For Months Now, Argentine City Of Rosario Choking On Smoke Of Burning Parana Basin Grasslands

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A raging fire described as “completely out of control” is threatening one of South America’s major wetland ecosystems. The fire has been burning for months now, and is visible from the balconies of luxury apartments along the shoreline of the Paraná River in Argentina’s central city of Rosario. Locals have been sharing photos and videos of the fires on social media.

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In normal times, Rosario’s riverfront homes enjoy a spectacular view of the seemingly never-ending green grasslands on the opposite bank of the Paraná, a waterway stretching over a mile across as it passes through the city. In recent months, however, dwellers in the luxury condos have been congregating on their balconies as the wall of red flames from thousands of fires raging through the Paraná delta grasslands rises high into the sky.

“Everything is burning, it’s completely out of control,” Leonel Mingo, a spokesperson for Greenpeace Argentina, told the Guardian. “Once a fire reaches that scale, it becomes virtually impossible to stop.” The Paraná is South America’s second largest river after the Amazon and the eighth longest river in the world. Its floodplain, known by Rosarinos as “la isla”, is not actually an island, but a vast delta covering some 15,000km2 , through which the Paraná drains towards the Atlantic Ocean 300km away.

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Jorge Liotta, a biologist specialising in the abundant wildlife of the delta, lives with his wife and two young children in the nearby riverside city of San Nicolás de los Arroyos. Their home is just a block from the Paraná’s shoreline. “The other night I walked to the river and could see seven fires burning in the distance,” Liotta told the Guardian. “It depends on the wind if the smoke hits you, but when it does, the smoke is so thick that the sun turns red and you can barely see the house next door. What’s worse, it gets inside your home. People with asthma and other breathing difficulties are really suffering.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/30/argentina-delta-fires-rage-out-of-control-parana-river