Open letter for presidents, heads of governments, members of parliaments and to the media in EU and G7 countries as well as in other countries of the world.
Dear Sir,
My name is Štefan Vaľo and I am an expert with practical experience in the field of climate change. I have gained all of my knowledge and skills during the many years I have been focusing on the issue. I have been working in the construction industry – earthwork in particular – for more than 40 years. And in all that time I have also been in close contact with the soil and water.
With the major climate conference COP 21 in Paris approaching it is important that we inform the delegates about the following:
Climate change is an unquestionable fact and, inter alia, it is manifested through floods and droughts. In 2009, I came to realise that the main triggers, apart from greenhouse gases, are two phenomena caused by human activity, spreading so quickly and furtively that most of people hardly notice them. The first phenomenon - compressed soil which prevents rain water from soaking into the ground - allows water to run off speedily along the surface to lower areas instead where it causes floods and washes fertile soil away into the oceans. The second phenomenon – the man-made slopes with millions of pores broken during construction activities. Such broken pores can no longer function as they are supposed to and start to drain the slopes. Similar slopes can be found in the walls of drainage canals in lowland areas and in the ditches along the roads, where they dry out the surrounding landscape. In mountainous terrain, such slopes can be found above highways and roads, in tracks left by heavy machinery as well as above other constructions and they can drain entire forests above the slopes for scores or even hundreds of metres.