Southern Brazil is underwater. What was exceptional is now part of the new normal. Adaptation, climate emergency plans and the valuation of ecosystems must be incorporated into policy. It is about the world we will leave to our sons and daughters.

Every crisis imposes challenges, but also opens windows of opportunity and change that are seized by some. Others, however, are prostrated in despair and fear.

The climate crisis in Rio Grande do Sul is already the largest in Brazil's history, but when the water recedes we will have more accurate information about the destroyed infrastructure, lost livelihoods, economic losses, and, above all, the death toll.