For those of you who have never been to Sao Paulo, and can’t imagine what the city would be like in total darkness, just imagine New Delhi totally without power. Or Los Angeles, Mexico City, or Bangkok.
Blackout. Simple as that.
By now, you probably heard the news that Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and cities in 18 different Brazilian states were plunged into darkness last night with a massive power outage.
I am in Sao Paulo now, but when I heard the news last night, I was in the Houston, Texas airport waiting to board a flight back home. But from those I have spoken to since returning to Brazil this morning, it was a scary night that caused panic on the streets but no major public security incidents.
For those of you who have never been to Sao Paulo, and can’t imagine what the city would be like in total darkness, just imagine New Delhi totally without power. Or Los Angeles, Mexico City, or Bangkok.
Sao Paulo is South America’s largest city and the financial capital of the region. Fortunately, all power is restored and besides shaken nerves, no damage was done from the outage. But that hasn’t stopped intense media coverage and President Lula asking tough questions of his ministers.
There are two take-aways form last night’s events:
Number One: In a previous blog post I commented how Brazil will be under incredible international scrutiny now that the country will host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics.
You get awarded those events; you also get the scrutiny of your country that comes along with them. Brazil has figured this out real quick over the past month.
Take for example the Daily Mail's headline "Eerie evening for Brazil as power outage plunges future home of Olympics into late-night blackout." I imagine the words "home of the Olympics" will be in just about every headline about Rio in the coming years.
Obviously, the questions being asked today are: Is Brazil ready? And doomsday insinuations such as, “What happens if there is a major outage during the opening ceremony?”
All these questions are legitimate, but let’s not forget these international events are years down the road. Brazil has time to fix its problems.
But make no mistake; no longer will problems in Brazil be overlooked on the international stage. They will be front page. A recent report by CBS's "60 Minutes" on cyber terrorism even mentioned Brazil’s hydroelectric grid being vulnerable to cyber attack.
There is no indications the recent outage was cyber attack related, but it was certainly noted in many quarters that the outage was less than 3 days after the CBS report aired.
Number Two: In another previous blog post, I wrote about how there are groups in Brazil pushing back against the government’s plans to build massive new hydroelectric dams in the Amazon. (The cause of Tuesday night’s outage was a problem with transmission lines from the massive Itaipu dam, the second largest in the world.)
I promised to expand on the why the government would push for more dams and risk permanently altering the natural environment. Last night said it all. Brazilian energy officials say they need more dams to power growth to meet energy needs and avoid blackouts.
Critics have long said that simply is not true. I am not sure who is right, but I am positive the recent outage will be used as leverage for those people who support the building of more dams. They will say, “See, we need more dams to fix this problem.”
For now, all is back to normal in Brazil. We have electricity. But nightfall is coming soon, and I plan to keep a flashlight handy tonight.
