Brazil, Alarmed, Reconsiders Policy on Climate Change

[YankeyMCC]

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MANAUS, Brazil — Alarmed at recent indications of climate change here in the Amazon and in other regions of Brazil, the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has begun showing signs of new flexibility in the tangled, politically volatile international negotiations to limit human-caused global warming.

The factors behind the re-evaluation range from a drought here in the Amazon rain forest, the world’s largest, and the impact that it could have on agriculture if it recurs, to new phenomena like a hurricane in the south of Brazil. As a result, environmental advocates, scientists and some politicians say, Brazilian policy makers and the public they serve are increasingly seeing climate change not as a distant problem, but as one that could affect them too.
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Brazil remains suspicious of foreign involvement in its management of the Amazon, which it views as a domestic matter. But negotiators and others who monitor international climate talks say Brazil is now willing to discuss issues that until recently it considered off the table, including market-based programs to curb the carbon emissions that result from massive deforestation in the Amazon, in which areas the size of New Jersey or larger are razed each year.
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In addition, in 2004 a hurricane formed in the South Atlantic for the first time since weather records began being kept. The storm came ashore in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, which was not prepared for it, and destroyed houses and forced thousands to flee.

“There was no previous registry of this happening, not even in the literature of colonial times,” said Carlos Nobre, Brazil’s most prominent climate scientist, who works at the National Institute for Space Research.
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But in the end, how much and how rapidly policy shifts depends largely on Mr. da Silva, who has consistently argued that “the Amazon is not untouchable.” In April, he saw Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth” in Brasília in the company of some of Brazil’s leading environmentalists.

“My impression is that Lula’s intuitive sensitivity to the gravity of the situation is greater than that of those who surround him,” said Mr. Santilli, who was present at the screening. “I think he understands and accepts the idea of these differentiated instruments, but I don’t know if he realizes that the government’s position is contrary to this.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/world/americas/31amazon.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=c824139880c313f3&ex=1343534400&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

My comment: That is my bolding. I don't know if this piece is being overly optimistic about the change in attitude/policy but I posted just as another kudo to Mr Gore and his movie, he's doing a good job getting the word out. At least he's trying, even if it is to late, which I'm being to think it is, it still isn't to late to appreciate the good some try to do, that's all we can do is be there for each other no matter what comes.