As world leaders enter climate talks, people in poverty have the most at stake

RIO DE JANEIRO — When summer heat comes to the Arara neighborhood in northern Rio, it lingers, baking the red brick and concrete that make up many of the buildings long after the sun has gone down. Luis Cassiano, who's lived here more than 30 years, says he's getting worried as heat waves become more frequent and fierce. In poor areas such as Arara, those who can afford air conditioning — Cassiano is one — can't always count on it because of frequent power outages on an overloaded system. Conditions were so unbearable for Cassiano that he installed a green roof about a decade ago that can keep his house up to 15 degrees Celsius cooler than his neighbor's. But the heat still makes him extremely uncomfortable, he said. “The sun in the summer nowadays is scary,” Cassiano said. And a lack of green spaces makes the heat worse. “Here we don’t have any parks, gardens, green engineers, experts in environmental matters. They go to Rio’s richer parts,” Cassiano said. “It’s negligence. We respond practically on our own.” As world leaders come to Brazil for climate talks , peWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times