The first major Atlantic hurricane of this season passed through the Caribbean this week, leaving a path of destruction before reaching the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. Hurricane Beryl, which reached a maximum of Category 5 as it traveled westward, is the earliest hurricane of its size ever reported—highlighting the disastrous effects of the climate crisis.
Warming water temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea have contributed to the worsening hurricane season. As Associated Press science writer Seth Borenstein notes, this hurricane has already broken historic records—forming earlier and reaching higher categories than previous hurricane seasons—and compares to previous record breakers like the “busy” 1933 hurricane season.
Warming water temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea have contributed to the worsening hurricane season.
The extreme weather event follows warnings from the United Nations’ weather agency, which raised a “red alert” because of historically high temperatures in 2024. But across Latin America, extreme weather events brought about by climate change have become all too common.
The beginning of hurricane season comes as Latin America transitions from the El Niño weather effect into the La Niña effect. Countries across the hemisphere, including Chile, Colombia, and Guatemala, which were affected by widespread wildfires just months prior, have already seen a brutal rainy season, triggering massive flooding.
“We feel the effects of the climate [change],” Marília Closs, a project coordinator and researcher at the Brazilian CIPÓ Platform, tells The Progressive. “We have to have policies that are prepared for [the effects], that look at future scenarios, and that work with them to fortify society so that it is a little more prepared for what’s going to come.”
She adds, “It is not simply mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. But it is also essential to ensure that societies and communities are adapted so that communities don’t have the complete destruction of relationships and social infrastructures.”
Pierre Markuse, CC BY 2.0
Burn scars of the recent fires near Viña del Mar, Chile, February 5, 2024 (Landsat 9 data courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey).
Parts of southern and central Chile experienced rapidly shifting environmental crises, including massive wildfires in February and widespread flooding in June. The mid-June rainstorm affected millions of people in six regions of the country, leaving at least one person dead and damaging more than 2,000 homes.
The importance of building communities that are adaptable to the effects of climate change is captured best in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. In early May, the state was devastated by heavy rains affecting at least 95 percent of municipalities.
In total, 70 percent of the population—more than two million people—were impacted by the flooding. Around 600,000 people in the state were displaced and more than 170 people died. Nothing like this has ever occurred in the region.
“It always rained, but nothing like this,” Closs, who is originally from the southern Brazilian state, says. “Rio Grande do Sul was absolutely not prepared, and the city of Porto Alegre, its capital, was primarily not prepared at all [for that level of rain].”
Latin America in general is especially threatened by the effects of climate change, in part due to the high levels of inequality in the region. As Closs points out, when people are displaced by rains and flooding, those who lack access to decent housing experience the most intense consequences.
“Climate change is felt even more widely because there are populations that live in situations of great social and economic vulnerability and inequality,” she explained.
Central America is regularly identified by experts as among the regions most susceptible to the effects of climate change. Unprecedented and massively destructive storms like Hurricane Beryl are a byproduct of a warming climate
Extreme weather events in Central America have killed at least thirteen people across the region since the rainy season began in May.
Landslides triggered by heavy rains have killed at least five people in El Salvador. In Honduras, the rains have led to flooding across the country.
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Rio los Esclavos, Guatemala
Guatemala has also seen widespread flooding, including in the central zones of the country’s second largest city, Quetzaltenango, in June. The heavy rains have already contributed to an intensifying infrastructure crisis in Guatemala, where highways have been washed away due to years of neglect.
The highway that connects Guatemala City with the city of Escuintla on the country’s southern coast collapsed in May due to the failure of a drainage system that undermined the highway. The Palín highway had been administered by the Mexican company Grupo Marhnos as part of a public/private agreement until April 2023, when the company announced that it would not renew their contract.
According to the Guatemalan government of Bernardo Arévalo, which quickly responded to repair the important highway, at least eleven points along the highway must be repaired even though the company allegedly did maintenance on the highway before ending the contract.
The collapse of infrastructure in Guatemala comes after the previous administration of Alejandro Giammattei budgeted a historic amount for addressing infrastructure across the country. But the Arévalo administration inherited a country ravaged by abandonment and corruption, especially in relation to infrastructure.
Despite widespread damage, those most concerned with the worsening hurricane season are the rural communities across Guatemala, which are considered particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
Despite widespread damage, those most concerned with the worsening hurricane season are the rural communities across Guatemala, which are considered particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
Among the communities that have expressed apprehension at the beginning of hurricane season are the residents of Campur in the municipality of San Pedro Carchá in the department of Alta Verapaz. In 2020, the people of this community were left for months under fifteen meters of water after hurricanes Eta and Iota devastated the country and drove a wave of migration from the rural community. Residents told Prensa Libre in June 2024 that they feared the impacts of any upcoming hurricanes. Campur was classified as a dangerous zone after the 2020 hurricanes.
As the case of Campur demonstrates, the increasing frequency of extreme weather events has contributed to the number of people seeking to flee countries across the region in the hopes of reaching the United States. That number will only increase as people continue to be displaced by the effects of climate change, which is set to displace massive numbers of people.
But as Closs points out, the response to these crises is made less effective by the rise of the far right. Such movements in the United States, Brazil, and elsewhere in the hemisphere negate that climate change is occurring, and provoke further hatred of migrants and asylum seekers who are fleeing climate disasters.
“The rise of the far right leaves this situation more serious,” Closs says.