The Conversation | SIALABE/Shutterstock
Imagine walking along Ipanema beach on a summer afternoon. The sand is golden, there’s a cooling sea breeze, the shade of a parasol and a cold drink in hand. Now look up. Clinging to the hillside just a few hundred metres away is Vidigal (above), one of Rio’s favelas in the Brazilian city. Here, thousands of people live in a heat trap with metal roofs, no parks and no formal public transport networks.