{"id":75747,"date":"2026-08-01T03:53:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T02:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eco123.info\/?p=75747"},"modified":"2026-08-01T03:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T02:54:09","slug":"what-lessons-have-we-learned-for-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eco123.info\/en\/zw1-2-en\/what-lessons-have-we-learned-for-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"What lessons have we learned for the future?"},"content":{"rendered":"
08\/08\/2026 – 08\/08\/2026 by Uwe Heitkamp<\/h6>\n

Edition 30.2026<\/h3>\n

Forest fires. They destroy a lot of nature, and quite a few houses too. But you can survive a forest fire. You just have to be quick enough and know how to protect your house. That\u2019s what I learned in Monchique. How do you do this?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Following the disastrous forest fires in Monchique and its surrounding area in 2018, only a few homeowners and landowners had the strength and the money to knock down their burnt-out houses and clear their plots of land, plant new trees and convert the ruins into fire-resistant homes.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Scientists have long been telling us that we should prepare for the climate crisis. But adaptation alone is not enough. Everyone must realise that, if we continue to burn petrol and diesel fuel, then we are heading for a three-degree rise in global temperatures and we will no longer be able to adapt.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Monchique firemap, 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, the mayor and his administrative team <\/span><\/span>in the region<\/span><\/span> have the power to help. I am talking about the town hall in Monchique, where Mayor Paulo Alves from the PS, his council and his administration, did not consider it important to name the victims of 2018 as the \u2018Winners of the Year\u2019 for 2026. When people lose everything \u2013 their homes and all their possessions \u2013 surely the local council\u2019s top priority should be to ensure that these victims are better protected against future wildfires, if only because the council would otherwise lose out on tax revenue…<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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WetNet (R) bunker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Water is everything; without water, everything is nothing. <\/b><\/span><\/span>At the very least, every house in Monchique must be fitted with its own cistern to collect rainwater. That is the first step. Houses have to be retrofitted in order to make them fire-resistant. How many houses in Monchique have been built to be fire-resistant, making them capable of withstanding a wildfire without suffering any damage? Time and again, we see that the situation remains exactly as it was in 2018. If a fire were to break out over Monchique again tomorrow, more than 100 houses would surely fall prey to the flames, just as they did in 2018, 2003 and 1991. Nothing has changed for the better. The fire enters the houses (whose roof trusses are built of timber) through the roof. Doors, windows and shutters are made of wood or other non-fire-resistant materials. This is an open invitation for any fire to spread. We need to reduce the risk of forest fires in our own homes by using non-combustible materials. Would you like some examples? When it comes to thermal insulation, I always use cork instead of polystyrene. My roof structure is made of reinforced concrete.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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WetNet (R) taps and manifold<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fever in times of climate crises<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Viewed against the backdrop of climate change, with summer heatwaves exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, and against the backdrop of the recent forest fires in Spain, France and the rest of southern Europe, isn\u2019t it about time we learned something from our experiences of these fires over the past few decades? Anyone who owns a cistern with a capacity of at least 50m\u00b3 or more will at least have enough rainwater to water the garden around the house. All that is needed is guttering. If they so wished, the architects working for the town hall in Monchique could, at any time, require all houses to be fitted with gutters. The rainwater would then flow into the cistern by itself. Anyone who owns a generator would at least have an emergency power supply, as the electricity supply is always the first thing to fail; this is because, in Portugal, the power lines (including the necessary transformer stations) are placed above ground, without any protection, and are thus the first thing to be burned through. Water pumps cannot pump water to the source of the fire if there is no electricity to power them.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n