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As mudanças ambientais globais envolvem alterações no clima e nos sistemas ecológicos, incidem nos ciclos naturais, determinando prejuízos à infraestrutura, às atividades econômicas, sociais e à saúde humana, afetando, principalmente, as populações mais vulneráveis. Hoje, estima-se que as zonas costeiras são as regiões que mais sofrerão esses impactos, com efeitos diretos na economia e no cotidiano de suas comunidades. Fenômenos como o aumento de temperatura, do nível dos oceanos e da salinidade, eventos extremos, perdas das áreas de várzea e manguezais costeiros, aliados à ocupação desordenada do solo, pela construção de grandes empreendimentos tecnológicos e por turismo de massa, poderão afetar diretamente essas regiões. Estudar o Litoral Norte Paulista se justifica porque este tem sofrido impactos decorrentes das mudanças ambientais globais e porque suas comunidades expressam forte vulnerabilidade socioambiental. O objetivo deste artigo é verificar a percepção dos pescadores artesanais da praia da Cocanha/Caraguatatuba, Litoral norte paulista, Brasil, por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas e da observação direta de seu cotidiano, para averiguar, através dessa metodologia, sua percepção sobre a variação da temperatura do mar, sobre o volume de chuvas e sobre a imprevisibilidade das condições climáticas em geral. A análise dos dados, provenientes das entrevistas com os pescadores artesanais, sobre sua percepção sobre os impactos dessas mudanças, contribuirá para o melhor entendimento da vulnerabilidade e dos riscos aos quais estão submetidos, e a sua relação intrínseca com as mudanças ambientais globais sofridas.

Aims: To assess weather variability and climate change impacts on the mental health of a small fishing community in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Study Design: To this study, a fishing community strongly familiarized with the region was selected. Interviews were held with the most active fishermen members among the community. Place and Duration of Study: Interviews were held in the Association of Mussel Producers and Fishermen of Cocanha's beach (MAPEC), in the municipality of Caraguatatuba, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, between 2009 and. Methodology: We chose 13 individuals to interview, all of them small-scale fishermen and mussel producers who were born at Cocanha beach. Their perception on the changing environment -as well as the setbacks in work activities and daily life -were codified and analyzed with NVivo 10 software. Health data were collected in a municipality level. We acquired hospital admissions for mental health and behavioral disorders from the Nacional Health System (DATASUS). We performed trend analysis (period 1998 to 2014) for rates of incidence of mental and behavioral Original Research Articledisorders due to alcohol use, psychoactive substance use, Schizophrenia, schizotypal and delusional disorders. We also extracted social-economic data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). Results: The results indicated that the morbidities related to mental health problems showed a significant increase in hospital admissions, and were higher than the average rate in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, and that the interviewees were aware of ongoing environmental changes such as: marine water temperature, sea water levels, beach landscaping and intensity of precipitation. Conclusion: Environmental changes related to climate change have a strong impact on the daily lives of the interviewees, on their mental health and on use of natural resources. The perception of the communities directly using natural resources should be considered in the assessment and monitoring of climate change.

Studies on quality of life can contribute to a better understanding of situations where socioenvironmental transformations are evident, from environmental, social, cultural, and political perspectives. This paper analyzes the quality of life of the inhabitants of the Moinho rural settlement in the context of the surrounding conditions of environmental degradation. Moinho is located in Nazaré Paulista municipality, which belongs to the Cantareira System Environmental Protected Area (Cantareira EPA), state of São Paulo, Brazil. The methodology used was based on secondary data collection and interviews with local residents. The results explore the interface between the transformation of land use and the growing change of rural life that are greatly influenced by expanding urban sprawl in the region. Over recent decades, changes in the production systems, substitution of agriculture crops, and the impacts of these variables on environmental health and water availability, as well as damage to the Municipal Human Development Index (HDI-M) of its municipalities, are indicators of the region’s present social complexity. This study shows that an improvement in the quality of life has an intimate relationship with the creation of sustainable economic activities and the real participation of the local population in decision making processes.

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