantic Forest, in order to assess potential spatial patterns of protected areas that will gain or lose species richness. Comparisons were completed using modeled species occurrence data based on the current and projected climate in 2080. We also built a null model for random allocation of protected areas to identify where reductions in species richness will be more severe than expected. We employed several modern techniques for modeling species’ distributions and summarized results using ensembles of models. Our models indicate areas of high species richness in the central and southern regions of the Atlantic Forest both for now and the future. However, we estimate that in 2080 these regions should become climatically unsuitable, decreasing the species’ distribution area. Around 4% of species were predicted to become extinct, some of them being endemic to the biome. Estimates of species turnover from current to future climate tended to be high, but these findings are dependent on modeling methods. Our most important results show that only a few protected areas in the southern region of the biome would gain species. Protected areas in semideciduous forests in the western region of the biome would lose more species than expected by the null model employed. Hence, current protected areas are worse off, than just randomly selected areas, at protecting species in the future.

Oil palm is a widely cultivated palm tree, whose oil is ranked first in supply and export among all vegetable oils in the world. Despite being a minor producer and major importer of palm oil, Embrapa, Brazil’s leading agricultural research agency, has identified deforested land with soil and climate suitable for oil palm cultivation whose combined area is twice that currently being employed throughout the world, most of which located in the Brazilian Amazon. This region, characterized by low socioeconomic indicators, as well as precarious access to energy, has recently become the focus of Brazilian Government policies whose aim is to ensure that the observed expansion of oil palm occurs in an orderly manner, within the precepts of the region’s environmental and economic zoning, currently in deployment. With a doubling of its cultivated area between 2004 and 2010 and an even faster projected growth in 2015, the rapid expansion of oil palm in the Brazilian Amazon presents great potential to influence the development of the region. This article provides an updated picture of the palm oil sector in Brazil, its prospects, opportunities and challenges, with a particular focus on the Amazon region and the rising use of palm oil as biodiesel.

The carbon dioxide flux through the air–water interface of coastal estuarine systems must be quantified to understand the regional balance of carbon and its transport through adjacent coastal regions. We estimated and calculated the emissions of carbon dioxide (FCO2) and the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) values in 28 estuarine environments at a variety of spatial scales in the northern and northeastern regions of Brazil. The results showed a mean FCO2 (water to air) of 55 ± 45 mmol·m−2·d−1. Additionally, a negative correlation between dissolved oxygen saturation and pCO2 was observed, indicating a control by biological processes and especially by organic matter degradation. This leads to increased dissolved CO2 concentration in estuarine waters which results in a pCO2 that reached 8,638 μatm. Our study suggests that northern and northeastern Brazilian estuaries act as sources of atmospheric CO2. The range of pCO2 observed were similar to those found in inner estuaries in other places around the world, with the exception of a few semi-arid estuaries (Köppen climate classification – BSh) in which record low levels of pCO2 have been detected.

In this paper, we address the question of what proportion of biodiversity is represented within protected areas. We assessed the effectiveness of different protected area types at multiple scales in representing primate biodiversity in the Brazilian Legal Amazon. We used point locality data and distribution data for primate species within 1°, 0.5°, and 0.25° spatial resolution grids, and computed the area of reserves within each cell. Four different approaches were used – no reserves (A), exclusively strict use reserves (B), strict and sustainable use reserves (C), and strict and sustainable use reserves and indigenous lands (D). We used the complementarity concept to select reserve networks. The proportions of cells that were classified as reserves at a grid resolution of 1° were 37%, 64%, and 88% for approaches B, C and D, respectively. Our comparison of these approaches clearly showed the effect of an increase in area on species representation. Representation was consistently higher at coarser resolutions, indicating the effect of grain size. The high number of irreplaceable cells for selected networks identified based on approach A could be attributed to the use of point locality occurrence data. Although the limited number of point occurrences for some species may have been due to a Wallacean shortfall, in some cases it may also be the result of an actual restricted geographic distribution. The existing reserve system cannot be ignored, as it has an established structure, legal protection status, and societal recognition, and undoubtedly represents important elements of biodiversity. However, we found that strict use reserves (which are exclusively dedicated to biodiversity conservation) did not effectively represent primate species. This finding may be related to historical criteria for selecting reserves based on political, economic, or social motives.

Quantifications of CO2 fluxes across the air–water interface of estuarine ecosystems are needed to understand regional carbon balances. In this study, we estimate the amount of carbon emitted from tropical estuaries of the State of Pernambuco, Brazil, using measurements of temperature, alkalinity, salinity and pH at stations located in the estuaries. The results showed that the average CO2 fluxes (+51 ± 32 mmol m−2 day−1) were mainly a product of the input of aloctone organic matter from urban centers with high population densities (~1,000 inhabitants.km−2) adjacent to the estuarine systems. This organic material increased the amount of aqueous CO2, which increased the pCO2 to 8,900 μatm. October, November and December had the highest monthly averages of the parameters associated with the carbonate system (HCO3−, dissolved inorganic carbon, aqueous carbon dioxide, CO32−, total alkalinity, temperature and pH), whereas the averages in July correlated with the CO2 fluxes. Multivariate analysis revealed that estuarine areas near the most densely populated areas (Beberibe—9,000 inhabitants.km−2 and Paratibe—3,000 inhabitants.km−2) were positively correlated with high CO2 fluxes and high pCO2.