Just the roof really getting better. I close to 3000. 00 special report. Starts aug 19th on d w. This is deja vu news live from berlin russias losing battle with massive wildfires firefighters are struggling to contain the blazes now covering an area the size of denmark its being called a Climate Catastrophe also coming up millions in zimbabwe are on the brink of starvation the u. N. Issues an urgent appeal for aid well look at whats behind the crisis. And a launch thats linking up a new data highway in space its Superspeed Will Help us cope with natural disasters here on earth. Im brian thomas thanks so much for joining us we begin this program in russia where firefighters backed by the countrys air force are struggling to contain vast wildfires in siberia the area thats a blaze continues to grow with some 45000 Square Kilometers already affected Officials Say that they have given up their efforts and some of the more remote areas in the hard hit province of truong new york residents are literally choking on the smoke as the flames draw closer to the village of bell he is at the front
line of the place residents knew they would probably have to evacuate the smokes harmful effects have nearly driven them out already. Well you know. The 1st fires started in july of 92 weeks after they were pits theres another fire burning well through the very most of the kilometer thats the flames were 20 kilometers away. You could only see 20 meters in front of you that was worrying we couldnt see the bears that sometimes wander into the village you know Firefighting Helicopters have been in Service Several times a day but sometimes they need an hour to get to the flames theyre dropping tons of water to extinguish the blazes an exhausting undertaking that may not even be successful. If you can if we sent 5 or 10 times as many people and resources we wouldnt be able to put out the fires only continuous rain can do that Disaster Relief workers have been flown to the area to help with the effort and vajra
mentalists say the impacts of the fires extend far beyond siberia its a question. That this represents a Climate Catastrophe. So if the fires are releasing as much c o 2 into the atmosphere as 36000000. 00 cars a year the likely cause of the fires is dry lightning strikes but it could also be discarded cigarettes or neglect on the part of the Timber Industry lets get the very latest on this now from our moscow Correspondent Emily Showing today here why are firefighters having such a hard time getting these blazes under control. Well 1st of all brian thats because the area thats burning is just so huge as we just heard and as youve said as well the area of denmark apparently its just over 4000000. 00 hectares that are burning siberia is huge as it were as it is anyway a State Of Emergency has been declared in 5 regions in russia there are forest
fires every year in the tiger but these are just unprecedented and the other problem is that many of the areas that are burning are so remote theyre very very hard for firefighters to reach nearly impossible the author already say ok this is their remote areas but nonetheless there are growing calls inside russia and internationally to change how moscow flights fires in siberia whats russia not getting right on this. And theres been growing anger as well among people here who say theyve been being smoke choked by smoke coming from those fires they also were these are acting last week putin called the army to come to help put out fires there been flipped planes that have been dropping water on the area affected and there have been reports of successes as well Authorities Say that theyve been battling the fires on over 100000. 00 hectares but they also say that they
have actually been leaving 2000000 hectares theyve given up on them simply because theyre too hard to reach thats a huge territory as well according to russian law this is actually policy there are socalled Control Zones that authorities have simply declared too hard to reach in case of a fire where authorities by law arent obliged to put them out and there is actually a law from 2015 as well that states that if the cost of Fighting Fires exceeds the potential damages then also already is do not have to put them out so this is kind of a policy here in russia but you know greenpeace is calling these fires a Climate Catastrophe can you give us an idea of the scope of the environmental damage. Well whats worrying here is of course because of the scale of these fires theres
a huge amount of c o 2 being released in the atmosphere which could of course speed up Climate Change theres also black carbon which is being emitted by the fires and not can settle on arctic ice and also speed up the melting of that arctic ice again for the climate overall and plus theres the trees huge areas of trees are simply dying or simply burning down the tie guys one of the green longs of the world and Scientists Say that these trees could take around 100 years to grow to grow back so its understandable that greenpeace is calling this an ecological catastrophe thanks so much for that from moscow as preview on some of the other stories making the news this hour protesters have been rallying across pakistan after india revoked the Autonomy Status of its part of kashmir the Indian Government has sent thousands of troops to the disputed
territory and shut down communications neighboring pakistan which also claims kashmir has warned indias actions could lead to war. At least 95 people have been wounded by a car bombing in the Afghan Capital kabul the attack was claimed by the taliban and comes to start a group holds peace talks with the u. S. To withdraw its troops from afghanistan a un report says that north korean cyber experts have circumvented sanctions to raise 2000000000. 00 for the countrys Weapons Programs or for ledges north korean hackers have stolen funds from crypto Currency Exchanges such as bitcoin and have found ways to make illicit Bank Transfers online. Well the United Nations has stepped up its Emergency Appeal for zimbabwe warning that more than 5000000 people thats a 3rd of the countrys population are in need of food aid the world food program
has appealed for more than 330000000. 00 at a meeting in the Capital Harare the u. N. Laid out the scope of the crisis. Recently devastated by Cycling Harvests have also been badly affected by drought and the price of food has risen sharply. For the latest lets bring in our correspondent in Zimbabwe Privilege was fun harry good day to you privileged can you fill us in on just how bad the problem is and what part of the country is most affected. The situation is quite critical you have a bought 5200000 people will be in need of food aid to the next. Funding season and you find that because of what the economy is going through as well a lot of people are being affected its not only now it has what used previously but also in the end it is because Disposable Income for most people is gone and
they cant buy. Food that is needed for families ok what are some of the Biggest Challenges now and in getting food aid to the people that need it. Particularly in the areas that we are affected by the. Day earlier in the year infrastructure is to damaged yet to be repaired to the wrongs and the bridges that we watched away and then all saw in other parts of the country you find that moving grain from one place to another is also a challenge because of the Fuel Situation in the country these need for adequate Fuel Supplies for the government to be able to be moving grain from one place to
the other so there are air mounted pool challenges that the country is facing which are also increasing. Problem that is the country facing in terms of Food Availability Privilege Farmers have been very hard hit by the effects of the ongoing drought what needs to be done to help them out i think its a question of preparedness you find that i knew earlier when zimbabwe goes through drought these always a lack of preparedness and even farmers you know in terms of preparing them for this season when the rainfall is low so the our courts are no way sometimes it ends up affecting them because they plan to maybe too late or the plant airlie when the rains are coming later or that needs to be put in place in terms of
preparedness and also awareness of Climate Change its one thing that is critical for farmers to know. Thanks so much for bringing us up to date from harare from here for us. Now you could describe it as 5 g. In 0 gravity a new Satellite System known as the Space Data Highway is on its way into orbit or rocket carrying the Satellite System blasted off from the European Space or different yana tuesday the satellites are equipped with ultra fast Laser Technology to help a merchant see services during Disaster Situations by transferring data and images of any point on earth in quasi real time. Flying at an altitude of 36000 kilometers the really satellite has a view of large parts of the earths surface the system runs around the clock and some of the satellites orbit the globe with even greater trajectories the 80 r s c
is intended to improve and accelerate Data Transmission from space by using a socalled Laser Communication terminal it can receive data from Earth Observation satellites through a laser link then it immediately forwards the data to the ground station the system is 100. 00 times faster than high Speed Internet before the actual data city in cuba in europe it takes several as normally we do this we can come to stone to turn 20 minutes maybe reeling to data we are new to respect look directly to the ground. During floods and other disasters swift access to Satellite Data is crucial Radar Satellites can see through clouds theyre able to capture the extent of floods over a wide area. Emergency support
needs this information as quickly as possible they can then determine the location of the greatest damage and how to get to affected areas. Earth observation satellites orbit the globe every 90 minutes. But they can only send data to earth for 10 minutes at a time the new Laser Technology extends the Transmission Time and users can obtain data more quickly there are other advantages this is tim is useful for Weather Services accurate forecasts rely on huge amounts of data from Around The World the e r a c Satellite Works like a laser node in space. A 2nd node is already in place on a Telecommunications Satellite together they form the basis for europes Space Data Highway. Altimeter goal will of course be
to achieve Global Coverage so the become transmit imagery that is taken anywhere in the world to europe with and quasi real time meaning almost immediately. At the beginning of the next decade a 3rd satellite e. G. Our as d. Is planned to be stationed over asia after its installation the system will cover most of the globe a 4th satellite is already in the works. Well new research has found that Human Activity is now the biggest factor affecting Shark Populations a report by the Zoological Society of london says that Human Activity has pushed sharks away from coastal towns and cities and farther out to Sea Researchers also found the Sharks Body Size is significantly smaller in communities that live near Human Activity. They discovered remote refuges where the marine predators congregate but said that if these habitats are often not in protected areas and are
under threat from the fishing industry. As gave the miner now of our top stories russian firefighting teams are struggling to contain massive wildfires in siberia the blazes now cover an area the size of denmark environmentalist warns the vast release of Carbon Dioxide from the fires presents a climate emergency. Im brian thomas for the entire team thanks for being here. It was a season of high pitched correction as it winds down the next exciting event hes right around the corner. German bundesliga is heating up and as always we are there to keep you updated with the latest on the kickoff. To mislead the south are