In the past, the southeast region occupied areas of different types of vegetation such as cerrado, caatinga, coastal vegetation, high altitude fields and araucaria. The Atlantic forest covered about 500 km of the entire Brazilian coast, today approximately 5% of preserved areas remain.
The reasons that led to the devastation were agents of economic interest such as agriculture with the commercial monoculture production of coffee, sugarcane among others, industries that emerged after the Second World War in Brazil, mining that served for the growth of the region and the country, and the supply of raw material industries and urban occupation that took over large areas and that often did not take into account environmental factors at the beginning of their training, all of these have caused serious environmental problems over the decades, and thus left a legacy of destruction and natural losses, many of them irreversible.
Today the few preserved areas are found in regions with a predominance of relief with high incidence of ups and downs, that is, uneven terrain, such as Serra do Mar and Serra da Manticore.
The restricted amount of forests in the Atlantic Forest puts at risk a number of endemic animals (animals that are found in only one place in the world, and that do not adapt to different environments), it is necessary to seek the permanent preservation of the remaining forests, for the conservation of the rich fauna and flora.
The pollution of urban environments
The southeast region is densely populated, home to the seven largest Brazilian metropolises, they are: São Paulo with an estimated population of 17.8 million, Rio de January with 10.8 million, Belo Horizonte 4.8 million, Campinas 2.3 million, Vitória and Baixada Santista both with 1.4 million and in Minas, Vale do Aço with 560 thousand.
The immense concentration of people causes pollution in the soil, water and air. Soil pollution occurs mainly in dumps, which in addition to polluting the soil also reaches the water table, the water is polluted through untreated sewage, chemical residues discarded by the industry and the air that undergoes changes resulting from the emission of gases from vehicles with fossil fuels (cars, buses and trucks) and also emitted by activities industrial. The different types of pollution can cause diseases such as hepatitis, leptospirosis and respiratory diseases, common in periods of low humidity, among others.
The large urban centers of the Southeast region live with other inconveniences, such as floods and landslides. Floods usually occur in spring and summer, both are predominantly rainy periods, sometimes due to torrentiality, a single rainy day is worth more than an entire winter.
The main agents of floods are the waterproofing of the soil, due to the constructions (asphalts, sidewalks, buildings) and the lack of green areas that allow the absorption of rainwater through the ground. In the case of landslides, the causes are linked to the lack of vegetation and urban occupation in places with inappropriate reliefs, as there is no coverage plant to retain water, the soil absorbs up to a saturation level, this is when the landslide occurs, as the land cannot support and breaks.
Eduardo de Freitas
Graduated in Geography
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/brasil/regiao-sudeste-paisagens-intensamente-transformadas.htm
