071127-brazil
RIO DE JANEIRO - Ocean swallows town

Atafona, in Brazil is a town being swallowed by the ocean as rising temperatures speeds up erosion

Researchers say a total of 183 buildings have been destroyed and the Marine lighthouse moved twice in the past 30 years

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The town is called Atafona, in the delta state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

It is town that is being swallowed by the ocean as rising temperatures speed up the process of erosion.

The apocalyptic landscape seems to have emerged from a science fiction movie.

Researchers say a total of 183 buildings have been destroyed and the Marine lighthouse moved twice in the past 30 years.

Professor Gilberto Ribiero, Coordinator of the Atafona project at the Institute of Geoscience.

SOUNDBITE: Professor Gilberto Ribiero, Coordinator of the Atafona project at the Institute of Geoscience, saying: (Portuguese)

"Global warming is a fact, it is happening and nature is responding. One of the answers, for example, is the strengthening of the winds. The winds are stronger and in this region (Atafona) we saw here, the winds provoke the waves which will provoke sea erosion."

Erosion rates have risen steeply in the past years, forcing many to move from their homes and build new ones further inland.

Seventy-nine-year-old Belita Pedra, the island's oldest resident, has been forced to move six times because of erosion.

SOUNDBITE: Atafona's oldest resident Belita Pedra, saying: (Portuguese)

"This house right there, is my sixth home. The ocean took everything away. People had very good houses here, but the ocean swept everything away. My son-in-law became tired of building houses and losing them," she said, pointing towards her small house."

Atafona's destiny is uncertain, but the prospects are bleak for Pedra and her neighbors, as the ocean continues to take away the place they once called home.

Deborah Lutterbeck, Reuters

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v.tr.

1. To cause (food or drink, for example) to pass through the mouth and throat into the stomach.

2. To put up with (something unpleasant): swallowed the insults and kept on working.
sweep v. swept, sweep·ing, sweeps

v.tr.

1. To clean or clear, as of dirt, with or as if with a broom or brush: sweep a chimney.

2. To clear away with or as if with a broom or brush: swept snow from the steps.

7. To clear, drive, or convey with relentless force: The flood waters swept away everything in their path.

8. To wipe out at a single stroke. Often used with away: The incident in effect swept away all her dreams.