Italian 19:30 (21:30 Moscow) today, Sunday, August 8, 2010, my umpteenth interview on Radio Popolare. The cut is too long, here's the original text:
About 60% of Earth's wetlands are composed of peat. The peat deposits cover a total of about 3% of the land. Peat is a fossilized prehistoric groundwater, which is usually one meter and a half - two deep, dangerous as it catches fire in the ground, one that I know anything until the fire is clear. When it turns out, it's too late. It 's the so-called natural combustion. In Germany, it occupies 5% of the territory, 14% in Sweden, Finland, 31% (historically, the more north you go, there's more). In Russia, where there is more than anywhere, we are fighting for a lifetime, since the nineteenth century (thus tsarism, the Soviet Union, the russismo, really have nothing to do).
This year we broke all temperature records since the making of meteorological observations (for instance, when there was slavery abolished the glebe and Italy was united in the country), the highest temperature of the summer, July, August and so far above absolute. Many times, despite the very different latitude than Italian, we have exceeded 40 degrees. It seems that the records end up in a week, and with them, masks and wet sheets on the windows.
Objectively, Local Authorities, Civil Defence, the Ministry of Defence and Interior, as well as hundreds, thousands of volunteers, are possible: a few days ago the song of the wagtails was continually interrupted by Air Canada (although here do not call it that) with the basket and from helicopters. Not anymore: the thick blanket washes out where are located the fire, while fire trucks are struggling to make their way through the trees in the woods, forced to lay hoses for dozens of kilometers, whereas it takes about a tonne of water per square meter. At dawn you wake to the smell of burning and you see a pale sun that looks like the moon, we were not even in the lower valley, like Reggio Emilia.
The figures speak louder than political considerations. At the moment, in the Moscow region alone there are 49 fires, 14 of which are its deposits of peat, while the others are transmitted through the crowns of the trees. A total of 12,000 men working there, without thinking about similar situations in many neighboring regions, from Samara to Nizhny Novgorod and Kirov, with which you get to about 70 fires. Ironically, the smoke that has devastated Moscow comes from fires that are 150 km south-east from the capital. In practice, the wind north-west to create problems, and no indicator reversals in the short term. These figures are quite normal in these parts, considering that Moscow has 11 million residents, who really in the city every day there are just under 20 million, and that the region of Moscow in Moscow city reaches 30 million souls, almost 20% of the population of the country. The State has allocated 6 billion rubles and a half - about 165 million euro - for the reconstruction of destroyed homes, i lavori sono già iniziati.
Ieri, per la prima volta, la quantità di incendi domati ha superato quella dei nuovi focolai: 7 contro 6; ma le previsioni del tempo non lasciano presagire nulla di buono almeno fino a metà della prossima settimana. E’ già un miracolo che i tre aeroporti principali – quello di Šeremet’evo, di Domodedovo e di Vnukovo, rispettivamente a nord-ovest, a sud-est e a sud-ovest – abbiano ripreso a funzionare quasi normalmente, dovendo gestire solo il congestionamento accumulato. Non è detto che la situazione non torni a peggiorare.
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