siiky
2024/09/18
2024/09/18
en
Here in Portugal lots of fires started up everywhere in the last few days. I wonder if the news cause any impression on anyone anymore. It's the same every year. Not exactly incredible, not exactly surprising, not exactly news. It's depressing.
I can smell the fire inside my house. The closest one is hundreds of kilometers away and I can smell it inside. It's depressing. Yesterday I went outside and saw flakes of ashes falling. How is this not a sign we have to do something about them? I'm just glad my dogs and cat don't know the terror of a forest fire, or they'd be depressing with me.
The best part is after they're gone this year, we'll give ourselves a pat on the back, and wait for next time: let the Eucalyptuses and Acacias grow back up; let the forests burn; rinse and repeat. Fucking depressing.
This is the case of Portugal, where nearly 1.4 million ha of land burned in the last decade and where E. globulus has become the most widespread tree species.
In 10 years, ~15.18% of the country's area has burned. That's almost 50% larger than the largest district (Beja). It's around half the area of Lisbon every year.
So when is anyone going to do anything about it? when are we gonna start preventing the Eucalyptuses and the Acacias from spreading? when is a quick buck not gonna be worth more than a good forest, with all its animals, bugs and plants?