2023-08-21 06:00:00
Bild: Karsten Winegeart / Unsplash
Severe fires in Tenerife, Canada and Hawaii. Mass evacuations and thousands missing. Hawaiians fear losing their cultural identity through land sales.
Thousands of Tenerife residents were forced to flee blazes last week from wildfires that authorities said were out of control, the news channel reports Al Jazeera.
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The fire is of a magnitude “that the Canary Islands never experienced before 26,000 residents had to be evacuated by Saturday. About a million people live on the popular tourist island, which is part of the Canary archipelago off the coast of Western Sahara.
The police leave arson out of. The perpetrators are responsible for one of the worst fires on the island in the past 40 years, it is reported.
In July it was already on the neighboring island of La Palma devastating forest fires given. Drought, heat and wind favor the spread of the fires.
Canada: Worst wildfire season in history
Canada has been experiencing the worst wildfire season in its history for many weeks. The westernmost province of British Columbia shouted the state of emergency these days.
Tens of thousands had to be evacuated. More than 1,000 fires are still burning nationwide.
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Hawaii: A Thousand Missing; Residents not informed about sirens
Meanwhile, Maui, one of the main islands of the Hawaiian archipelago, reportedthat the death toll from a wildfire that devastated the old whaling town of Lahaina there on August 8 has now risen to 114. 1,000 people are still missing (see also: “Climate crisis escalates: record fires, droughts – and a ray of hope for young people”).
Authorities had not informed residents about sirens. The reason given is now that this would not have helped with the evacuation. The island’s civil protection officer, who was responsible for this decision, has since resigned.
Businesses with scorched soil
Meanwhile, residents of Lahaina complain that resourceful businessmen are trying to buy up land in the devastated city. Many Hawaiians have lived in the city, who already feel marginalized by the white Americans.
Lahaina was the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii until 1845 and is still considered their capital by many Hawaiians, is it[called at the Canadian broadcaster CBC. Later, the royal seat had been moved to Honolulu, where in the 1890s US immigrants organized a coup d’etat, disenfranchised Asian immigrants and facilitated the 1898 US annexation. (Wolfgang Pomrehn)
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