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00:00:00and life,
00:00:03they call it the world capital of lightning, over the waters of Lake
00:00:07Maracaibo in Venezuela, thousands of electrical discharges
00:00:10illuminate the sky every year in a unique phenomenon in the world,
00:00:14but beyond that spectacle of lights, the reality is
00:00:17worrying, pollution, oil spills and the
00:00:21accumulation of trash have turned this emblematic lake into an
00:00:24increasingly degraded ecosystem. We traveled to
00:00:28Maracaibo.
00:00:30The enormous clouds that form in the sky on this hot and
00:00:34humid afternoon are a good sign for environmental researcher Eric
00:00:38Quiroga.
00:00:41Tonight there are the minimum conditions, right, for the formation
00:00:44of an excellent lightning spectacle
00:00:47tonight will also be the night
00:00:51for a symphony of lights.
00:00:54He is here to observe one of the most impressive natural phenomena in the
00:00:58world, a lightning storm that
00:01:02a mining crisis in Argentina. What forms in this very place almost 300 nights a
00:01:04year. The expedition travels by boat
00:01:08on the Catatumbo River in western Venezuela.
00:01:11After more than 3 hours on the route, they arrive at Lake Maracaibo, the
00:01:15largest inland body of water in South
00:01:18America. Here in this
00:01:22lake I have many beautiful memories of my
00:01:25childhood. And besides this, this lake, this
00:01:29beautiful
00:01:31They are sensitive area of Catatumbo, generates one of the most fascinating phenomena on the
00:01:34planet, the Catatumbo lightning.
00:01:38Around here in these parts lived the Bari
00:01:41people who identified the Catatumbo
00:01:45lightning as Catatumbari, which means
00:01:47fire, or rather,
00:01:51permanent light in the sky. Then,
00:01:541500 years later, the Spanish arrived,
00:01:57and the colony began. So the
00:02:01travelers who came to the port of Maracaibo guided themselves at
00:02:04night by the lights of this beautiful
00:02:08phenomenon, and that is why they began to identify it as the
00:02:11lighthouse, the lighthouse of
00:02:13Maracaibo. When the sun sets over the lake,
00:02:17the flashes of the Catatumbo lightning
00:02:20begin. We are still at
00:02:23dusk, but the most important thing is that now
00:02:26they begin in two very well-located
00:02:30sites, first towards the southern
00:02:33part, right, southeast,
00:02:37and then later it will appear in front of a
00:02:39This unique lightning storm originates due to the orographic
00:02:43effect of its geography. During the
00:02:46day, warm and humid air sweeps the surface of Lake
00:02:49Maracaibo. The nearby Andes mountains
00:02:52push the air mass into the atmosphere,
00:02:55the air cools and icy particles descend,
00:02:59creating electrically charged clouds that discharge
00:03:02into the night sky.
00:03:05Storms can last up to 10 hours with dozens of
00:03:09already been exceeded and will decrease lightning and thunder every
00:03:10isolated at both ends and that for the minute.
00:03:14The dazzling display is most intense in September and October
00:03:18and decreases during the El Niño weather
00:03:21phenomena. But it is more than just a visual
00:03:24marvel. Lightning triggers a chemical
00:03:28reaction that generates ozone.
00:03:32another, another research that was done that has more to do
00:03:35with the fact that lightning bolts are like filters, filters
00:03:39against climate change, why? Because according to the
00:03:43does not expect you to look for information, it University of Pennsylvania, it was shown that high-altitude lightning
00:03:46that forms above cumulonimbus
00:03:49clouds generates
00:03:51hydroxides that are capable of cleaning the
00:03:55atmosphere, they eliminate
00:03:57methane, they eliminate pollutant
00:04:00ozone, and they eliminate even part of the nitrous oxide. Therefore,
00:04:04lightning bolts are very important, they are like a
00:04:09currently of the use of response from the planet also to climate
00:04:13change, especially these greenhouse gas
00:04:16effects that are very very
00:04:19harmful and that lead us to this
00:04:25social media, Electoral Tribunal of project is already beginning to calamity, such as the effects of climate change. While the phenomenon has been dated and
00:04:29officially documented for two centuries, it has existed
00:04:33for millennia. The indigenous Bari and Wayuu
00:04:36peoples revered it as a divine sign.
00:04:40Although it can be a marvelous spectacle, for
00:04:43fishermen it can be deadly.
00:04:47Lightning is not the only danger here; the
00:04:50ecosystem is highly contaminated.
00:04:54Lake Maracaibo is located over one of the largest proven
00:04:57oil reserves in the world. Venezuela's
00:05:00oil industry has drastically declined in recent
00:05:04At this time we connect with our correspondent in decades. Hundreds of oil platforms and
00:05:07pipelines in disrepair are rusting. Fishermen
00:05:11say that the sources of oil spills are poisoning their
00:05:15catches and damaging their health. Lake
00:05:18Maracaibo is something that hurts me and hurts all environmentalists
00:05:21in Venezuela, and non-environmentalists too. The
00:05:24water is terribly
00:05:27contaminated. It has become an
00:05:30oil cemetery.
00:05:34Eric Quiroga hopes that the Catatumbo lightning
00:05:37can be part of the solution. He wants more
00:05:40tourists, both Venezuelan and international, to visit.
00:05:43This would generate additional income
00:05:47for the residents of the town and raise awareness
00:05:51about the pollution in Lake Maracaibo. The large
00:05:55number of tourists who come will also realize
00:05:57the pollution in the lake. They will become, a
00:06:01permanent public opinion current will be created on the
00:06:04issue that, in one way or another, will sensitize the governments in
00:06:08Venezuela to take measures to address
00:06:11this issue. The Catatumbo lightning:
00:06:15a visual marvel, a unique meteorological phenomenon
00:06:19in the world that now sheds light on pressing
00:06:22problems and perhaps provides inspiration
00:06:25to find solutions.
00:06:29For decades, glaciologist Tobias Sauter has traced the
00:06:32path of ice from Patagonia to the great mountain ranges of the
00:06:36world. His research shows that glaciers are much more than
00:06:40spectacular landscapes.
00:06:43indicators of the transformations that the planet is experiencing, a sign that helps
00:06:47us understand the global dimension of climate
00:06:50change.
00:06:55It's been 4 days since we put the bar in the ice, and today we measure the distance from
00:06:59the surface of the glacier to the mark on the
00:07:02bar. It's almost 37
00:07:05cm in 4
00:07:06days.
00:07:16The glaciers of the Austrian Alps are disappearing
00:07:19rapidly, and with them a vital resource. High mountain
00:07:23regions are vulnerable ecosystems and
00:07:26act as water reservoirs, but the retreat
00:07:29of glaciers and the melting of the snowpack
00:07:33are having dramatic consequences. The
00:07:36Glacier Space project, a collaboration between universities in
00:07:40Austria and Germany, measures climate changes directly
00:07:43on the glacier. A tower equipped with sensors shows
00:07:47how much and at what rate the ice is
00:07:50melting.
00:07:55The melting of glaciers has repercussions on the region's
00:07:58climate. That is the point that interests us most. What happens when the
00:08:02glacier shrinks? There are feedback effects that
00:08:06can further accelerate the melting of glaciers.
00:08:10And what does the loss of glaciers mean? Water.
00:08:13Glaciers feed our rivers, they are like the water
00:08:16towers of the world, but in many regions their maximum flow has
00:08:22in the coming decades. The consequences will be serious,
00:08:25first floods, then
00:08:28droughts.
00:08:32Water is a central theme of our research group. We have
00:08:36several ongoing projects, one of them is this one. Here it's about
00:08:40basic research, understanding how processes work in this
00:08:43mountainous region, and then we have projects in Costa Rica and
00:08:47Uzbekistan.
00:08:49There the question is how to develop adaptation strategies for the
00:08:53future when the water problem is even more extreme than it
00:08:56already is in some
00:08:57regions.
00:09:02Almost 5 km away, in the Indian Himalayas,
00:09:06a method has been developed to retain water at high altitude
00:09:10through an artificial glacier. It was
00:09:13created by diverting mountain streams, the water gushes
00:09:16out like a geyser through a vertical pipe and freezes,
00:09:20forming a cone-shaped ice structure during the cold
00:09:24season, what is known as an ice
00:09:27stupa, it remains frozen until the spring sun warms the
00:09:31fields and plants can absorb the
00:09:34water, but time is running out. In the
00:09:37Himalayas, with its vast glacier fields, the ice is
00:09:41retreating at an alarming rate.
00:09:4426 million tons per year. Up to
00:09:4780% could disappear by the end of the
00:09:50century. The glaciers of East Africa by
00:09:542050, and in Europe, up to 90% of the
00:09:57alpine ice could disappear by the end of the century, unless
00:10:01we do everything in our power to stop climate
00:10:05change and global warming, as agreed at the
00:10:092015 global climate conference in Paris.
00:10:13Of course, we have probably already failed to meet the 1.5 degree
00:10:17target, but there is still time to change course and find solutions
00:10:20to reduce emissions and stabilize the climate, so that we can
00:10:24preserve our glaciers for a few more
00:10:26years.
00:10:35On the arid slopes surrounding Lima, a project led by an
00:10:38Argentinian geologist is demonstrating that even the most hostile
00:10:42landscapes can recover life. Thanks to the work of
00:10:45neighbors and volunteers, thousands of trees have begun to transform
00:10:49the environment, favoring the return of birds, insects and other
00:10:53species. Nature can also be born from human
00:10:57initiative.
00:10:57This is Lima, one of the most
00:11:05arid capitals in the
00:11:08world, and this is one of its driest hills, Cerro
00:11:12La Milla. Here, an Argentinian geologist is trying
00:11:15to grow a forest. Behind this reforestation initiative
00:11:19is Emiliano Caxiavilani, who arrived in Peru in 2018, after
00:11:23losing his job during
00:11:27began as a personal passion for nature and
00:11:30gardening today seeks to transform this hill into a green lung for San
00:11:34Martín de Porres, a district where more than 700 thousand
00:11:37people live with very few green
00:11:40spaces. There are 42
00:11:43hectares to become a super mega green lung
00:11:46that would represent 40% of the total green
00:11:50areas of the district, which is
00:11:53very important. And in addition to that, we have to
00:11:57preserve the critically endangered Limean gecko. The diversity of
00:12:01plants resistant to arid climates that grow on the hill, ranging from
00:12:04trees, succulents, and shrubs, also helps preserve the Limean
00:12:08gecko, a small nocturnal, insectivorous reptile,
00:12:11endemic to Lima and currently threatened. By attracting more
00:12:15insects, reforestation creates new food sources for this
00:12:18species that depends on increasingly reduced
00:12:21ecosystems within the city. Emiliano
00:12:25does the work alone. Since the beginning in 2021, neighbors from the area
00:12:29have joined the workdays when there was almost no life
00:12:32around the hill. One of the biggest challenges was to adapt
00:12:35the rocky and saline soil through a terracing system
00:12:39based on the ancient Inca terraces, designed to cultivate
00:12:43and make better use of water in arid lands. The
00:12:46only way to stabilize the land is with the creation of terraces, it is the
00:12:50only way, the slopes here are very
00:12:52complicated, very steep. So yes or yes you have to
00:12:56form this, this is the structural base
00:12:59and then the spaces are created to contain the
00:13:03soil, the substrate and then the tree.
00:13:07Today, the workdays no longer focus only on adapting the land and
00:13:10planting trees, but on keeping the vegetation alive. Each
00:13:14month, dozens of volunteers go up to fertilize the soil with organic
00:13:17compost and care for the plants that have already taken root. This
00:13:21time, a group of schoolchildren visited Cerro La Milla to learn about
00:13:25the project and raise awareness about the importance of protecting and recovering
00:13:29green areas in a city marked by urban
00:13:32inequality. In addition to generating this new ecosystem with new
00:13:36animals, it also gives more hope to people that Lima,
00:13:40all of Lima can be beautiful and all of Lima deserves to be beautiful, and not just the parts that
00:13:43unfortunately people only think about when they think of Lima
00:13:47and not exclude the rest. In Lima, the
00:13:50higher-income districts concentrate a large part of the green
00:13:54areas, while the peripheral areas where most
00:13:57of the population lives continue to be dominated by landscapes of earth,
00:14:00sand, and treeless spaces. The
00:14:03very need to live in a more dignified
00:14:07way in these spaces is what
00:14:11also puts in my heart the need to create, to create, to
00:14:14say, building and little by little
00:14:17contributing whether it be a
00:14:21small amount of time each week,
00:14:27to water, to do something, I feel that I am also contributing in a certain
00:14:30way, forming not healing
00:14:33precisely that need to have wanted a
00:14:37space also to be able to connect with
00:14:40nature. Not far from there, in the same
00:14:44district, the impact of the
00:14:47replicate itself in other spaces, inspired after
00:14:50participating.
00:15:09Her students discover the importance of caring for green spaces because they are a refuge where many animal species live that
00:15:12they can now see daily, the
00:15:16leaves give us
00:15:18breathing
00:15:20as well.
00:15:24The bees give
00:15:27us honey, you have taught us that because
00:15:31if we step on the plant, the plants
00:15:34die, if we kill if there is no
00:15:38more attempt then this is how he explained it
00:15:42to each one of us,
00:15:45we understood it. The garden and the bio-garden are still
00:15:49under construction, over time they will incorporate new species and more
00:15:53spaces for learning. Giovanna dreams
00:15:56that initiatives like this will also reach other public schools
00:15:59in Lima, where thousands of children study far from daily
00:16:03contact with nature. We have come up with very
00:16:07interesting educational projects because
00:16:10in some way they stimulate children to research
00:16:14nature, there is even an environmental brigade
00:16:17that 5-year-old children have
00:16:20and they know very well that our
00:16:24little garden and not only inside the school but
00:16:27also outside they have to preserve the environment,
00:16:30we always keep this in mind.
00:16:34There are more and more initiatives that seek to re-green
00:16:38Lima, a city where urban growth advanced faster than
00:16:41spaces for nature. Although the change seems small compared to the
00:16:45immensity of the Peruvian capital, its first roots are already beginning
00:16:48to transform much more than the landscape.
00:16:52Flowers, storms, ice and recovered forests,
00:16:55signs of a constantly transforming earth. Thus we
00:16:59say goodbye until next week. With these stories
00:17:02we reach the end of this program, thank you for joining us. Very soon
00:17:05we will return with new topics and new tours of our region, we look forward to seeing you.
00:19:59France 24
00:20:00newscast.
00:20:06all the time. We decided that we needed at least a
00:20:09break. However, they have no intention of abandoning
00:20:13Ukraine. There are many extremely pessimistic people who
00:20:16think that if there is a war and bombs fall, everything is lost and it is best to
00:20:20leave as soon as possible. I don't see it that way. It is up to us to build
00:20:24this country, because who else will? If everyone leaves, who will
00:20:27stay to make it a better
00:20:29country?
00:20:34We continue with direct Mexico.
00:20:42the Mexican capital, Jorge Hurtado. Jorge, let's start
00:20:45by talking about Operation Eagle Eye, carried out jointly
00:20:48between the United States and Mexico to deactivate drones
00:20:52used by criminal groups in the border area. This military
00:20:55operation is already in its second phase and more details of this
00:20:59collaboration were released.
00:21:03That's right, and it all comes precisely after
00:21:06two weeks ago and even last week there was a lot
00:21:10of talk about this presence of drones
00:21:13on the border with the United States, the presence of at least
00:21:17300 drones that... have been
00:21:20in surveillance actions to
00:21:23presumably transport people in this illegal
00:21:27trafficking of people to the United States. This information has
00:21:31been released by the head of the Mexican
00:21:34army, who has highlighted precisely
00:21:38this operation and this bilateral
00:21:41support from both nations in which they are
00:21:45attempting to deploy at least
00:21:4910,000 Mexican army troops
00:21:52to contain this new phenomenon that is affecting
00:21:56the Mexican Foreign Ministry recalled that cooperation with
00:21:59Washington must always be based on this
00:22:02respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, because in the United
00:22:06States there have been many voices that continue
00:22:09to talk about this interference and precisely
00:22:13about the issue of
00:22:16operations in Mexican territory, something that Trump
00:22:20has repeated since his return to the White House. This
00:22:23has also been echoed by a News Nation report. The US
00:22:27report mentions, for example, the recent
00:22:30car bomb attack in front of a police headquarters, a supposed
00:22:33poll, which he did not elaborate on,
00:22:36in which they claim that many Mexicans would agree with operations in
00:22:40Mexican soil and more direct intervention
00:22:44by the United States, while Washington continues to talk about
00:22:47expanding this margin of action, it must be remembered that... Mexico and the United States
00:22:51already have these joint operations, like the one
00:22:54you mentioned, precisely to control drones. The Secretary of
00:22:57Defense, Ricardo Trevilla, confirmed that there will
00:23:01be a new bilateral meeting this week to evaluate
00:23:05the operation that is focused on detecting and neutralizing
00:23:08these drones and in that operation there are already 800
00:23:12elements, let's see what is said this
00:23:15week to increase the flow of what is
00:23:19happening there. The northern border. Jorge, let's change the subject,
00:23:22let's talk about the new oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
00:23:26detected last Thursday. What do we know about this new
00:23:29incident?
00:23:32Well, Pemex assures that it has already advanced 70%
00:23:35in the repair of the pipeline that caused a new
00:23:38crude oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico 3 days after detecting the leak
00:23:42off the coast of Campeche. The pipeline belongs to the
00:23:46Ecbalán field, which is located about 95 km
00:23:50northeast of Ciudad del Carmen and transports hydrocarbons
00:23:53that come from at least five platforms. The oil company
00:23:56reported that the pipeline is already
00:24:00moment no new oil emanations are registered. The work
00:24:04is carried out at about 50 meters deep with specialized
00:24:07divers. Pemex also assures that despite the
00:24:11spill there is currently no risk of the
00:24:14hydrocarbon reaching the coasts, but the magnitude of the
00:24:17slick is undoubtedly already generating a lot of
00:24:21concern. The environmental platform Cerulean, which is
00:24:24from Skytroop, estimated this week an affected area of
00:24:28about 4 square kilometers, which is what their
00:24:31satellites have been able to detect. The organization Green Peace
00:24:35Mexico, for example, is asking Pemex for greater
00:24:37transparency and to inform all nearby communities in a timely
00:24:40manner, and it is not the first time that it was
00:24:44registered in this area. For example, in 2023, two
00:24:47spills also associated with the Ecbalán complex
00:24:50spread over some 467 square kilometers. This
00:24:54occurs after in February of this year, we
00:24:58here on France 24 reported another spill
00:25:01originating from infrastructure linked to the Cantarell field that
00:25:05spread to the coasts of Veracruz, Tabasco, and
00:25:08Tamaulipas. At that time, Pemex recognized its
00:25:11responsibility two months after that leak began,
00:25:14and that episode led the Mexican government to implement
00:25:17response protocols to create.
00:25:20eh this observatory of the Gulf of Mexico with scientists
00:25:24in charge of monitoring these incidents and trying to
00:25:27model their possible impacts and it is precisely this
00:25:31permanent observatory of the Gulf of Mexico who also last week
00:25:34issued a statement about this new
00:25:38incident and they affirm that they are working to control it,
00:25:41well Jorge, thank you very much for this extension, we are undoubtedly very attentive,
00:25:45we thank you for your tune-in. We will take a short break and
00:25:48be back.
00:26:23Well, it affected me a lot because I had invested $1 per
00:26:26apple and with the
00:26:29drought I have lost and I have only been able to
00:26:33sell the hay for 150, yes
00:26:36it is a great loss that I have had.
00:27:14We try to make ends meet because for the food of the cattle, that is,
00:27:17if you can see, the cornfields have dried up, so
00:27:21it affects our production, especially of
00:27:24milk, there are few cattle, but the drought
00:27:27has really affected a lot because there is no grass to feed the
00:27:31cattle, so we have no other choice but to go out and make ends meet, to
00:27:35buy hay and more dry fodder to give them to barely sustain them.
00:28:09To better understand the world, it is essential to immerse oneself in
00:28:12it, from Buenos Aires to Beirut, passing through
00:28:15Kinshasa, Kiev or Washington, France 24's
00:28:19correspondents are everywhere,
00:28:22200 correspondents who live near you, their
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00:28:29world at any time of the day, information.
00:28:32Objective, serious, reliable and
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00:28:38unmasked. France 24, we are
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