Burn it and make it go away (or should I start smoking again?)

This part of Panama has an air pollution problem. I tried to get some pictures that would show the situation but just cannot get a lens big enough (or maybe it is the lack of skill of the photographer). So I will try to show you in words.

Anyway the air pollution is not just from lots of old diesel engines or thousands of 2-cycle weed eaters. No, the majority is from the burning of the countryside. You see, from February until now it has not rained and the Panama custom is to burn any and everything they want to get rid of. Incidentally the city trash collection and disposal for service three times a week is $27 a year! The trash collection guys in our town will not accept green waste (brush, grass clippings, leaves, etc) unless you pay them a couple of bucks extra. I guess because it takes too much effort and fills up the dump too fast.
As a result the neighbors rake up their leaves and palm fronds into small piles and burn them right there in the yard. There are about 25 burn piles visible from our back gate.

And on a much larger scale, land owners clear the underbrush of large plots the same way. So in the summer months of January through April there are hundreds of fires burning every day. It may have made a lot of sense in earlier times as it was a way to clear the undergrowth and leave the trees and large bushes intact. But now houses and fincas (farms) dot the landscape everywhere and some get burned up. And on the windy days more fires are started because they burn better. Never mind that the undergrowth fires get out of control. The fire department does not usually respond to these fires unless called to protect a structure or to reduce the smoke drifting across the Autopista. But they usually leave when they run out of water regardless of the status of the fire. Life is so different here!

So today, we're were driving back from El Valle, a little volcanic valley about 2500’ in the mountains, and looking toward the Pacific we only see a thick haze on the horizon and wispy plumes of white smoke drifting up from 30 or 40 fires in our field of vision. Along the road was a blue haze hanging about 4 feet above the ground where the grasses had just burned. It is like everyone knows the rainy season is coming soon and needs to get everything burn that they can.


You would think in this decade dedicated to reducing global warming that there would be at least SOME consciousness of the impact of open burning on the atmosphere. If I can see the smoky haze over all the countryside can’t anyone else? The “government” does have a law or ordinance against burning but like many other laws in Panama it s not enforced. And the problem is much larger now there synthetic products everywhere so in addition to burning organic stuff anything else in the way gets burned up. That includes a lot of plastic, paper, paint cans, used oil and whatever else gets thrown into the fire. We have some friends who own and run a very environmentally sensitive and sustainable finca and the only alternative they have to trash disposal is a burn dump on their property. There is not trash collection in the rural areas and no one knows where the municipal dump is (sound suspicious?).

So all the years I spend protecting my health by wearing a mask or respirator or avoiding smoke has now been pretty much negated by all the diesel exhaust and burning plastic. But the beaches are great!
And it WILL rain soon and clear the air.

Got a light?