Hamster

The Environment

In the nineteen-eighties deforestation in the Amazon was an environmental problem in Brazil that attracted large amounts of international attention, however, sixty-six per cent of Brazils land is still covered by forests. Another environmental problem in Brazil is desertification which only got inernational attention since the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development which was held in Rio de Janeiro in nineteen-ninety two.
Soil erosion, siltation, sedimentation of streams and rivers and polution with pesticedes are serious problems in areas where agriculture is more intense and developed.
Environmental degradation was worsened in Brazil by the economic crisis in the nineteen-eighties because it led to overexploitation of naturtal resources, weakened environmental protection and stimulated settlement in fragile lands in rural and urban areas.
Policies in Brazil regarding the environment are usualy advanced, however, implimentation and enforcement of their environmental laws are no where near ideal. Since the nineteen-thirties, laws regarding water, wildlife and the forests have been in effect.

Climate

Equatorial, tropical, semiarid, highland tropical and subtropical are the five climatic regions within Brazil. Along the equator the temperature has a high average of above 25 degrees centigrade however the temperature in the temperate zones do not reach the summer extremes of 40 degrees centigrade.
Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Brasilia have moderate temperatures ranging between 15 degrees centigrade and 30 degrees centigrade. Rio de Janeiro, Recife and Salvador have warm climates even though they are on the coast at an altitude of about 1,000 metres above sea level, the average temperatures in these areas range from 23 degrees centigrade to 27 degrees centigrade, however, they have constant trade winds.
Most of Brazil sees moderate rainfall of between 1,000 and 1,500 millimetres per year. The majority of this rain falls in the summer months of December to April to the south of the equator.
Despite having an average rainfall of 2,000 to 3,000 millimetres per year, the Amazon region has a three to five month dry season, the timing of this dry season varies depending on location north or south of the equator.
The driest and hottest part of the country is in the northeast. The rainfall in this part of the country is scarce and there are cycles of severe droughts averaging seven years.

Political geography

Brazil takes up so much of South America that it has borders shared between every South American country except for Equador and Chile.
Brazil has one federal district and is divided into twenty-six other states, its most popular state is Sao Paulo and the capital is Brasilia.
Two of the largest cities in the world are found in Brazil, they are Sao paulo and Rio de Janeiro. These two cities are only two hundred and fifty miles away from each other.
The population of Sao Paulo has doubled in the last thirty-two years from eleven milion people. Both cities have large shanty towns which are always growing.
Brazils birth rate has decreased greatly in the last twenty years. On average in the eighties Brazilian women gave birth to 4.4 children each however in nineteen ninety five that average had droped to 2.1 children each.

Physical geography

Brazil streches from the Amazon basin in the north to the highlands in the south east. The Amazon carries more water to the ocean than any other river in the world and also flows 2,000 miles across Brazil.
The rainforest in the basin is the most rapidly depleting rainforest in the world loosing 52,000 square miles every year. The basin also takes up more than sixty per cent of Brazils land mass, it also gets more than two hundred centimetres of rain each year.
Brazil has a rainy season which occurs during the summer months. The east of Brazil suffers from drought on a regular basis. Brazil is positioned on the center of the South American plate so there is very little seismic activity

Introduction

Hi,my name is Neil and I am writing about the geography of Brazil.
Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world. It has a population of 186milion people. Brazil leads the South American economy which is also the ninth largest economy in the world.
In this blog I will be including both the curent and historical geography of Brazil.
Hope you enjoy.