Mariela's Spain 2007 Blog: Environmental awareness in Spain

While traveling through Spain, I had the opportunity to see first hand how the country conserves the environment. Spain’s focus is on clean energy, recycling and pollution reduction.

Caring for the planet needs to be a group effort. During my three weeks in Spain, I gained a real sense of pride and awareness about the environment. The focus in Spain is on energy conservation. I saw this in almost every hotel I stayed in during my trip. The room’s lights and air conditioning could only be turned on after inserting a key card into a special switch box, usually located on the wall of the room. Although this system was sometimes inconvenient it does help conserve energy when no one is in the room. According to Jeremy Jacquot, of treehuggers.com, approximately 27 percent of all Spain’s energy is clean energy. Throughout the country, wind turbines are present, especially in the countryside. These gigantic modern windmills stand taller than the Statue of Liberty. Their great stature gives them the advantage of using event he sightless wind flow.

The metro is another tool in Spain helping keep the air clean. The purpose of the metro is not only to provide a fast, reliable and affordable form of transportation, but it also helps alleviate congestion and pollution. I became a fan of the metro while in Spain, even if sometimes the strong body odor on the compartment made me wish I had walked to the bus, it was still a fast way to get around the city. The metro uses five times less energy than private vehicles. Subway tickets cost less than one euro. Often a better deal is buying 10 rides for less than seven euros. There is no excuse not to use their services. In Madrid there is another alternative to driving: the city buses. Most of these buses run on natural gas or ethanol fuels that aid in the reduction of carbon emissions. According to Scania, a Swedish a transportation company, Ethanol engines can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 90 percent, compared to engines powered by fossil fuels. Currently Spain’s government is pushing biofuels. While riding the bus, I asked Victoria Zendejas, my roommate in Spain, why we not have a transportation system like this back in San Antonio. She answered, “We should, for as big as San Antonio is, we should have one. It would save the public a lot of money.” I completely agree with her. San Antonio is a city with a population of over 1.1 million people. As a community, we could all benefit from a better public transportation system. Although we currently do have VIA (Via Metropolitan Transits), more often than not, a bus takes longer to get to your destination, and a few bus changes are necessary to even get to where you are going. Needless to say much improvement is needed for people to actively take our public busses.

Recycling is another important focal point in Spain. Almost everywhere I visited, I never failed to locate a recycling bin clearly marked for paper, glass or plastic on the streets. I was impressed as to how consistent the bins where found. Most importantly, I was awed to see that people would actually use them. I asked Zendejas. Why do you think we do not put as much efforts into recycling as they do in Spain? She replied, “Because we are lazy, plain and simple. The city does not make it simple to recycle.” San Antonio provides small bins only to those who request them, and are they often filled before they are picked up. Having little room to recycle discourages people from working the effort.

Spain works not only on recycling, clean energy and reduction of pollution. I noticed that each city took pride in their surroundings; everywhere I looked there were green trees and clean parks. In Madrid, there is an organization called Trees for Cities that is working closely with its local partner ARBA (Asociación para la Recuperación del Bosque Autóctono): ARBA is a volunteer-based organization whose focus is in reforestation project around urban areas. The Madrid tree project encourages the planting of native trees for both conservation and ecological value. The important lesson that is to be gained is to understand that our flora and fauna need conservation, especially in urban areas. Trees not only give beauty to our cities, they also give the vital oxygen we need to survive. According to Russell Ball of ARBA, “Environmental education will be a major element of this project with focus on climate change and all the associated benefits that trees bring.”

Currently a lack of public information about the preservation of our environment hinders us from knowing how we can help. In our society it is too common to expect someone else to make the effort in caring for our planet. Yet, it is only when working together that change is achieved. This is another reason why a step forward into modernization of our electric, transportation and recycling systems is necessary. Environmental awareness and involvement for each one of us should be made a priority.