From data to protection: Computing and climate resilience in Brazil

Abstract

Climate change is already reshaping the present and shifting the international agenda from mitigation toward adaptation and the building of resilient societies. This article argues that in Brazil — where climate and inequality overlap — computing ceases to be a support tool and becomes a public infrastructure for adaptation, able to turn forecasting into decision and decision into protection. It discusses the bottlenecks of data, infrastructure and institutional capacity, especially in the most vulnerable municipalities; the role of scientific networks, particularly the National Institutes of Science and Technology; and the opportunity for the country to develop adaptation technologies for the tropics. It concludes that Brazilian computing’s most relevant contribution may be to become an infrastructure of climate justice, one that sees inequality and helps reach first those who need it most.