内容摘要：Bill Craven, a 25-year veteran engineer, described the mood among union members positively. He said they usually don’t get to congregate because they are typically passing each other on the rails at 100 mph.

Bill Craven, a 25-year veteran engineer, described the mood among union members positively. He said they usually don’t get to congregate because they are typically passing each other on the rails at 100 mph.

The changes in the region are also an increasing threat to the omnipresent açai palm trees. In many places, sea erosion is taking them. And in areas closer to the sea, the açai berries began to taste different.“Some açai tastes salty, and berries have a weaker color. It’s no longer a deep purple. The canopy is thinner and the bunches are smaller,” says Alcindo Farias Júnior, 24, who works as a “peconheiro” or açai picker, a dangerous job that entails climbing high up the slender palm trees.

Alcindo Farias Junior, who works in the production of acai, climbs a palm tree to extract the fruit, in an area close to his house, in the community of Vila de Sao Pedro in the Bailique Archipelago, district of Macapa, state of Amapa, northern Brazil, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)Alcindo Farias Junior, who works in the production of acai, climbs a palm tree to extract the fruit, in an area close to his house, in the community of Vila de Sao Pedro in the Bailique Archipelago, district of Macapa, state of Amapa, northern Brazil, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)Alcindo Farias Junior, who works in the production of acai, shows the fruit, reached by the salty waters in the community of Vila de Sao Pedro in the Bailique Archipelago, district of Macapa, state of Amapa, northern Brazil, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Alcindo Farias Junior, who works in the production of acai, shows the fruit, reached by the salty waters in the community of Vila de Sao Pedro in the Bailique Archipelago, district of Macapa, state of Amapa, northern Brazil, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)According to geologist Valdenira dos Santos, who has studied the region for over two decades, several things contribute to the damage, including grazing buffalo, hydropower plants nearby, the natural dynamics of the estuary and on top of that, climate change.

“We are in a coastal system, which is influenced by what happens both at sea and on land. It is a system that changes fast on its own. And now human activities are changing that system,” says Santos, a researcher at the Institute for Scientific and Technological Research of Amapa.

Raimundo Brazao dos Santos transports acai palm hearts collected for sale in an island in the Bailique Archipelago, district of Macapa, state of Amapa, northern Brazil, Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)FILE - Members of a family visit their home devastated by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras, June 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)

WHO ARE CLIMATE MIGRANTS?Most climate migrants move within the borders of their homelands, usually from rural areas to cities after losing their home or livelihood because of drought, rising seas or another weather calamity. Because cities also are facing their own climate-related problems, including soaring temperatures and water scarcity, people are increasingly being forced to flee across international borders to seek refuge.

Yet climate migrants are not afforded refugee status under the 1951 Refugee Convention, which provides legal protection only to people fleeing persecution due to their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or particular social group.DEFINING CLIMATE MIGRATION