This Activist Wants to ‘Sink’ Island Brought to the Surface by Climate Change

One of the most pressing issues facing the world today is global warming, the consequences of which can be felt in many places across the planet. Among them is Brazil, which contains a significant portion of the Amazonian rainforest. 

And it was precisely to draw attention to the risks and causes of climate change that the Jurumim reservoir, one of the largest water reserves in the state of São Paulo (the country’s most populous and wealthiest state), found itself with an unexpected visitor: an activist on a desert island. But in an inversion of the cliché, Guto Zorello, a resident of an agroecology community, doesn’t want help getting off the island. As a matter of fact, he wants to take the island off the map. Because it only appeared when the reservoir’s water levels sank. 

Guto, a participant in @a.matoca, a collective residency project that seeks to help regenerate life on earth, is camping out on the island, which has an area of approximately 38,880 square meters, or the equivalent of five football fields, in an initiative designed to sound the alarm about the critical situation in Brazil and spur the business community to seek out the guidelines in the Brazil network of the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, which invites the private sector to commit to implementing the Global Compact’s Ten Principles in their business strategies and daily operations.

Despite all the campaigns to save animals, rivers, oceans, forests, and islands in danger of disappearing, in Brazil climate change has reduced rain volume in the region, provoking the most severe drought in the region in 90 years. As a result, apart from the impact on the environment, the price of energy has risen almost three times faster than inflation in 2021, leaving consumers’ bills 50% more expensive. “We all have to do our part: government, civil society, and the private sector have to act in tandem against climate change,” said Zorello. “This island is a symbol of too many people’s lack of awareness and commitment. By sinking it, we’ll renew our hope in the future.” 

The #AfundeEstaIlha project, created by AlmapBBDO, is designed to encourage critical reflection on the topic. Alongside the video, produced by Compañia, it includes digital initiatives designed to make the island of Jurumirim a symbol of the water crisis. Over the following days, you’ll be able to follow the daily routine of our 'castaway activist' on social media, at @gutozorello. There, he’ll post information about climate change, the water crisis, and other consequences of this severe, ongoing humanitarian crisis. 

According to the National Electric Grid Operator (NOS), the reservoir at the Jurumim Hydroelectric Plant, in the city of Avaré, in the state of São Paulo, has a 449 km² reservoir, with nearly four times as much water as Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro. It can store 34.42% of the water in the Paranapanema River subsystem and generate 100.96 MW as a result. 

Deforestation in the Amazon

In 2021, the Amazon saw its worst rates of deforestation in the past 15 years: over 13,000 square kilometers of forest were lost. That’s an area the size of the Bahamas or Northern Island. Larger than Jamaica, Lebanon, and the Falklands. Amazonian forest coverage is umbilically linked to rains in the Brazilian Southeast: winds converge from the Amazon to carry humidity from the transpiration of trees down to the Southeast, where it precipitates in the form of rain.

Brazil has 12% of the world’s freshwater, but over the past 30 years, it’s lost 15.7% of its surface water, or 3,100 square kilometers, an area the size of half of Palestine. And deforestation has made Brazil the world’s fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. 

At the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-26) in Glasgow, Brazil committed to ending deforestation by 2030. However, the numbers show that we’re heading in the wrong direction.