Jornada de conscientização sobre refugiados ambientais: desastres ambientais e seus impactos sobre populações humanas

Abstract

The article is based on a case study about environmental refugees from Angra dos Reis and on the perception of the community from two public schools about environmental refugees, action considering the necessary visibility on this issue, aiming to attract empathy, proper care for the environment through Environmental Education, and thereby increasing the demand for appropriate public policies. The topic is a global concern and is associated with abrupt changes in the environment affecting the lives of populations, especially social minorities with great vulnerability, and biodiversity. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), environmental refugees are individuals or groups of people who, due to sudden or progressive changes in the environment, have been adversely affected in their lives and, due to the conditions they find themselves in, need to leave their places of origin, temporarily or permanently. Environmental disasters can be caused by natural causes such as meteorological, hydrological, and climatological, or unnatural causes such as geophysical and biological. It is worth noting that many of the natural causes have been amplified by irresponsible anthropic actions. The work aims to contribute to increasing awareness about the environment and its preservation and research on the situation of environmental refugees aiming to understand the main consequences of environmental disasters on the trajectory of populations. The data were collected from samples of school communities in the public education system located in the municipalities of Nova Iguaçu and Rio de Janeiro, using qualitative methodologies; a focus study combined with structured interviews at schools and through unstructured interviews with individuals who were in a situation of environmental refuge in Angra dos Reis. It is expected to obtain as a result of this work the encouragement to the development of more studies related to the causes and consequences of environmental disasters on the forced displacements of human populations, as well as the improvement of means of raising awareness of the population about the importance of sustainability and environmental preservation.