So far, since the beginning of 2024, we have been enjoying a more or less constant springtime experience, with very little rain and above average temperatures.
Whereas this has been wonderful for those choosing to spend their holidays in Ibiza during this period, it has been quite a disaster for both local farmers and those who like to grow their own vegetables, or enjoy colourful gardens.
If we remember that last year was more or less the same story with regard to the lack of rainfall and above average temperatures, we cannot avoid noticing that the climate is changing quite rapidly and that we should pay more attention to our consumption of water here on this tiny island. Building more desalination plants may give a temporary solution, but it cannot be seen as a serious attempt to guarantee a reliable water supply into the future, especially if we intend to continue increasing our tourism capacity every year!
Although I’m not convinced that the whole Climate Change problem is caused by human made carbon dioxide emissions, we are obviously not helping the situation by increasing our use of fossil fuels, as we expand our industrial footprint even further, with consequent undesirable effects on our world climate. However, as carbon dioxide is a very necessary component for the existence of all life on Earth, we must be sure to make the right choices in order to solve the problem, instead of blaming humans for everything that’s going on with the global warming situation.
As I mentioned in my last blog, climate science is a very complicated subject and we are nowhere near understanding just how we should react in order to achieve the best result.
Like many others, I am convinced that one of the biggest problems we face is continuing with the wrong approach to modern farming methods. Instead of merely copying natural cycles, we imagine we can ‘fix’ the problem by making the whole process more industrialised, using oil based chemicals, faster computers and artificial intelligence. By adopting regenerative agriculture techniques and less aggressive methods, in order to satisfy our need to grow good quality food, we could easily keep the atmospheric composition within the sustainable boundaries designed by nature, saving a lot of energy and money at the same time!
While maintaining the world population in constant fear of nuclear war and famine, we are wasting valuable resources and intelligence in an obviously counter-productive spiral of continuous destruction, instead of doing all we can to mitigate the effects of rapid climate change, which seems to be almost beyond our control. (I believe that this is much more likely to be affected by differences in emissions from the sun, as can be clearly seen from graphs of variations in the sun's activities, rather than anything we humans are doing here on the planet). In this case, the sooner we ‘See the light’, the sooner we can avoid taking the human race and our precious planet to the unnecessary brink of extinction.
Another hot topic on the island of Ibiza is the ‘Garbage problem’ and how to solve it.
Wth the rubbish tip almost full, even after investing so much money on the installation of a huge separation plant, we need to decide very quickly how we will manage the situation, once we have nowhere left to throw away what can’t be recycled.
Having spent more than half my life picking up rubbish on beaches, country roads and in natural spaces here on the island, I have come to the conclusion that we are not really winning the war against littering, as well as the dumping of used cars, household appliances and building waste in forest areas. We also seem to be going backwards with our attempts to produce less ‘use and throw’ plastic packaging, which has increased dramatically in lock-step with the increase in our resident population and visiting tourists.
I remember back in 2005, I was approached by a company called ‘Startech’ from upstate New York, who had invented an innovative way to get rid of garbage without producing any contaminating waste or toxic gases during the elimination process. I even took two representatives from the Spanish branch of the company to see the island council where they explained to the councillor for the environment how their system could work here. Obviously the technology was a bit too advanced for the councillor to get the idea and he kindly thanked us for the visit while storing the presentation in the bottom drawer of his desk.
Perhaps now that 19 years have passed since that day, it could be time to have another look at this super clean and effective solution and see if the reaction from the island government has changed in any way!
Basically, the ‘Plasma Converter’, can disappear any kind of waste product, including low grade nuclear waste, while producing no toxic substances and actually emitting as much as ten times more energy than it uses for the transformation process.
As I have nothing to lose, I intend to have a second try at presenting the idea to the council and hope that at least they consider it as a feasible possibility to solve a serious problem that is approaching very quickly!
Casita Verde Ibiza
If you can believe it, the Casita Verde is still looking quite green and beautiful, despite the lack of rain and the nature pond is still almost full of water.
However, I noticed that the elegant but very dangerous Agave type cactuses we planted twenty years ago have now grown so big and are reproducing so quickly, that I have decided to remove as many as possible, before they are really out of control and could take over the whole farm. Not only do they produce babies from the roots, just like the Aloe Vera plants we have, before they die, they also grow a huge flower with around 2000 babies, most of which grow into a plant if they are in contact with the earth. This has turned out to be a complete nightmare for me, as we have spent around six weeks of very hard work in removing about two thirds of them, but still have a long way to go before we can forget about the problem. Many of them are like something from a Jurassic park movie and weigh around 100-150 kg each (See the photos above this newsletter).
This year, we didn’t plant anything in the vegetable garden, as it’s quite a waste of time unless we have some serious rain to water them. If we need to buy water to keep the vegetables alive, it works out to be quite an expensive hobby and I’d rather buy the products we eat from the local farmers.
We still offer weekly guided tours on Sundays during the quiet season, from the beginning of October until the end of May and have met some very interesting people who have come to visit us. We also did a couple of TV interviews with IB3 TV since I wrote my last blog, so although the place is more like a museum than an active ecological centre these days, we keep it in beautiful condition, as a ‘showcase for the study and application of sustainable living techniques’.
In the meantime, I continue to attend our monthly meetings with the Ibiza water alliance and keep up to date with the progress of other environmental groups like ‘Juntos’ farms and the ‘Plastic free Ibiza’ platform.
Apart from that, we are always open to talk with people who wish to make new projects similar to the ‘Casita Verde’ model, either in other parts of the island, in other parts of Spain, or in other countries.
Of course, if you would like to visit our centre for a guided tour, or want to know how you can be a more eco-conscious citizen, please get in touch by email, sending your request to info@casitaverde.com, or calling our main office on 608838190 (English and Spanish)
With warm greetings from Casita Verde,
Chris Dews – coordinator
"Climate the Movie: The Cold Truth", Debunks Global Warming & Net Zero Narratives