On Tuesday 21 April, the Frontline Club hosted a panel to discuss the water crisis in Brazil and the world’s largest green area, the Amazonian rainforest. Chaired by Andrew Mitchell, chairman of the Scientific Exploration Society, the event was the second in a series entitled ‘Exploration of the Frontline,’ a collaboration between the Scientific Exploration Society and the Frontline Club that aims at bringing together journalists, explorers and academics for an evening of informed debate.

l-r: Andrew Mitchell , Sue Cunningham, Nixiwaka Yawanawa, Peter Bunyard, Dr Friederike Otto, Rogerio Simoes

“In Sao Paulo you have a city of 22 million people facing chronic droughts, a situation unique in the history of Brazil,” Mitchell said. This drought is largely the result of wide-scale deforestation, and of changes to the ecosystems in the Amazonian area, hundreds of miles north of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Brazil’s coastline.

Sue Cunningham, an author and photographer with more than 20 years of experience in Brazil, illustrated the consequences of the massive deforestation that she had been witness to during a 2007 expedition on the Xingu river in the heart of the rainforest. Travelling by boat and small planes, the group visited 48 different tribes living along the river.

“When you fly over the forest, you can see when the pollution happens from a pristine river to a contaminated river,” said Cunningham, showing an aerial picture of the polluted Xingu where mercurial refuse had caused a significant change in the colour of the water.

Nixiwaka Yawanawá, a member of the Yawanawá tribe currently working with Survival International to raise awareness about the Amazon and the rights of tribal communities, showed the Frontline Club audience a video of the latest flood that had hit his indigenous community in the Brazilian state of Acre.

Up to 80% of the villages and settlements of the Yawanawá community were swept away. “We never thought that this would happen,” said Yawanawá. “One of our shamans, and they usually are the oldest people in a tribe, he said that in one hundred years we have never seen this kind of flood. Everyone was very shocked and surprised, but we have to carry on.”

The task of explaining the meteorological dynamics of the issue was assumed by panelists Peter Bunyard and Dr Friederike Otto.

Peter Bunyard, founder of The Ecologist, explained the role of trade winds that flow from Africa and the Atlantic over the Amazonian basin. These winds create a mechanism called the ‘biotic pump’, a natural phenomenon that influences the climate of the entire Latin American region, from Panama to Patagonia.

Otto, a senior researcher at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, linked the occurrence of drastic climate events such as droughts, typhoons and hurricanes to longterm climate change and the consequential rise in temperature of the planet. “This is a longterm change, and all of these events play together.”

Rogerio Simoes, a Brazilian journalist based in London and former head of the Brazilian Service at the BBC World Service, explained that the rising population of Sao Paulo was a major game-changer in environmental terms.

“Brazil just cannot cope with the population growth,” said Simoes. “According to the latest census in Brazil, there are 11.6 million people living in slums, illegal slums.”

Simoes finished by adding that the short-sightedness of Brazilian politicians was leading to a worsening of the situation. For example, the governor of Sao Paulo state, Geraldo Alckmin, repeatedly denied any issue of water shortage during the 2014 election campaign, at a time when the main water reservoir was at just 7.2% of its total capacity.

Well I had no extra money. I was on a bus, on my way to do an interview (always prefer to use the bus rather than conceal myself from the city inside a car), when this guy sat beside me.

He said somehting that I did not understand at first. I just had time to look around and notice that, while thinking about questions to ask and how to conduct the interview, the bus had emptied. I was alone sitting in the last row of seats. Now he was with me. "Give me ten bucks for the bus", he said in a harsh voice. 

Dark skinned, in his 40’s, thin and with some anger in his reddish eyes – he was exactly like so many men I have interviewed in my life. Prisoners, workers, rappers, victims of police brutality… People who have opened their houses and hearts to me and told me how hard it is to live in poverty. And who felt grateful for the simple fact that I heard them – and published their stories.

But this man, he was holding something under his shirt and pointed that thing at me. I instinctively asked what it was. "Do you really want to see? Now give me the ten bucks". I must confess I was more curious than scared. Well, actually, I was not scared at all. I found it intriguing that one person can sit beside another on a bus and demand money without even showing a gun or anything. All he had was the power to intimidate me. And then again, if he had a gun, would he use it on me for 10 reais, inside a bus? Very unlikely. Still, best to be wise. I asked him again if he had a gun. He was fast: "You’ll regret if I show it".

I took some time to savour the moment. The only thing that separated this man from me was 1. fear 2. we came from different classes, parts of the city, backgrounds 3. he implied he had a gun 4. I had 30 bucks in my purse and he did not

"OK, OK", I said, best to get it over with. No money for lunch, but what the hell, just the day before I was charged 200 reais by a state agent to help me let a house. Now those were real professionals. This man only had fear on his side. And he was not very good at it. 

So I slowly opened my purse, took 20 reais (managed to hide the other ten) and handed it to him. I sensed he was quite unseasy. I was too slow, had asked too many questions, and obviously was not as frightened as he wanted me to be.

Still, he gave it a shot. "Now give me your mobile phone". That was a bit too much. No mobile phone for you, fellow. "I’m sorry", I said. "I can’t give you the mobile". A woman in the row in front of us looked back, he told her to turn around. Then he gave up : "OK, I’ll make things easy for you", he said as he left the bus.

When I stood up, I told the woman that I’d just been robbed. "In a bus!", she cried. "That’s unbelievable". In a few minutes everybody in the bus was discussing violence, and they all had stories to share about the last time they had been robbed. I asked the woman why she hadn’t called the driver or asked for help when she saw what was going on. "I thought he was your boyfriend, shouting at you in that manner". Now that would have been much more acceptable, I thought.

In São Paulo, at least, people think so.