Sat, Sep 19, 2020
"An unprecedented catastrophe to which no end is in sight." This is how the authorities describe the wave of fires that is ravaging the western United States and is fueling the debate on the consequences, already palpable, of climate change. The flames have left dozens dead and destroyed almost two million hectares in the three large states of the Pacific coast: California, Oregon and Washington. Toxic smoke has made the air in cities like Portland, Seattle, San Francisco or Los Angeles the most polluted in the world.
The correspondent for TVE in the United States, Sara Rancaño, covers for 'Weekly Report' the charred landscape that this human and environmental catastrophe is leaving behind. She is not only concerned about the magnitude of the disaster, but also its frequency, because each year exceeds the previous one.
Furthermore, with less than two months to go before the presidential election, the disaster of the west coast has broken into the American electoral campaign.
The most telltale number is 4.2 million.
That's the stop-in-your-tracks figure - the total acreage burned - from last year's fire siege, the worst year in California's long history of wildfires.
2020 was a fire year of unforgettable and awful superlatives. In the new world of mega-fires, a series of wildfires exploded late in August with a barrage of lightning and fires that blazed for four months.
The 4.2 million acres burned last year is equivalent to the entire area of Los Angeles, Orange, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties combined.
The most telltale number is 4.2 million.
That's the stop-in-your-tracks figure - the total acreage burned - from last year's fire siege, the worst year in California's long history of wildfires.
2020 was a fire year of unforgettable and awful superlatives. In the new world of mega-fires, a series of wildfires exploded late in August with a barrage of lightning and fires that blazed for four months.
The 4.2 million acres burned last year is equivalent to the entire area of Los Angeles, Orange, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties combined.