A new study finds that since 2000, an average of one Brazilian per minute has been forced from their home. At least 7.7 million have had to leave their homes, 6.4 million of them thanks to natural disasters, including flooding and droughts, and 1.2 million of them thanks to large-scale construction projects, including dams, the Guardian reports. When the director of a Rio de Janeiro-based think tank came up with the idea for the study, initial estimates put the number of displaced Brazilians at just 1.7 million. The numbers, crunched by the newly-launched Forced Migration Observatory, came back much higher—and activists say the true numbers could be higher still.
One has to wonder about people living in other South American countries who have suffered the same natural disasters. And, one has to wonder about the massive slums in cities like Sao Palo and Rio.
This story @ Shocking Number of Brazilians Forced From Homes Since 2000