‘There are days when the school closes because children don’t have water to drink’ – This is climate breakdown

Until the 1960s it rained a lot. We ate wild game, fish, there were plenty of rivers, but since then they’ve been drying up. This is José’s story

Location São João das Missões, Brazil

Disaster Xakriabá Indigenous territory drought, 2013-24

José Fiuza Xakriabá grew up in the Xakriabá Indigenous territory and is now an influential Xakriabá leader. That region was previously watered by an extensive network of rivers. But the only stream that still flows in the surrounding area is now the Itacarambi. The trend of increasing drought in Minas Gerais state started in the 1970s and is caused by rising temperatures. Scientific research has shown that droughts have been the worst in at least 700 years and are mostly the result of human-caused global heating.

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