A few posts ago you could see pictures of the quiet and lovely isle of El Hierro as we found it to be in January. I remember talking with a few islanders back then about the recent climate and they all coincided that it had been disastrous, for no rain had fallen yet. Also last year, in september,a horrific forest fire broke up from a number of locations in the island, wiping out 1,400 hectares of indigenous Canarian pine forest. You could say that El Hierro had had a fair share of hard luck in the last months.
And suddenly it becomes clear that it really can get worse. In the first days of February, all the rain that this part of the archipelago never saw in 2006, falls at once in a couple of days. In Tenerife, the most remarkable result of the storm was a thick sheet of lovely snow. The result in El Hierro was one of the worse natural disasters ever happening in the history of the Canaries. Luckily no casualties to count, but the scale of the chaos and the devastation from the storm has left countless scars and damage. It's difficult to describe what happened, especially since i wasn't there, but these pictures talk for themselves. Herreños are tough and enduring people; however, they need all our sympathy, as anyone suffering from the chaotic consequences of climate change.
1 comment:
Pues parace que al igual que a los gallegos, a los herreños les ha tocado el gordo del desastre en los últimos meses: falta de lluvia, incendios y luego, de remate, lluvias torrenciales que arrastran todo lo que se pone delante. Casi todos hemos visto las increibles imágenes de torrentes, barrancos, cascadas, carreteras desaparecidas o sepultadas, coches enfangados hasta los retrovisores, etc. Un auténtico espectáculo de tristeza y, a su vez de toque de atención para todos.
Me parece a mi que ya se pasa de castaño oscuro este clima de extremos, que sobre todo en las Canarias, con su (admitámoslo) delicado "equilibrio" ecológico, viene causando un sinfin de desastres, que nos tienen a todos un poco sobrecogidos. Afortunadamente no ha habido muertes esta vez. Pero eso no nos debe hacer pensar que no ha habido consecuencias. Lo que nos tenemos que preguntar en serio es lo que todo el mundo tiene en la cabeza: ¿hemos vuelto loco al tiempo nosotros con nuestros abusos de la atmósfera, el petróleo y nuestro estilo de vida derrochador?
Si es así, quizás debamos empezar a admitir que lo que se nos viene encima no es bonito y que debemos estar preparados para ... aguantar y pagar nuestra deuda.
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