[Paisleychick-lj] Smoky Sunset

[Beatrice M's blog]

[![][1]][2]   
[Smoky Sunset][3]   
Originally uploaded by [blmurch][4]. 

It's *really* smoky here in Buenos Aires. It is worse at night because the cold air (now that we are entering fall weather) weighs down the smoke and doesn't let it clear out. During the day it's not so bad, we even had the windows open to let in the hot air so that the apartment can warm up. I've been reading reports and mailing lists trying to figure out what's going on and getting conflicting reports. A week or two ago, I first heard that they were burning organic material out by the airport. Okay, it wasn't so bad and I mainly noticed the smoke in the late afternoons. This week however, it's much much worse. My eyes sting, my throat is itchy and this isn't helping my cough go away. (I got a cold last week.) According to an article on [bloomberg.com][5], "292 separate fires covering 70,000 hectares (173,000 acres) had been detected in the provinces of Buenos Aires and neighboring Entre Rios." No wonder I couldn't get a clear picture - hah. I heard reports that islands in the river delta were on fire and that they couldn't put them out. I also heard that farmers were burning their fields as an act of protest against the government raising taxes on exports. I don't know how much stock to put in that rumor. The girlfriend, Ecole, of our last couchsurfing guest, Albert, wrote up a good post today. She has been going around to farms this past month with the Rotary Club. She got sort of an inside scoop and it has to do with people burning their fields to make pastureland available to plant soybeans. I remember reading about farmers burning the Amazon rain forest so they could have arable land, well, seems like that's happening here too. [Ecole writes][6]: they have set record fires to the islands.. so that they can ¨prepare¨the fields (kill anything in their way) to plant soy.... and now.. they are smoking out all of the Buenos Aires province. roads have closed.. accidents have happened.. our trips had to be cancelled for our safety.. when the evening comes... its a smoke fest..   
......  
that these poor folks think its possible to put out the fires from the air. but what they dont realize is that there are several feet of peat or humus layer .. and that the fire will go down deep below the surface and travel. so the only way to put it out is by flipping over the peat to reach the fire.. but there is no way to get there.. the bogs are too deep for people to walk in.. and so.. who knows what will happen with these fires.. and with the people.. and the land. i talked to a man who is in charge of the area´s greenspaces.. and he was miserable with the knowledge that these farmers are destroying thousands of years worth of work to build the organic layers that keep these islands so fertile."  
  
I don't know what's going to happen, the government is slow to respond and of course they are saying that the air is perfectly fine to breathe - NOT. I'm not gonna die (immediately) from breathing this stuff, but it's bad and I can only imagine what people are going through who suffer from asthma or other respiratory ailments. Just having the residual of my cold is bad enough. ::cough cough:: They have had to shut down highways and people have died in accidents and it's pretty noxious overall. Hopefully it will rain sometime soon, but there's nothing in the forecast for the next 5 days except sun and the occasional cloud cover.  


   [1]: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2292/2420198692_2550b5eb41_m.jpg
   [2]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/2420198692/ (photo sharing)
   [3]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/2420198692/
   [4]: http://www.flickr.com/people/blmurch/
   [5]: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=ajnZZDzmOWFY&refer=latin_america
   [6]: http://platelickers.blogspot.com/2008/04/smoked-out.html

URL: http://paisleychick.livejournal.com/337423.html