Trees 'n Stuff: Environmental Trouble in Venezuela!

This is a guest post I did with Gaby on my book blog, Pages. View here
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Thanks to Gaby from Historias Imaginarias, a Venezuelan blogger, for this eye-opening visual into present day life in Venezuela! It really troubles me that this is happening in our world, and that most people don't care. I turn to World News and all there is is news about the war in Iraq and people dying. There's nothing about Climate Change, and I seriously think that this story will make people do more to save the environment. The stuff that's going on in Venezuela could be nothing compared to what could happen.

note: This post was written by Gaby using Google Translate, so the writing may not be correct.
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The drought that Venezuela is going through is a consequence of the climatic phenomenon "El Niño", which altered the months of rain and drought.
Last year, within the 6 months of rain it didn't rain what should (we do not have seasons like summer, winter, spring and autumn; instead summer=drought and winter = rain). That provoke a descend in all underground wells that provide us with water, and most importantly, the Represa del Guri, which generates more than 80% of electricity in the country.
The first consequence of what happened was the rationing of water and electricity in our country. For example, at least three times a week I don't have electricity in my home for three hours, and water two days a week. Sometimes its more. This is nothing compared to other places where they have spent days without electricity/water.

But as you may know, in my opinion this is not the worst. The intense drought caused that everything that was planted last year was lost or did not grow enough. Besides having fewer plants/vegetables, also implies fodder, which is important for animal feed. If I were to name the thousands consequence of this, it will take more than an email! Also, the same drought has caused hundreds of fires that seriously affect wildlife.
Anyway, we are "better" now. In April, we start seeing again the rain, sometimes severe storms that have flooded several places, but we need to recover. I hope it keeps raining for a few months more....
I believe this is definitely an alarm over what we could see in the future, not only in Venezuela. This time was EL NIÑO, but the global warming is an important factor in all of this disasters.
Here is Salto Angel, highest waterfall in the world...(you can see it in the movie UP!)

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