The climate change summit this year, otherwise known as the Conference of Parties or COP21 that ended yesterday, was known to be a ground breaking conference with an enactment and commitment to put words into action immediately.
Almost 200 countries' leaders were present at the summit. After two weeks of discussions, key points were written in a deal that commits all countries to cut emissions into the year 2020.
These are the measures in the agreement:
• To peak greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible and achieve a balance between sources and sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century
• To keep global temperature increase "well below" 2C (3.6F) and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5C
• To review progress every five years
• $100 billion a year in climate finance for developing countries by 2020, with a commitment to further finance in the future.
What can we do to help? We can begin or continue to develop healthy climate-friendly-habits to reduce emissions. We may also register for a newsletter to get more information or search ways on helping in our communities.
In the meantime, our hope is that all countries will abide by this new agreement to help our earth.
“Extremadura was my Spain…I saw about me the
suspicious, dour Extremadurans, whose ancestors had conquered not cities but
whole nations and continents. I felt that I had come back to my own land.” Michener,
James A. IBERIA; 1968
In
his non-fiction book of his travels through Spain, Michener’s first chapter
after his introduction, is “BADAJOZ” .
It is obvious why he began with
Extremadura based on the quote above, but it was also the fact that Michener did
extensive study on explorers. And just as he did, many people still have
similar views of Spanish explorers: firstly these people were courageous and made
many contributions even in their struggles and voyages, but secondly, that conquistadores are remembered for their ruthless conquests of indigenous
civilizations.
It
is a well-known fact that many men (and some women), came for the region of
Extremadura. Extremaduran’s contribution to the age of discovery was more
prevalent than others from Spain. It was through the Extremaduran generals that
many of the area soldiers were recruited. The new recruits were willing to
leave behind a life of poverty and hardship to seek fortunes in the new
world.
In
some of our future blog posts, we will introduce, not only the most famous of
the generals, but also some of the lesser known soldiers along with their contributions
to history, all originating from Extremadura.
These are a few of the extremeño explorers:
Vasco Nuñez de
Balbao and Hernando
de Soto from Jerez de los Caballeros.
Francisco Pizarro
Gonzalez, Francisco de Orellana and Alonso
de Sotomayor y Valmediano from Trujillo.
Leonel
de Cervantes and Pedro Gallego Andrada
from Burguillos del Cerro.
Pedro Arias de Almesto and Luis de Moscoso from Zafra.
Hernán Cortes de Monroy y Pizzaro from
Medellín.
Pedro de Alvarado, Jorge Alvarado, Diego
Alvarado, and Juan de Alonso are
from Badajoz.
Hernando de Bustammante and Juan Rodriguez
Suarez from Merida.
Francisco Aguilar from Villalba.
Garcia Aguilar from Villafranca
Alonso Álvarez de Pineda from Aldeacentenera,
Cáceres. Marina Ortiz de Gaete wife of Pedro de Valdivia from Zalamea de la Serena, Badajoz. Valdivia was also from Badajoz.
Dear readers,
Since its inception in 1992, world leaders have united to find solutions in combating climate change and its affects, at their yearly conferences. Known also as COP21, the Climate Conference of 2015 will meet for the 21st time in Paris during 30th of November to 11th of December.
This time, however, the UN hopes to have in place a legal, universal agreement on climate change for all nations.
As you can see, Climate Change is real and will affect us in many ways. Unfortunately, one of them is losing some of our favorite foods that we now take for granted and some of us enjoy on a daily, or weekly basis.
The high heats and extreme weather conditions are no match for the fragile food plants due to global warming. The plants will not be able to grow and produce due to the abundant contaminates and high levels of carbon dioxide that will have them overly stressed and ultimately, the plants will die.
Here a but a few of the food products that are being threatened by climate change.
Coffee: Climate changes in the tropics and central America where coffee beans grow, have seen more high temperatures. A fungus is attacking the coffee plants and inhibiting growth of the beans. Farmers are seeing a fall in production due to lost of plants. More information can be found here: "A Coffee Crop Withers
Chocolate: I love chocolate! Indeed, a lot of us do. And now that research has shown that its flavonoids and antioxidants are good for your health and heart, more people are consuming it . The problem with that is we are already seeing a decrease in production. The cacao bean tree needs a lot of water. Countries that produce these beans, such as Africa and in Latin America, are seeing an increase in heat temperatures, therefore the plants are losing more and more water, leading to a reduction of beans.
Beans: Beans are a basic staple to most Latin American countries and most of Africa. A high level of carbon dioxide and higher temperatures will not allow these legumes to flower and seed production will be impacted. This in turn will lead to less beans being produced, and therefore may lead to hunger in these countries. Beans will also not produce well if there is more water than expected.
We are already seeing many of these temperature and climate patterns this year alone.
Cherries: Cherries are my favorite fruit (apart from pomegranates). Cherries are also high in beneficial vitamins and antioxidants. Cherries require a series of many cool nights to bear fruit. If there are fewer nights, then of course, there will be produce fewer fruits. The rising temperatures also mean that the fruits need to be harvested quickly or they will rot in their trees.
I saw this happening during my visit to the Jerte Valley, in Spain this summer. Many Picota cherries were damaged because of the high temperatures therefore limiting the season to a short month instead of several.
Picota Cherries
Seafood: Rising warm waters will impact the an entire spectrum of edible seafood. Rising levels of carbon dioxide will produce a warmer and acidic ocean, which will lead many species of fish and seafood to either migrate or die off from lack of survival. These creatures may also have a tendency to be infected with parasites or bacteria that will harm humans, if eaten. Habitats of these sea creatures will also be lost.
Apart from recycling, reusing, and reducing waste, we can also let our voices be heard to the world leaders that this is the time to take action.
Salvatierra de los Barros is a town located about 18 km north of Burguillos de Cerro. It has a population of about 1,720 (2014). It is 66 km south of the city of Badajoz and is situated among great Dehesas of cork and helm oaks. The town's history includes the reconquest from the Arabs by Master of the Order of Alcántara, Arias Pérez in 1229. After it was repopulated, it became a domain of the city of Badajoz. In 1445 King John II, passed Salvatierra into the hands of Juan de Pacheco, Marquee of Villena. Later, the villa finally came into the Dukedom of Feria. Salvatierra de los Barros has the "de los barros" surname due to the pottery that is made and well known in Extremadura.
While I was there last winter, I visited the Artisan and Pottery Museum. A quaint museum, it has the history and explanations of how the pottery was made and types that were traditionally produced. Several decades of pottery examples can be seen, along with the process and distribution of the pottery.
While strolling around the town, several pottery markers of businesses can be seen with traditional signs.
Other important monuments in Salvatierra include the Franciscan Convent of Santa María de Jesus built in 1507 and the church that was later built near the convent.
Were you ever given some money that should have lasted for a month, but spent it in 2 weeks?
Have you ever bought some snacks or food items that were supposed to last you a week, but instead were consumed in a couple of days?
Suppose food in the world was consumed in less time that it takes to plant and grow more.
Could that even be possible?
Earth Overshoot Day is August 13, 2015 and the day when humans have spent all the natural resources that are supposed to be used for a year, not 8 months. After that day, we are using resources that are meant for future generations.
The reality is that every year, we are consuming our natural resources, such as water, at a faster rate than the previous year.
What can you do?
Begin now by using less of what you really need.
Reduce, reuse, recycle.
Use glass instead of plastic.
Filter your own water.
Live Simply.
And, tell everyone you know to begin using resources wisely.
This past school year, while studying about the environment
and cork trees that are indigenous to the Iberian Peninsula in Spain and
Portugal, students were given a two part assignment: to use cork in an arts/crafts
project and to invent or design a product made with cork. They also wrote their projects in Spanish.
Mr. Jeff Lloyd and the folks at RealCork (100@Cork) provided us with educational material including the history, uses and environmental importance as well as cork samples. This information was used for both parts of the project.
For the art and crafts portion, Ms Ceara Cates at Meadowood in Napa Valley donated the cork stoppers that were used in the investigation of cork properties and utilized in the students’ DIY crafts. Some of the cork crafts were the usual ones such as
corkboards, card holders, animal figurines, flash drives, candle holders and jewelry, to name a few. More unique ones
included fishhook bobbers (carved into insects), a clock, and a flute made out of the stoppers.
Cork Jewelry
Cork Flute
For the second part of the project, students investigated
the properties of cork to develop ideas for inventions/designs. In total there
were over 100 ideas with several being sports oriented, such as lacrosse,
football and baseball equipment. Some other ideas included a blanket (my
favorite), deck shoes entirely made of cork, hurricane shutters, a swimming pool, the entire
underside cover of a car, and the flute as well.
I was quite impressed to read all my students’ ideas especially
because they were able to study the culture, language and be involved in a science-based scheme that may have a great impact on reducing climate change. If we begin using more cork, then perhaps we can use fewer resources and
buy fewer items. It would be quite an honor to see some of these ideas become a reality in the near future.
Apart from being all recyclable and sustainable, cork is a priority species. On a previous blog post, I discussed the importance of cork and dehesas which you may read about it here.
These are the properties of cork: elastic and resilient,
lightweight and floats, insulates and fire retardant (in its natural form);
impermeable, durable, and hypoallergenic.
This is a coffee cup that is being sold at Whole Foods Market here in Houston. It is a reusable glass cup with a cork band for holding while in use.
Resuable cups are a great way to limit overuse of our resources!
Cork Tree Planting
In doing our part to help the environment, a group of my
students and their penpals from Matías Martinez School, planted some cork trees
in Burguillos del Cerro during our March trip to Spain. Through a donation of funds from the West U Rotary, we were able to purchase the trees and supplies, and provide lunch after the tree planting activity.
We hope to continue more tree-planting in the future throughout the areas of Extremadura and Portugal. If you would like to get involved, please send me an email at: proyectobdcspain@gmail.com.
Cork tree being planted in Burguillos del Cerro
Cork harvesting begins mid-June and ends in August throughout Spain and Portugal.
Below are trees that were harvested last year at Nicomedes' Farm.
