Rio de Janeiro integrates spiritual advisers into climate disaster response

SCOTT DETROW, HOST: Scientists expect this year's El Nino climate pattern to be far stronger than previous ones. They're calling it a Super El Nino. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the government is getting ready. It's not only employing meteorologists, but also a unique specialist, a spiritual adviser, as Catherine Osborn reports.

CATHERINE OSBORN, BYLINE: Rio de Janeiro is not used to tornado strength winds, but in late July, they tore through the city. Silvana Pereira watched the chaos unfold downtown.

SILVANA PEREIRA: (Non-English language spoken).

OSBORN: "It was horrible. Trees were dancing all over the place," says the 47-year-old hotdog vendor. "I've never seen anything like it in my life." As a huge tree smashed atop a taxi, she recorded the scene on her phone.

PEREIRA: (Non-English language spoken).

OSBORN: "It fell on top of the car," she narrates, trembling with fear. Across the city, dozens more uprooted trees blocked roads, and a power failure shut down the subway, snarling commutes.

EDUARDO CAVALIERE: What happened two weeks ago was an extreme event, probably intensified because of both El Nino, climate change and so on.

OSBORN: Rio's mayor, Eduardo Cavaliere, says the tropical city is used to strong weather, especially extreme heat. But the El Nino climate pattern makes it worse, like when one hit in 2023 and an overheated woman died at a concert here. After that, the city created an extreme heat warning system. Now it's expanding its alerts to warn about extreme wind.

OSBORN: On highly windy days, it sends cellphone alerts, warning people to move indoors and avoid trees. But now Rio's government is looking beyond meteorologists too. In this city, where diverse faiths have long flourished, the officials have also turned to a group of spiritual advisers. They come from a faith tradition called Spiritism followed by millions of Brazilians. This particular group is led by a female medium who claims she communicates with an Indigenous spirit known as the coral snake chief. She shows him when meteorologists forecast dangerous conditions. It's then believed the chief can summon opposing winds to neutralize bad weather. The medium doesn't give interviews, but I reached her spokesman, Osmar Santos.

OSMAR SANTOS: (Non-English language spoken).

OSBORN: "We don't charge any fees for our contracts," he says. Instead, the group asks Rio's government to take concrete steps to prevent climate disasters like preserving forests. While contracting spiritual weather advisers may seem outside of the box, it's not the first time this group has been called on. Santos claims it's helped keep the rain away during Rio's famous Carnival parades, and celebrities have also sought them out, including, allegedly, former U.S. first lady Nancy Reagan. Rio's mayor, Eduardo Cavaliere, says the city isn't abandoning science.

CAVALIERE: So we have data, images, videos, information from a lot of different departments, all of them in the same place.

OSBORN: At a recent press event inside Rio's operations center, Cavaliere enthusiastically showed off giant control panels that helped prepare for high winds. But he wasn't as thrilled when I asked about the spiritual adviser's role.

The prefeitura also made a partnership with the Cacique Cobra Coral Foundation.

CAVALIERE: Oh, my God.

OSBORN: He declined to discuss details, but he suggested the partnership honors local traditions.

CAVALIERE: I am very proud as a mayor of Rio to support and defend science, to have faith in God and to respect traditions of my people.

OSBORN: According to scholars, faith can help raise awareness about climate change. After all, many religious leaders, like the pope, speak up about the issue, says Brazilian anthropologist Renzo Taddei, who studied the coral snake chief medium.

RENZO TADDEI: Spirituality and science may engage with one another in productive ways.

OSBORN: Especially in a city like Rio de Janeiro, he says, faith and science can move in tandem. For NPR News, I'm Catherine Osborn.