Atafona, BrazilIt is high tide, and the waves are getting closer to the oceanfront home where José “Nenéu” Rosa lives. He gets up from his lunch of sergeant fish, which he caught at dawn. Barefoot and shirtless, his skin tanned from 46 years under the sun, the fisherman checks the stability of a four-foot-tall rock wall surrounding his house that protects it from the turbulent Atlantic Ocean. He sighs in relief to see that his property is safe, at least for another day.

In the afternoon, strong gusts from the northeast blow up nine-foot waves that touch Nenéu’s wall. His five dogs bark, frightened, while the three cats hide on the roof. Nenéu climbs the barrier, partially collapsed by a storm about