Argentina It has its Patagonian version of the fires that devastated part of Los Angeles. The southern forests burn in the middle of flames that spread at high speed and that, according to official reports, They have devoured more than 25,000 hectares. The fire has caused a dead and destroyed more than 200 houses. About 1,000 people were evacuated in the provinces of Neuquén, Río Negro and Chubut. Everything can get worse. According to Greenpeace Argentina, the razed surface would be three times higher than the balance of last season. “We are suffering an echocide. The Climate crisis It requires preparing for an increase in forest fires. The political leadership must stop underestimating this situation, “said Hernán Giardini, coordinator of the Greenpeace forests campaign. He recalled that 95% of cases occurs by human action, drought derived from environmental deterioration, and wind action .
One of the areas most affected by high temperatures is Magdalena Valley of the Lanín National Park1,500 kilometers from the city of Buenos Aires, where more than 5,000 hectares of forest have been phagocytized. The Secretary of Emergencies and Riegos Management of the Neuquina province, Luciana Ortiz Luna, acknowledged that the situation tends to get worse. The Single Operations Coordination (CUO) activated a red alert on Wednesday to summon firefighters from the center of the country to the Brigadistas who have been mobilized to the most conflicting spotlights and that do not supply. “The people who are in the place are at the limit of their operational and physical capacity”, Gustavo Nicola, national director of Cuo said.
Nahuel Huapi National Park is 1,577 kilometers south of the Argentine capital and is One of the forest treasures of this country. The fires began at the end of last December and have committed 10,700 hectares. “His recovery can be delayed 200 years, as well as in the Lanín,” Giardini said. The city of El Bolsónin the province of Río Negro, a reference of the hippies communities has been for decades. Also an important tourist destination that is accessed after traveling 1,700 kilometers through dazzling landscapes. Ariel Pérez, head of the Fire Fight Operation in that town acknowledged that the spotlights remain “very active.” In Epuyén, the flames destroyed 3500 hectares while in the province of Chubut, near the commune of Atilio Viglione, 3,200 hectares have been considered lost.
Climate negationism
The fires coincide with the declared intention of the ultra -rightist government Javier Milei to abandon the Paris Agreement about climate change. Environmentalism is for the anarchocapitalist part of the ‘Woke’ culture or a way of undercover socialism that must be considered a “virus” to eradicate, as expressed weeks ago in Davos. The only response to claims, they support environmentalists and human rights organizations, has been unleashing a “Witch hunting” which resulted in the arrest of three recognized brigades who are tried to hold the first sparks. Dozens of neighbors of the Andean region came out in their defense and were repressed by the police when they approached the El Bolsón police station.
Greenpeace insists: “Argentina is in forest emergency. It is evident that fines are not enough to discourage both fires and clearing, so we consider that the destruction of native forests must be prohibited and penalized. ; More species disappearance; more floods; more desertification; more evictions of peasant and indigenous communities; more loss of food, wood and medicines; and more diseases. “
Destruction of prevention agencies
Maristella Svampa is a sociologist and environmentalist of international recognition. For the author of The ecological collapse has already arrivedco -written with lawyer Enrique Viale, The Milei administration is not interested in the big fires and leave them aside on their agenda because it perceives that it does not pay any political price before the population. The anarchocapitalist, who months ago was considered a “mole” that destroys the State from the inside, has actually worked as regards preventive policies in matters derived from climate change. He has applied a rigorous adjustment in a meteorological service known for the training of his workforce, took financing to the National Fire Management Service and, in addition, placed it in the orbit of the orbit Ministry of Security that Patricia Bullrich leads. “Instead of planning how to activate the early alerts that would serve to control the propagation of fire focuses, whether or not they are intentional, scientific and civil defense personnel are reduced. The government subjects them to the anguish of permanent work precariousness, With the threat of dismissals or reprisals if they dare to talk about climate change, “Svampa tells El Periódico.
Bullrich held the same position during the government of the Magnate Mauricio Macri (2015-19), an opportunity in which he carried out an intense discredit campaign of the Mapuche original communities, which he has tried to associate at the time with fires. A decade ago and currently many brigades and volunteers are part of that community under suspicion. “The government propagates anti-indigenous racism that lights the wick of hatred and gives rise to all kinds of conspiracy theory, “says Svampa.
