Spanish Residents - advice please

[hedgewitch]

Same down south AXJ.
You take the good with the bad hey!

[AXJ]

I am glad it is all over Spain and the Provinces, for all its faults Spain is getting quite environmentally friendly (from a country point of view). I believe it has one of the highest take up rates for low energy light bulbs in Europe. I look out of my window right now and along the crest of the mountain there are windmills.

Here's a picture I took 5 minutes ago, it is the view I have out of the window on the righthand side of my monitor, you can just about make out the windmils in the far distance, they disappear behind the trees on both the left and right hand side of the picture.

A bus ride to the beach takes one right past them, impressive sight they are too.

Nobody here minds them at all, I personally love windmills in all their forms.


click image for an enlargement if you wish

[hedgewitch]

Spain's certainly catching up with the rest of the world - slowly but surely.
We've just had clothes recycling bins placed around our area as well- the clothes get sent to countries needing disaster relief and the like.

That's lovely view you have there - the Basque country is very beautiful - such different terrain to Valencia.
I don't mind windmills either.

[AXJ]

hey hedgewitch, Thanks, Valencia, beautiful place, I also have some Valencian friends over there. I think here they just recycle the cloth / fibres probably making paper or soemthing, but I don't actually know, I'll have to check it out.

According to the International Environmental Sustainability Index Spain does have a bit of catching up to do

If you break it down by Autonimous region a different picture unfolds, one region (I struggle to remember which one) is self sufficent(ish) in renewable energy, located somewhere between you and me. Basque Country actually stopped a Nuclear Power Station from being completed here, they delivered the reactor... then took at away again. Too much civil disobidience. Everyone kept switching on and off electrical appliances at an agreed time, and just tripped all the fuses on the grid, which had to be reset by hand. Then they did it again, and again and again, until it was cheaper to take the reactor back and stop building it. I think someone blew up a few things on the site as well, but I don't condone violence. However the upshot is many many wind farms, and running water hydro, they look majestic and beutiful. They have not disturbed load of ancient peat, like a wind farm in the Shetlands would, so quickly become carbon neutral.

I realise that these kinds of statistics are, well just one interpretation of a bunch of data, but at least Spain's not at the bottom.

Here is the full list of 'ESI Country ratings' starting from the best:

1. Finland
2. Norway
3. Uruguay
4. Sweden
5. Iceland
6. Canada
7. Switzerland
8. Guyana
9. Argentina
10. Austria
11. Brazil
12. Gabon
13. Australia
14. New Zealand
15. Latvia
16. Peru
17. Paraguay
18. Costa Rica
19. Croatia
20. Bolivia
21. Ireland
22. Lithuania
23. Colombia
24. Albania
25. Central African Republic
26. Denmark
27. Estonia
28. Panama
29. Slovenia
30. Japan
31. Germany
32. Namibia
33. Russia
34. Botswana
35. Papua New Guinea
36. France
37. Portugal
38. Malaysia
39. Congo
40. Netherlands
41. Mali
42. Chile
43. Bhutan
44. Armenia
45. United States
46. Burma
47. Belarus
48. Slovakia
49. Ghana
50. Cameroon
51. Ecuador
52. Laos
53. Cuba
54. Hungary
55. Tunisia
56. Georgia
57. Uganda
58. Moldova
59. Senegal
60. Zambia
61. Bosnia and Herzegovina
62. Israel
63. Tanzania
64. Madagascar
65. United Kingdom
66. Nicaragua
67. Greece
68. Cambodia
69. Italy
70. Bulgaria
71. Mongolia
72. Gambia
73. Thailand
74. Malawi
75. Indonesia
76. Spain
77. Philippines
78. Kazakhstan
79. Sri Lanka
80. Kyrgyzstan
81. Guinea
82. Venezuela
83. Oman
84. Jordan
85. Nepal
86. Benin
87. Honduras
88. Côte d'Ivoire
89. Serbia and Montenegro
90. Republic of Macedonia
91. Turkey
92. Czech Republic
93. South Africa
94. Romania
95. Mexico
96. Algeria
97. Burkina Faso
98. Nigeria
99. Azerbaijan
100. Kenya
101. India
102. Poland
103. Niger
104. Chad
105. Morocco
106. Rwanda
107. Mozambique
108. Ukraine
109. Jamaica
110. United Arab Emirates
111. Togo
112. Belgium
113. Democratic Republic of the Congo
114. Bangladesh
115. Egypt
116. Guatemala
117. Syria
118. El Salvador
119. Dominican Republic
120. Sierra Leone
121. Liberia
122. South Korea
123. Angola
124. Mauritania
125. Guinea-Bissau
126. Libya
127. Vietnam
128. Zimbabwe
129. Lebanon
130. Burundi
131. Pakistan
132. Iran
133. China
134. Tajikistan
135. Ethiopia
136. Saudi Arabia
137. Yemen
138. Kuwait
139. Trinidad and Tobago
140. Sudan
141. Haiti
142. Uzbekistan
143. Iraq
144. Turkmenistan
145. North Korea