Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Fires Cover Caracas in Smog

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CARACAS, Mar 29 2010 (IPS) - A hot, dense haze covered the Venezuelan capital in late March, when the ash from a series of fires across some 140 hectares on Mount Ávila, which looms over the capital, mixed with the city's usual air pollution Smog “is formed with dust particulates remain in the lower atmosphere, and this year it has been accentuated by the vegetation fires at the end of the dry season,” said José Gregorio Sottolano, of the Institute of Meteorology.

Diego Díaz, an activist with the environmental group Vitalis, told Tierramérica that “the recovery of what was burned in a few days will take decades.”

Gilberto Carreño, of the Environmental Circle, noted that Mount Ávila, “a sponge with a lot of water in its subsoil, receives sporadic efforts in reforestation and is the subject of poetry and songs,” but has yet to receive water infrastructure that would allow it to deal with fires.