I don't know if you've heard the news, but today the Climate Summit (COP25) has begun in Madrid. It is an essential summit for the international community to take a change of course that is absolutely necessary to fight against the climate debacle that is coming upon us. It is in this fight where the progressive and mutual spirit of the policies that govern the countries of this, our only planet and home, called Earth, is seen.
But... What can I do? What can my community do? My city? I have always thought that changes occur through the direct action of people in their society. I am from an island called Lanzarote that is located in the Atlantic Ocean, in a corner of the Tropic of Cancer that is really threatened by the rise in sea level and the excessive generation of waste from this consumerist way of life that we have created. We have realized sooner rather than later that every action, every small gesture has direct implications on life, understanding this concept in its broad sense of connection between all the beings that inhabit our world.
Lanzarote seems to live in a bubble, where a way of life totally taken from the neoliberal manual or streaming series, where excessive consumption is the flag and the action. On an island where almost 150,000 people live, it seems that large surfaces, large fast food chains and the great fundamental principles of the most radical consumerism seem to have settled in an almost endemic way, as if they were those invasive plants that in a few years cover an entire territory.
As of today, the island's vehicle fleet is 129,691. According to statistical growth estimates from the Lanzarote Island Council Data Center, the legal adult population is just over 130,000 people. Therefore, each adult individual on the island corresponds to a car and a little bit of another belonging to non-domestic activities. If these figures are overwhelming you, wait for the next piece of data: 129,691 cars emit a whopping 390,000 tons of Co2. If we add to this the impact of aviation, maritime traffic, freight transport, electricity generation, livestock, industry and other sectors such as services that provide Tourism with its needs, this island pollutes 1,163,469 tons of C02.
In the absence of technical data on the forest mass of Lanzarote, which is almost nil, I will continue with the number of trees needed to compensate for 80% of the carbon emissions that we individually make in a day on the island. 3 trees per person are needed to reach the aforementioned goal, which means about 450,000 trees planted on the island's surface. This figure would only compensate for emissions related to human domestic activity, if we add all productive activity, the number of trees needed is 1,500,000 trees. Do you see any effort by the authorities to generate a forest mass on the island? I'll answer that for you, no. One of the arguments used for the cultivation of forests on the island is:
"Lanzarote is a desert island, it is impossible for trees to grow on an island like this"
The previous statement is a fallacy, there are hundreds of thousands of tree species, many of them adapted to desert climates such as the hackberry, the wild olive tree or the cypress, among others. Therefore, the only problem to develop forest masses in Lanzarote is the lack of political and administrative commitment to this issue.
But there is an even bigger problem, that of how we live or want to live as people. Until now the dynamic has been: "the more I can buy and have, the better for me, it fulfills me as an individual and person" this type of thinking based on economic neoliberalism, are a priori, statements that promote selfishness and social inequality. To generate a society that cares for its environment and generates new forms of economic well-being that leaves no one behind, we must begin to believe that another way of life is possible. These models can only be activated if there is a social and collective effort on the part of the inhabitants, in this case of the small island of Lanzarote.
Many people tell me why I get into these troubles, why I write about this type of topics or why I am always thinking about the political decisions of Lanzarote. My answer is always the same: because as a citizen, the political and public management of where I am from is my responsibility, especially if I want to be a person linked to Culture, a sector that has the mission of activating critical thinking and reflection among the population
