Posted on 10/13/2009 5:11:51 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
MADRID (AFP) – Underground fires have been raging for weeks in a wetlands area in southern Spain, sparked by the dry summer and the overuse of water for agriculture, an environmentalist said Tuesday.
The Tablas de Daimiel National Park, fed by the Guadiana river, has been drying up since the 1980s, and some lagoons have already disappeared.
In late August, hot dry weather caused the peat subsurface to catch fire, and plumes of smoke can be seen rising from the ground, said Jose Manuel Hernandez, head of the environmental organisation that looks after the park.
"This is a new phenomenon in the park" and "an extraordinary warning, a very clear signal of the degree of degradation of the park," he told AFP.
"The park is sinking so it is urgent" to flood it so the water table can be restored, he said.
The 2,000-hectare Tablas de Daimiel is the centrepiece of the Mancha Humeda wetlands zone, home to diverse birdlife, that UNESCO in 1980 placed on its list of Biosphere Reserves.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Just stop growing food, you idiots!
A dried up lake bed is seen through a bird watching hide in the "Las Tablas de Daimiel" national park near Ciudad Real, in 2006. Underground fires have been raging for weeks in a wetlands area in southern Spain, sparked by the dry summer and the overuse of water for agriculture, an environmentalist said Tuesday. (AFP/File/Pedro Armestre)
Oh, for peat’s sake!
Zapatero’s fault.
Because of course, peat bogs have never dried out and become meadows before.
LMAO! Or are the gates of hell opening up???
In Alaska, tundra fires burn for years. At Ft. Greely, AK we paid them no heed unless they came above ground and started burning trees. Or the military wanted to train some troops in fire fighting.
yitbos
“Hot Weather” does NOT start fires!!
Lightning or a careless smoker or careless campfire- sure...
Not hot weather unless there were compost piles that were damp inside, then possibly.
Spontaneous combustion can start fires in dry seasons...If you put your hay up in the barn and its not thoroughly dry, it can start a fire that burned down your barn....
One year hubby and I put up some hay we thought was OK..the next day I checked it (in the barn) and inside the bale was so hot I had to break open 1/2 of the bales, salt them down and watch them daily for a week....Clean out a barn and pile the crap and hay combined and it will start to smoke in a day or two. Goats drop a lot of hay on the floor, plus poo and pee. You clean the barn only once a year in the spring....You let the stuff pile up on the floor to generate some heat in the winter months...(I live in Michigan) Goat poo does not have an odor, looks like rabbit or deer poo..
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