Italy: Submerged in Floodwaters, Sinking in Garbage

A Shrinking World Series

How Much More Floodwaters, Trash Before the Truth Sinks In?

As the Campania region in southwest italy is buried deeper in trash, the northwestern region of Piedmont, another of the country’s 20 regions, is submerged in floodwaters. The authorities declared a state of emergency in Turin and Val d’Aosta.

[Darn, I wonder what caused that!] A man surveys the damage caused by a landslide caused in Turin. (Photo: AFP) Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Eyewitnesses reported a five-meter high wall of mud engulfing houses in an Alpine village near the French border. A landslide caused by heavy rainfall has killed at least three people; a 3-year old girl was reported missing.

The floods also pose a serious risk to crops in the area. “The torrential rain and the Po [Italy’s longest river] and the Dora breaking their banks have meant many wheat fields are flooded and the harvest could be lost,” the Italian Farmers Confederation said in a statement.

The Po valley, Italy’s most fertile farming area, is also its most industrially developed. “There has been too much building, concreting-over and canalization along our rivers with devastating consequences that happen as soon as rains start,” said Michele Candotti of the Environmental group WWF Italia. (Source)

Related Links:

• Naples Garbage Opera - Act II
• Seeking Toxic Asylum

Chaitén’s Fury Ending?

Chaitén Update # 3

Is Weary Chaitén Ready to Rest?

Chaitén continues to erupt, although a decline in the height of eruption column in the last two days has been reported. A decline also in its seismic activity is reducing the probability of larger explosive eruptions, though they are not entirely ruled out.

Air Lines Resume Flights Over Central and Southern Chile

Airlines resumed flights to most of southern Chile airports on Thursday after they were briefly suspended because of the high concentration of ash in the atmosphere.

Flights to Puerto Montt and Temuco remain on stand by until further notice; however, flights to Punta Arenas and Balmaceda have resumed.

Chaitén volcano started erupting May 2, after at least 9,000 years. (Source MercoPress.) Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Cerro Azul Volcano Erupts

Meanwhile the 1,700-meter high Cerro Azul volcano erupted on Thursday after 10 years of inactivity. Cerro Azul is located on Isabela, the largest of the Galapagos islands.

Cerro Azul volcano at the SW tip of Isabela Island. Photo by Tom Simkin (Smithsonian Institution). Image Maty be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

The Galápagos archipelago, a province of Ecuador, has a population of around 40,000 and is located the eastern Pacific Ocean at 525 nautical miles (972 km/604 miles) off the west coast of South America. The sparsely archipelago is home to “Galápagos,” the Spanish name for the Giant Land Tortoises that inhabit the islands.

Satellite photo of the Galápagos islands (names of the visible main islands are overlayed).

Unlike the 1998 Cerro Azul eruption in which several giant tortoise were destroyed by molten lava, despite a rescue operation by helicopters, it is thought that the current eruption poses no danger to the animals.

Related Links:

Volcanoes

• Semeru Volcano: Alert Level III

• Satellite picture by Google Maps
• Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program: Semeru
• Indonesia Volcanoes and Volcanics [USGS]
• Volcanological Survey of Indonesia (VSI)

• Volcanoes
• Philippines Taal Volcano Could Erupt Anytime!

• The Power of Chaitén Volcano
• Chaitén Volcano Still Active
• Chaitén Volcano: No End Seen to Second Massive Eruption
• Chile: Volcano activity prompts mass evacuation

• Volcanoes, Santorini Eruption and Crops Failure in China
• Mt Ruapehu Eruption Alert

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Naples Garbage Opera - Act II

Partenope: Naples Garbage Opera

Act II: Confusion, Rodents, Vermin, Pest [and possible disease pandemics]

There are known knowns: Things we know we know

• As per usual with Italian politics, garbage and football the facts and numbers don’t add up!
• The garbage dumps near Naples reached their limit in Mid December 2007.
• By Mid January 2008, some four weeks later, about 250, 000 tons of garbage decorated the Neapolitan streets.
• The 6million inhabitants of Campania region (Naples is the capital city of Campania) produce about 7,200 tons of garbage per day (between Mid December 2007 and end May 2008 they will have produced a total of about 1.2 million tons of garbage ).
• Germany’s Environment Ministry estimates that 52,000 tonnes of Italian waste were imported to Germany for processing in 2007. (Source)
• A one-off deal was struck with the German city of Bremen to transport 30,000 ton of Neapolitan garbage to an incinerator in Bremerhaven.
• Another deal was struck with Germany to haul 200,000 tons of the garbage by train to German Incinerators via Austria.
• EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the European Commission would take legal action against Italy unless it resolves the garbage crisis in Naples. [Wow, that really scared the pants out of the Italians!]

The ongoing nightmare scenario could only get worse in the coming weeks when the summer temperatures soar in the Campania region.

Naples’s mob, the Camorra has been illegally importing garbage from Italy’s northern cities stuffing Naple’s landfills. “The Camorra has grabbed an even larger share of the city’s garbage-hauling contracts after vetting standards were relaxed to cope with the current crisis.” WSJ said.

[Of course, no one has told EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas that "throwing out trash has become big business" in Europe. "According to a March report by the European Topic Centre on Resource and Waste Management, about 15% of the continent's hazardous trash, or 8.6 million tons, was disposed of outside its country of origin in 2003, the latest year for which figures are available." Wall Street Journal reported. "Plants in northern Germany charge between €150 and €250 ($237 to $394) to incinerate one ton of waste, estimates Christian Fischer, a waste-management analyst who co-authored the March report." ]

[Why is it so difficult to live without producing waste you can't handle?] A woman and children walk past a pile of garbage in Naples, Italy. Photo: AP Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

There are known unknowns: We know there are some things we do not know

• How much of this garbage still fills the streets of Naples?
• The estimates for the amount of garbage still covering the Neapolitan sidewalks (and elsewhere in Campania) vary from a misleading 100,000 tons to an unconvincing 200,000 tons.
• About 700,000 tons of garbage may have been stockpiled in provisional sites. (Source)
• Unless a substantial amount of the garbage, about 200 -300,000 tons, is consumed by millions of rats and other vermin, the total amount of garbage rotting on the streets of Naples and other town in Campania is closer to 400 - 500,000 tons as of end May 2008. What we know that we don’t know, is exactly how many rats are feasting on their Neapolitan diet and how many pizzas they can eat per head per day!

Unknown unknowns: The ones we don’t know we don’t know

• In case of bubonic plague outbreaks or other serious disease pandemics caused by rodents, vermin, pest infestation, how does the Italian government propose to protect the rest of Italy, or the EU authorities the rest of Europe?

Relate Links:

• Seeking Toxic Asylum
• Naples Garbage: First Commercial Dividends
• Naples: The Triangle of Death