Natural disasters and environmental perception: an analysis for Brazil and major brazilian regions

Abstract

Natural disasters have been increasing in both number and monetary losses in Brazil in recent decades. On the other hand, Brazilians' environmental awareness has been little related to the occurrence of these disasters. Based on this, the objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between natural disasters and the population's perception of environmental issues in Brazil and in the five major Brazilian regions. For this, the Ordinary Least Squares Model (OLS) was used. Disasters classified as climatological were the most frequent, with emphasis on droughts and dry spells. The Northeast and South regions recorded the highest number of occurrences and monetary losses. This result helps to understand what the regressions show. Considering the national data, awareness of environmental issues is associated especially with the number of monetary losses suffered by disasters. The data aggregated by region, on the other hand, allow us to conclude that environmental awareness is more correlated with natural disasters in places where these disasters are more frequent, especially if they result in high monetary losses, as in the case of the South and Northeast.

Keywords: natural disasters; environmental perception; monetary losses. Brazil; brazilian regions.