Sunday, July 5, 2009

Environment without people

The wheat season has been dreadful this year in Lebanon: Lots of rains early on favored vegetative growth. Sudden heat and drought at the time of maturation meant that grain filling was poor. So many farmers have a lot of hay and no grain. Grain filling was also limited by fungal diseases that have accompanied the (too) wet season.

As if this was not enough, wild fires have come early this season: forest have started to burn and a state of emergency has been declared by the Government and by Environmental NGOs to protect the trees of Lebanon. But wheat fields are also burning in the Bekaa, due to a combination of dry winds and high quantity of hay. Unfortunately for the wheat farmers, the state of emergency does not address their fires. In this article, they shout: "We're all for the Environment, but what about our burning wheat fields????"

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