Scars of the Climate

2023, São Paulo coast, Brazil. I was there when it rained like never before—626 mm, the highest ever recorded. Floods and landslides left 64 dead, 23 of them children, and over 2,400 without homes.

São Paulo, northern coast. I was there that Carnival night of 2023, when it rained like never before. We were asleep when we heard the roar. The warning came from the bamboos: the waters from the hillside were dragging down those resilient plants. In that instant, my mother’s instinct made me gather my family, leave the house, and run. We barely escaped. Our home did not.

The sound of the rain was so intense that we had to shout to hear each other. We got into the car, trying to reach a safe place, but we couldn’t get far because of the landslides. In panic, all we could do was wait for daylight.

With the first rays of sun, the scale of the tragedy revealed itself: on one side, a sea as red as blood; on the other, horrific scars marking the forest and the hills, fractures of centuries-old trees exposed in the sand.

The episode was classified as an extreme weather event. According to the National Disaster Monitoring Center, the accumulated rainfall was the highest ever recorded in Brazil: 626 mm in São Sebastião. The floods and landslides caused 64 deaths—23 of them children—and left more than 2,400 people homeless or displaced. Six municipalities declared a state of public calamity.

Two years after the tragedy, we still have not fully recovered. The forest and I continue to live with the deep scars of that catastrophe.