FIRE-EARTH Bulletin NO. 58

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

FIRE-EARTH Bulletin NO. 58 has been released.

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“Chunyun”: The Spring Madness in China

ANTHROPOGENIC HAZARDS
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Spring Festival Transport in China: 3.62 Billion passenger trips in 40 days!

Some 3.62 thousand million passenger trips will be made during the Chinese Spring Festival holiday season around the Chinese New Year, placing a tremendous strain NOT just on trains, planes and automobiles, but also on the environment. The forecast is about 200 more million passenger trips compared with last  year.

The 40-day holiday fever around the Chinese New Year, which falls on January 31 this year, said to be the most important period for family reunions in China, began on January 16 and will continue through February 24 this year.

“Most of the trips, about 3.2 billion, are expected to be made by road, including long-distance coaches, charted buses and tour coaches, said Liang Xiao’an, Ministry of Transport spokesman, at the press conference,” according to a report.

That means 80 million road trips will be made each day, up 5.8 percent from the same period last year, said the official.

Guangzhou Train Station during the Chinese New Year. Source: Various Internet sites.

About 42 million flights are also forecast for the period, up 10 percent from last 2013. China’s Civil Aviation Administration has announced that it will increase the number of flights by 12,000 each week from 50,000, said the report.

“About 258 million train trips will be made during Chunyun, up 7.9 percent year on year, said Hu Yadong, deputy general manager of the China Railway Corporation (CRC).”

Trains are the most popular method of transport for college students and migrant workers, said the report, however, a big gap exists between the capacity and demand.

Tens of Thousands Displaced in Indonesia Floods, Landslides

EXTREME CLIMATIC EVENTS
CLIMATE-RELATED DISASTERS
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Widespread flooding and landslides have left dozens killed, and tens of thousands displaced in Indonesia

Dozens of people were killed and at least 40,000 others made homeless by severe flash flooding and landslides in eastern Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province, according to reports.

Indonesian Army, the Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) and other organizations have been mobilized to evacuate victims after floods and landslides hit North Sulawesi, affecting multiple districts in several regencies, reported Jakarta post.

Flooding in Jakarta

Meanwhile, widespread flooding triggered by extreme rain events  in the Indonesian capital Jakarta has left at least 7 people dead and more than 11,000 homeless, the national disaster agency told Xinhua. Authorities expect more rains worsening the flood situation over the next few days.

Dozens of locations buried under up to 80cm of floodwater since Wednesday , most of which were located in West Jakarta, according to  BPBD.

“Jakarta witnessed one of its most devastating disasters when substantial flooding inundated 70 percent of the capital’s land mass in 2007, causing 57 deaths and displacing 450,000,” said a report.

Severe flooding triggered by extreme rain events  has inundated the Indonesian capital Jakarta, leaving at least 7 people dead and more than 11,000 displaced, the national disaster agency told Xinhua. Authorities expect more rains worsening the flood situation over the next few days.(Xinhua/Agung Kuncahya B.) More images…