Porto Alegre initiatives address climate justice and disaster communication

In Porto Alegre, Brazil, various initiatives are addressing climate justice and environmental protection through community engagement and academic debate.

At the Feira de Agricultores Ecologistas and the Feira Ecológica do Bom Fim—the largest open-air organic markets in Latin America—activists from Amigas da Terra Brasil held dialogues regarding environmental justice. The discussions emphasized the importance of agroecology, family farming, and land reform as resistance against large-scale corporate monocultures. The organizers advocated for the protection of collective spaces and the rights of workers and local territories.

Simultaneously, a seminar titled ‘Communicational Perspectives on Climate Disasters’ was held at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). The event brought together journalists, researchers, and Kaingang leader Odirlei Fidelis to analyze public communication and risk reporting following the severe floods in Rio Grande do Sul in May 2024. Participants discussed the constitutional obligation of public communication and the complexities of effective risk communication, which must provide timely, comprehensible, and visible information to allow populations to act during environmental crises.