{"id":67897,"date":"2022-07-22T22:39:21","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T21:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eco123.info\/en\/?p=67897"},"modified":"2022-07-22T22:39:21","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T21:39:21","slug":"no-130-where-will-we-go-on-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eco123.info\/en\/ecology\/no-130-where-will-we-go-on-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"N\u00ba 130 – Where will we go on holiday?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday, the 23rd of July 2022.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So what does it take, really? What has to happen to put an end to the use of fossil fuels for good? Temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius will not give us respite over the coming days (and we\u2019re only in July). By 18 July 1063 people had already died in the heatwave, as announced, matter-of-factly by the Ministry of Health in Lisbon. And now what? What should we do? Buy an air-conditioning unit? Bring down the room temperatures? Some people are able to afford this, most however can\u2019t. At some point we all have to leave our house, and not only at night.<\/em><\/p>\n

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To the Portim\u00e3o autodrome where the racing cars fly round the bends? Test drives, what have you. And tourists continue to fly into the Algarve using Faro airport, and to fly out again the same way. Business (tourism) as usual<\/em>. Sunshine and sand. Others take their car to surf on the west coast, and back again. All is going the way it always has. We are standing in the traffic jam and say, oh look over there, it\u2019s burning again, see?<\/em> What happens when an element called fire ignites, whether through arson or by sparks from a high-voltage overhead power line, hit by careless eucalyptus trees? The culprit there was the wind as it were. 80% of forest fires erupt as a consequence of flying sparks is the verdict of an expert from Coimbra University, someone who knows what he\u2019s talking about: Professor Dr Xavier Domingos. Human negligence so. Stupidity?<\/p>\n

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Forest fires erupt and spread, and unless a pilot comes crashing down with his water scooper plane, the flames are at some point put out again by the firefighters and the planes, running on fossil fuels. Sometimes it even rains. Not in Portugal. That\u2019s when nature lends a hand. Every year we lose important providers of shade and oxygen through forest fires. The planes are an enormous help in inaccessible woodlands and mountainous areas. However, if the land keeps burning like this, soon more than a few thousand people will die, and not just succumbing to the heat.<\/p>\n