Tuesday 25 December 2007

Who pays the round?

In October 2006 the World Conservation Union announced that West Africa Black Rhino could be wiped out and things seem not to be changed since then. Maybe the black rhino has gone.... Big mammals are facing big problems and the most of them because of the humans.

The W.A. Black Rhino is one of the many animals and vegetables species which are leaving this world in silence..... and the most of the people seem not to realize it. Everything seems to be normal, "they" try to convince us that everything is OK, that nothing happens, that nothing has changed. Our world has been always as we know it but that's the big lie. From the moment we "developped" we took to extinction many species... but it seems that nobody wants to face this question... everybody wants to be happy, to be comfortable in his/her city, going shopping and consuming, consuming, consuming..... Be happy, be empty, don't think, what for?

Who's guilty for this crime? I suppose that nobody. Corrupt politiciens who have their citizens under extreme poverty and ignorance plus a first world with crook people prepared for paying for parts or the whole animal are the perfect mix for what has happened. Sires of the first world, rich gentlement, money is not for eating but some day we will because nothing will be left. Once upon a time, the Great Indian Chief Seattle said one intelligent sentence: the white man will swallow the Earth, and nothing will be left, only a desert.

I'm not an important person, I know, I'm one among millions, but there are people who works for science, for environment, for helping people..... all of them know that environment and poverty go together..... Please, the complaints book?

Wednesday 12 December 2007

Is this Spain?

Dear foreigner,

I think so, or at least, that's my point of view. Tough times are coming to all "vampires" who have been destroying our land only for one thing: money. They have created a virtual wealth, basing our economy in something as poor as a brick. Is a country able to uphold its economy in such a disaster? Maybe for sometime, here we have an idiom: bread for today, famine for tomorrow. Everything has been accepted for earning millions of euros, for destroying the environment and mortgage our future, so future generations will suffer because of wrong past decission-making.

Even so, the next trap is coming. Sometime ago, valencian community politiciens passed a law on natural parks, it is, natural parks were established everywhere, it seemed to be a great idea, a "green" idea, but it was a wolf in sheep clothe as somebody wrote in that moment. There is an obv¡ous explanation... when the coast is destroyed we have to go to another place, we can't stop earning money.... So now, the "finger" points to the proximities of natural parks, so everybody is waiting for getting more money. In fact, you can find some ads offering you houses at the proximities of such natural parks.

But the worst thing is that many people don't be involved (so they don't vote accordingly), even you can think I'm crazy, that type of problems seem to be so far.... why do I have to do anything? At least they create employment.... At what price? And what about "tomorrow"? What will be up when everything is destroyed, when everything is plenty of concret? What the hell will we do? The only thing I can say from here to people abroad is.... take care!! Be sure you are not buying destruction... our destruction... It's not a question of boundaries, it's a question of moral, of respecting environment and the rest of wildlife which shares with us this beautiful planet.

Keep in touch.


P.D. Think twice before buying a house in Spain. By the way, be careful with golf courses, we are short of water.



Tuesday 27 November 2007

One More Step

Little by little supermarkets are more concerned about responsible shopping. I don't know the reason, perhaps beacause "green" now is fashionable or perhaps because they answer to the interests of their customers. Everytime I have to buy a new product, the first thing I do is to check if it is ecofriendly, both manufacture and use. When we go shopping house products one of them are paper. We have two options, some times is possible to buy recycled paper and another ones it isn't. In this last case, we have to opt for paper which has an icon in its wrapper (in my case, I look for WWF's bear, the picture of this post).

The first time I saw the icon was great, it was cool to know that somebody was more or less concerned and responsible with the products he/she offered. In this way, I think, we costumers, have lots of things to say, we can opt for not buying certain products, sending e-mails to ask for more ecofriendly ones and so on. But of course, to get to that situation, we have to be informed and want to.

Big things are made with small ones so remember the moral: do your bit.

Here you have an interesting link to do little things.

Bye.

Monday 12 November 2007

Message from Jessica Alba

Thanks

My words today are for a wonderful person, they are for the late Félix. His documentaries were the most watched TV programmes in Europe in the late seventies and at the beginning of eighties. Thanks Félix for having taught us so much, for having opened the eyes of several generations, for having being so special, for having us to move before the howl of the wolf. Thanks for being existed.

Today, nobody has covered your absence, lots of years will be required for a person like you, but the most important thing is that you are alive in our hearts. You left some seeds before leaving and you are the reference for them because, as I said before, you live in their hearts. See you my friend.

Tuesday 30 October 2007

Who are the Dugongs?


Latitude 90º N

Ja, ja, ja, it was one evening in September 2006, we were having afternoon snack at work when sombody said that polar bears have their days numbered.... ja, ja, ja... regrettable. It seemd that in TV somebody said something about climate change and the dark future for that plantigrades (nowadays you can check that the melting is accelerating, even more than was predected....).

We always go back to the same comment, yes, everything is bad, very bad, but nobody does anything at all. We were ten people on the table, one of us normally gets to everywhere on foot and another one by bycicle (the rest you can imagine....). In the moment we were talking, in the Artic an enormous crack had opened (here you are the link in spanish and another similar one in english). The Artic ice sheet is going, like glaciers, like amphibians, like many other things.... But people, it like me or not, are happy. People think everything is ok and nothing is happening, or in the case it is... maybe they won't see consequences. I wonder why the people who come after us will have to deal with something that they didn't cause. Why do they have to live mortgaged? Why do we have to jeopardize their future? Our atitude is completely irrresponsible, reckless and selfish. Nobody is sure about what will happen in the future, but some of the people who study climate change thinks that things can change more rapidly than many people think. Anyway, be happy, be responsible and enjoy the day.

Tuesday 16 October 2007

They'd Rather the Girls were Fat

Some time ago I got home completely dazzled. The reason was I was asked by a lady whether there was bank near by. "Dear lady", the bank is five minutes long walking but she surprised me with the answer "I will get to it by car", I could only think: my good!!! go to hell!!! She told me that the weather was hot and she would get tired if she walked. If prefered keeping silence: silence is golden.

Is it hot? Really? Darling, today is only 24 ºC, have you ever been in desert or chipping stones? I think you haven't. Please, start your cold engine, you have to know that cold engines pollute more than hot ones, and later on looking for parking: everything for not walking 500 meters. I would dress you with a T-shirt with the title: I cooperate to warm the planet, ask me how. You seem the typical people that, when they watch drawned polar bears in TV, because every day they have less ice sheet to live, they say: poor animals, what a pity! . My dear lady, don't be offended by what I'm going to say to you, but: you are either an ignorant or a hypocrite.

Thursday 11 October 2007

Wretch

I am part of that group of people which every day get to work/school/university and so on by bycicle. In another words, I am part of a group known as: wretch, immigrant or fucking ecologist.

I think the people who think about us in that manner, have never asked themselves about how would be our cities without our bloody cars, it is, our cities without fumes, without noise, summarising, having cities with much more quality of life. They are blind but I think the worst is that they don't want to open their eyes, they prefer staying in the supposed comfort of their consumer life.

I suppose I'm in the position of saying that I'm happier from I'm using the bycicle. Since 2004 I park where I want, I don't emit fumes and noises, I don't get stuck in traffic jams and that means not to waist my precious time. Summarising, to get to everywhere by bycicle in the city only means two things: to be healthy and save money, two great reasons for me, don't you think so?


Have a nice day.

Friday 28 September 2007

S.O.S

Some time ago I read some bad news about a new hasty iberian lynx. The animal was dead at 8 am. It is a leak else over the most threatened feline in the world. In fact, today, most of the lynxes are dead because of the cars. "Dear" politiciens, in Brussels you were told our road plan was simply unlucky, even though you were paid a lot of money to build a new road which comes past by the middle of the natural park where live the few lynxes we have in freedom... you have no shame...

Stop-just-now!!! How is it possible so many cars in such a weak place? Please, asked drivers not to speed, but that will be difficult because our culture loves speeding... The only thing the most of the people understand are physical barriers, that is, not to build new roads in that place or close them to the daily traffic. Our fauna has to face a lot of dangers and one of them is speeding. Many animals die in our roads, in fact, a report was issued some time ago by the government in which you could check how many millions of animals face the death every time they have to cross a road. The planet is not our, the planet is shared, we are part of the chain not the chain itself.

One more negative point for our politicens and one more for the crook driver who run over the lynx and didn't communicate the fact to the authorities.

Friday 14 September 2007

9

This is the number of planets that we would need whether all inhabitants of this planet consumed the same resources as the mean american. So I think you should take this into account before buying unnecessary things. The title for today would be: think twice, do you agree?

The most of the green house gases come from power generation, the energy which is consumed by industries to generate everything you buy and later on for recycling them, although many times things finish in the trash, not in the recycling machine...

We dive in a consumer society, without stopping generating trash and every day more quantity than the previous one. The question is... What can we do? Here you are some examples. Don't change your mobile every six months. Conserve your car eight or ten years at least. Every time you do the shopping take your things inside a cloth bag, don't waste so many plastic bags. Try to buy products with the least wrappers, choose big bottles becasue you will generate less waste. Have you thought in reducing your flights? A plain is an authentic predator of fuel... I would be able to continue for some lines more.... Anyway, have your say, now is your turn, think about what I have just said, remember, thinking doesn't kill you.


Bye, Bye.

Saturday 1 September 2007

To Think Kills You

I don't know whether you have paid attention, but when we are in company of other people and have conversation about environmental problems, more than one say: I don't want to think about that because I become ill.... In nothern parts of Europe it is an idiom: to think kills you. I don't agree with that, rather I would say: if you don't think, you are dead. Do you know any problem resolving itself? It is, you have a problem but you don't want to know anything about it.... I think it would become worse...

In conclusion, I think the best idiom would be: think globally, do it locally.

Have a nice day.

Tuesday 21 August 2007

Forbidden Going Out

I think that more than one woud have to be at home, it should be forbidden for them to go out. Some people are as Atila's horse, where it steps on... the grass never grows. The difference is that Atila didn't threw any plastic bottles, wrappers, aluminium cans and cigarette butts among other things. In September 2006 I was in the Albufera, a lake near the city of Valencia. We got a boat ride and I could see some bottles floating in the water. The worst thing was that the bottles were among nesting places. Furthermore, it does exist a little track to access the lake by walking. In the point you reach the shore everywhere is plenty of trash. Regrettable.

The same thing I could see in Arañuel some time later. Arañuel is a little village which stands next to the Mijares river. It wasn't difficult to find a bier can and different products of plastic floating in the water or along the shore. But the worst thing for me is tourism in Antarctica, where's our limit for travelling? Are we going mad? I think travel agencies don't matter the subject, they only want one thing: money. It's really a pity, but in our last sanctuary, someone has already said that sometimes is possible to see trash bags or butts "dancing" among whales and penguins.

Not every body is prepared for visiting any place.

Saturday 11 August 2007

Have you ever wondered....

.......... why the trees attract rain? Saying the truth, I have been a long time wondering if that issue was true or only and idiom from the people without any scientific basis. Reading a magazin one sunday evening I came across the answer. In the magazine you could find an interview to a physicist who answered my question.

The process works as follows. Sun heats the seas and as consequence of it water steam holds over the sea surface, waiting for a current of air which drags it to land. As the land is normally colder than sea, the steam condenses when reaches the coast, up to the point that very early some mornings we can see little drops of water everywhere. In this point forests come into play, but forests no gardens (some people try to convice another that a forest is a little green spot, but that's not true). And why forests come into play? Because they "breath", and as a consequence they release more water steam that joins the one which comes from the sea. In that moment, the density is so high that atmosphere can't hold the water and that becomes rain. This is what happens more or less.

We have deforested the Mediterramean Sea in Spain. My opinion is that individual interests have prevaled over public ones. The consequence is that we have less rain. We have no enough forests to stop the rain and it scapes to nothern parts, increasing the volume and becoming into floods. The water is not realised litte by little but suddenly.

Now we have another problem, climate change is generating a hotter Mediterraneran Sea. Last year we got a record on temperatures and that supposes that the temperature diffrences between land and sea is minor, so is harder for steam to condense and become rain. Now the problem is not only scaping to the north, the problem is to generate the lovely rain.


Have a nice week.

Friday 27 July 2007

270000

As you read, that is the number of trees that every day are cut down, in another words, those are the trees that every day go to the trash thanks to all tissues we use in different ways. I don't want you to use paper, I want you to take into account two things: one, you have to pratice a responsible use; two, you have to buy the paper to ecofriendly companies.

Respect to the point one, imagine you get into a toilette in a restaurant, the paper is not yours, of course, so that hasn't to be a reason to waste it as it was endless. Respect to the second point, there are companies that are nothing at all ecofriendly, there are lots of them which use chlorine to whiten and you know the chlorine is very poisonous for aquatic life. A lot of these companies tend to build their premises in the third world and to do whatever they want because there isn't any control to stop them. You have companies as well as Kimberly-Klark, which dedicate their work to destroy ancient forests in Canada. If the name of this company doesn't ring your bell, I can tell you they are the owners of Kleenex, yes!, that company which makes paper handkerchiefs. It also owns the brand Huggies, very well known in Spain and the very famous Scottex. If you want to check what I'm telling you, visit the page of Greenpeace dedicated to this issue.

Have a nice and an ecofriendly summer.

Thursday 19 July 2007

Low-Cost Flights

Are you sure? For you or for the environment? I think prices are good for you, never for the environment. I think the environmental damage is inversely to the price for your ticket. What does it mean? It's easy, the percentage of pollution per passenger is very high, at least, 50%. One example, imagine you have 100 litres of fuel to run a car, a train, a ship, a bus and a plain. It is sure you need 50 litres to run de plain, the other 50 litres are shared among the rest. Have you an idea already?

Aviation is not now guilty for the most of the pollution, now are the cars, but the growth of this mean of transport is very fast and its emissions of CO2 are very high. Here you are another example. If you had to flight inside Europe, you would emit so many CO2, that you would need two trees working around the clock during 100 years to eliminate all the CO2 you have emitted.In that way, my religion allows me, as much, a flight a year, and after flying, I have to pay my eco-tax. We have an NPO in Spain to plant the trees you need to eliminate the CO2 you have emitted. A computer calculates your emissions and the price of trees to be planted. In this way, I think it is a tax included into the price of the ticket. I would be nice that the most people that flight collaborated in that way.

There are people who say that I'm a radical, that my behaviour won't avoid that plains continue fliying.. I know it... but I send them to my post Gratitudes. One more thing. Low-Cost Flights aren't socially responsibles in the sense that if you pay less, that has repercussions on the salary of the workers, on a properly set-up and in the generation of employment. Nobody has to be surprised when the crew don't say good morning or nobody hasn't his/her coffe. Remeber: poverty and environment go hand in hand.


Good night.

Thursday 5 July 2007

Glaciers are going

What you see is what you get, the glaciers are going and we don't know when they will return (but it's sure they will return stronger). I have a link to an spanish web, but I've looked for a link in english, here you are. The spanish document is from Greenpeace, but the one I link here is written in english. If you want the original from Greenpece no problem, the only thing you have to do is to leave a post with your email.

People from Switzerland, who have lots of incomes from the winter season, are preparing for the process even though spaniards only are thinking, at the moment, in building around mountains to be nearer from ski runs, they say they are worried about climate change (?) but it seems they are not fighting it porperly. Glaciers are not only important for sightseen and sports, they are important for refreshing our planet and feed one and a half billion of people all over the world. What will it happen when they have been desappeared? The more water in circulation the more heat accumulation.

Good night.

Sunday 24 June 2007

Was that when you arrived here?

Some time ago I was in the university library and I could observe as a couple of young girls left their litter on the table. It took my attention the esay-way for people to leave their rubbish. I think as they leave their litter in the library, in the same way they behave when they are on the beach, in the cinema, in the streets, in the countryside, etc... Girls, your miseries are yours not ours. It's not our fault if you are uncivic or very bad educated people (I'd rather say you are filthy). If we think, two food packings it's not much, what I'm worry is if you are smokers, so perhaps you treat your cigarettes in the forest as you treated your litter on the table. You have rights, correct, but you also have obligations. Your behaviour belongs to old times because some decades before there wasn't culture and education. Now, you don't have excuses.

Thursday 14 June 2007

Don't drill me guy!!

Thus, speaking of drills, you have to know that in the next years, it is going to get invested nothing else than a little figure: 3.500.000.000€. And you will ask yourself... what for? Only for drilling the Artic. It seems that the Artic hasn't enough problems as to face another one . It likes me...

Along some time, lots of experts say that fusion energy is the future, as it is a clean and inexhaustible energy source. In that way I say that: what are the authorities waiting for more investments and efforts in this type of energy? No much time ago I read in the newspapers that we need, at least, a decade to run the invent. My question is as follows: why not invest the incredible 3.500.000.000€ on fusion energy instead of drilling the artic? I think if we invested that quantity in this type of energy, we could reduce the decade. My father once said: if you want... you can. Nothing else.

Good night.


N.A. I think no spanish people will have been astonished when they read the title. In english the expression or idiom doesn't exist. When you say in spanish that, you are saying to the speaker: stop speaking, don't tell me more silly/annoying things, I'm not interested in. What I wanted was to make a play on words in spanish.

Sunday 3 June 2007

Gratitudes

I dedicate this blog to those who don't cooperate excusing themselves saying that there are other people who do nothing at all, to those who when you are speaking about the environment think that you are asking only for money and justify their position saying that there are a lot of rich people who do nothing at all. Sirs, I don't ask for money, I ask for something as cheap as a habit, I don't know if I explain myself properly: less driving cars, more driving bicycles, fewer flights, reasonable temperatures at home when you use your air conditioning and so on... As the superior species we are, we have a moral obligation to preserve every type of life on this planet.