Recently in Environment Category
Here I am in Madrid, Spain. It's nearly 4pm and I'm watching a Spanish movie, "Adosados" (1996) after a lunch of pasta with green olives and Ribeiro white wine.
The thing is, the sun is getting a little lower now, over the building being constructed across the street. But I still have the sun shining into my living room. And all the windows are open. Don't get me wrong. It's not really warm. Well, "warm" for me is a relative term. I don't know the temperature but I know that I'm perfectly comfortable in my jeans and sweatshirt. There's no wind. Definately no rain. There's no clouds in the sky. And there's almost no wind. It's an absolutely perfect day for me, but....
... IT'S JANUARY 24th, 2008!!! AND THIS IS WINTER!!
Last year at this time I certainly had all the windows closed and was bundled up for cold weather and cloudy skies. Okay, maybe there wasn't a cloudy sky, but it was certainly cold! Wasn't it? Maybe there is something to this whole Global Warming, Climate Change thing which the US Government has denied...until recently.
Yesterday was the same. I had a meeting downtown on Gran Vía at noon and then met a friend at the Plaza Mayor at 2pm. From there we walked to lunch on the Calle de Santiago for a wonderfully delicious and filling 8.50€ Menú del Día. After that we had a walk around the Madrid de los Austrias - and I wasn't wearing my jacket, but had it draped over my shoulder bag the entire time. What's wrong with this picture?? My British friend even remarked about how clear and blue the Madrid skies were. I could only agree.
While having a coffee in the historic Café del Nuncio (photo) on the Calle de Segovia I was perusing the different historic photos of Madrid hanging on its walls. I always love the old Madrid photos but one in particular caught my eye. It was a 1920 photo of the Río Manznares at the Puente de Toledo - a lesser known bridge to tourist due to its location - and saw that there was about as much water in the river then as there is now!
I always attributed today's lack of river water to the over-development of the villages UPstream but maybe I was (partially) wrong. Maybe the river's ALWAYS been like this. I wonder why then the river expanse is so wide? Maybe for the potential, possibility for flooding over the Manzanares' banks? Hmmm.. I'm guessing no. But WHY would the original architects build the river walls so darn high then? That's the question.
In the Plaza Mayor there were a number of terrazas open for business. Sure, I've seen terrazas open on FREEZING COLD days in Madrid and Barcelona, catering to the tourists whom have come to Spain from arctic countries expecting tropical climates only to find this, and having gas burning heater poles over the terraces to heat the incoming tourists expecting such warm naturally. I guess I can't blame them. Spain has the image of being warm all year 'round but it really isn't - until lately.
Currently, there's a constant inversion later settling over Madrid city. Today, they said it was "African Dust" - whatever that is. But they recommended people stay indoors and NOT do outdoor exercising - even though the temperature and weather conditions are perfect to do so. What's going on here??
I'm hesitant to complain about the winter weather here in Madrid because I absolutely LOVE IT. But realizing this is not altogether natural makes me pause. I saw some movie which took place in Madrid during the time of Spain's Civil War and there were several scenes where it was snowing - IN MADRID! SNOW! How has the climate and environment changed in the past 60 years? ONLY 60 YEARS!?
There's a slim chance that I might STILL be around 60 years from now. (we're all "long livers") How will Madrid be then?
The thing is, the sun is getting a little lower now, over the building being constructed across the street. But I still have the sun shining into my living room. And all the windows are open. Don't get me wrong. It's not really warm. Well, "warm" for me is a relative term. I don't know the temperature but I know that I'm perfectly comfortable in my jeans and sweatshirt. There's no wind. Definately no rain. There's no clouds in the sky. And there's almost no wind. It's an absolutely perfect day for me, but....
... IT'S JANUARY 24th, 2008!!! AND THIS IS WINTER!!
Last year at this time I certainly had all the windows closed and was bundled up for cold weather and cloudy skies. Okay, maybe there wasn't a cloudy sky, but it was certainly cold! Wasn't it? Maybe there is something to this whole Global Warming, Climate Change thing which the US Government has denied...until recently.
Yesterday was the same. I had a meeting downtown on Gran Vía at noon and then met a friend at the Plaza Mayor at 2pm. From there we walked to lunch on the Calle de Santiago for a wonderfully delicious and filling 8.50€ Menú del Día. After that we had a walk around the Madrid de los Austrias - and I wasn't wearing my jacket, but had it draped over my shoulder bag the entire time. What's wrong with this picture?? My British friend even remarked about how clear and blue the Madrid skies were. I could only agree.
While having a coffee in the historic Café del Nuncio (photo) on the Calle de Segovia I was perusing the different historic photos of Madrid hanging on its walls. I always love the old Madrid photos but one in particular caught my eye. It was a 1920 photo of the Río Manznares at the Puente de Toledo - a lesser known bridge to tourist due to its location - and saw that there was about as much water in the river then as there is now!
I always attributed today's lack of river water to the over-development of the villages UPstream but maybe I was (partially) wrong. Maybe the river's ALWAYS been like this. I wonder why then the river expanse is so wide? Maybe for the potential, possibility for flooding over the Manzanares' banks? Hmmm.. I'm guessing no. But WHY would the original architects build the river walls so darn high then? That's the question.
In the Plaza Mayor there were a number of terrazas open for business. Sure, I've seen terrazas open on FREEZING COLD days in Madrid and Barcelona, catering to the tourists whom have come to Spain from arctic countries expecting tropical climates only to find this, and having gas burning heater poles over the terraces to heat the incoming tourists expecting such warm naturally. I guess I can't blame them. Spain has the image of being warm all year 'round but it really isn't - until lately.
Currently, there's a constant inversion later settling over Madrid city. Today, they said it was "African Dust" - whatever that is. But they recommended people stay indoors and NOT do outdoor exercising - even though the temperature and weather conditions are perfect to do so. What's going on here??
I'm hesitant to complain about the winter weather here in Madrid because I absolutely LOVE IT. But realizing this is not altogether natural makes me pause. I saw some movie which took place in Madrid during the time of Spain's Civil War and there were several scenes where it was snowing - IN MADRID! SNOW! How has the climate and environment changed in the past 60 years? ONLY 60 YEARS!?
There's a slim chance that I might STILL be around 60 years from now. (we're all "long livers") How will Madrid be then?
FINALLY, IT'S RAINING!!
About 7 weeks have passed here in Madrid with nothing but clear, sunny skies. This is great when out and about. I particularly love cool temperatures and those blue blue skies.
The oddity is that it USUALLY rains during this time of year. In fact, "the experts" are worried again about the possibility of a long-term drought as we had here JUST last year! The reservoirs were at 20-something-percent then and, well, if we don't start getting some serious rain we'll be returning to that. Reservoirs here now are at about 63%.
Okay. So the rain is great - and much needed. BUT NOT WHEN I'M DOING MY LAUNDRY!!
Sunday night I did two loads of laundry and got up early Monday to hang out the clothes. Cloudy. Grrrr!!! I take the clothes upstairs to the roof to hang and, of course, there's the neighbor's clothes hanging there, dry for (no doubt) 3 or 4 days. So the 3 "good" wires are taken. Fine. It's cloudy anyway.
20 minutes later I'm just finishing hanging the last clothes. And then it hits me - LITERALLY! SLEET (frozen rain) begins falling from the sky. First lightly - AND THEN SERIOUSLY. Wonderful. I debate for a moment if I should take all the laundry down, including two sets of sheets, before leaving for the gym. Hmmm... "Nah.. It'll probably blow over soon."
So I pack my mini-umbrella into my gym bag - just in case - and I'm off to the gym. The sleet continues to fall but lightly. Good. It seems I made the right decision. (uh-huh. Just wait)
So there I am at the gym having a good workout. I'm about halfway through and notice people standing at the windows which stretch the entire length of the second floor gym. "What's going on?" I wonder - but I don't wonder long because I look out the windows on my other side of the gym to see the rain falling in sheets, just falling and falling and falling. Everyone's happy, amazed, and no-doubt some of them are WISHING they'd brought their umbrellas. "I brought mine," I remembered.
By the time I was finishing up my workout, 20 minutes on the treadmill next to the windows, I watch one person after next running from the gym for their cars with their jackets over their heads, gym bags over their heads, or just running. I see all this and remember the damp laundry I just hung on the wires 3 hours before which is no doubt, by now, MUCH MORE than damp. Hmph!
The workout's over, I'm dressed, and leave the gym pulling out my mini-umbrella to shield me from the (now) light rain.
I like this umbrella because it's one of those mini-umbrellas, black, light, takes up no space, and it does its job. The thing I DON'T like about it is that on every alternating "web" it sports the word "BENIDORM".
The BENIDORM umbrella was bought in, you guessed it, BENIDORM when visiting there last March. I was only there a very short time but there was rain in the forecast so I stepped into one of "Los Chinos" stores near the hotel and bought one just-in-case. They had a number to choose from but I thought since I was there I'd buy the Benidorm-named one as a kind of souvenir. Fine.
But now, everytime I pull out this umbrella here in Madrid I feel kind of strange, almost embarrassed. Me, obviously a NON-Spaniard and with the face I have, I'm CERTAIN all the Spaniards look at me carrying this umbrella as, SURELY, a rich Englishman who's certainly vacationing every year in Benidorm or, who knows, OWNS a second house there along the beach. But if all that was true, WHY would I be living here IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD?
Of course my worries are unfounded as I haven't polled anyone on the street. But IF I had stopped 10 Spaniards on the street while I'm carrying my Benidorm and ask them, "What do you think when you see me carrying this umbrella in Madrid?" the answer would've been, "Well, I imagine you're English and got your umbrella in Benidorm." A LOGICAL answer, of course, but would they have thought anything had I not asked them in the first place?? Probably not. My manias.
These are the kinds of things foreigners-in-a-foreign-land think when walking the streets. They think people are staring at them, talking about them, or even avoiding them. I think this is probably not the case most of the time but we, the foreigners, THINK this is the case because we feel like sharks swimming in a fishbowl full of goldfish - so obviously out of place.
The rain stops on my walk home so I happily put away my umbrella. When I get there I go up to the rooftop and take down the lighter clothes like the underwear, socks, and wash and dust rags. They're all more damp now than before. I leave the sheets, pants, and T-shirts. All the smaller items I have strewn about the house and now, 24 hours later, they're dry.
But I write you on Tuesday morning and it's been raining all night long. I should go upstairs to check that the now-water-heavy sheets aren't dragging on the rooftop floor. I should also bring down the T-Shirts and hang them around but the water will likely drip everywhere. What a pain in the A$$. I try to remember it's not USUALLY like this - but I'm STILL HAPPY it's raining.
ALSO READ the "2007 Madrid Drought Recovery" entry from August 2007 - and see how things have changed since then.
¡Súmate al reto del Agua!
(Turn off the water faucet!)
Today at the gym I was absolutely furious after finishing my workout.
I'd just returned to the locker room to use the restroom. While washing my hands there was a man who'd entered one of the stalls behind me. I heard him blow his nose and a toilet flushed shortly thereafter. What? He FLUSHED a tissue down the toilet? But wait. It gets worse. After the flush the man left the stall, took 3 steps away, then returned to the same stall and I heard him blow his nose again - and then ANOTHER FLUSH!
HOW MANY LITERS OF WATERS DID HE WASTE FOR TWO NOSE BLOWS?? I don't have any idea but likely at least 4 Liters of water per flush. That's EIGHT liters of wasted water for two nose blows. AND THERE WAS A TRASH CAN RIGHT OUTSIDE THE STALL!!
I was angry after the first flush. But after the second one I just wanted to shout at him and ask him how he could be so wasteful. I took a second and couldn't formulate the sentence in my mind in Spanish. I couldn't think of the word for FLUSH and I don't know the word for BLOW NOSE in Spanish so I was lost.
One of the many TV public service commercials they broadcast is on this very topic. In the scene you have two teens or young 20-something girls in the restroom. One blows her nose and goes to flush the tissue down the toilet. The other girl, obviously the conscientious one, stops the friend and suggests she throw it in the trash can instead. What an idea!
Other times at the gym I'll be using the restroom and I find guys shaving over the sink with the water spigot wide open to its maximum, never turning it off the entire time they're shaving. And if you even DARE to suggest someone to turn off the running water they become angry, defensive, and tell you to mind your own business. Isn't the environment EVERYONE'S business? Don't I have a moral right to make such a suggestion?
It's people like those I mention above whom are destroying our planet the fastest. They're obviously selfish, mindless people. You can't really fault the lack of available education and promotion that takes place because you can't avoid it these days. Here, every time there's a TV commercial break at least one of the ads is related to the environment. This to me is incredible. You'd never get this kind of percentage on USA television. That'd be depriving corporations of millions of dollars - many of the same corporations which are polluting our water, air, and land.
SAVING WATER seems to be SO EASY to do. So why don't more people care?
Links of interest: Canal de Isabel II, El Reto de Agua, Guía para el ahorro de agua, An Inconvenient Truth,
Wow! What a last couple of days here in Madrid - and in many parts in Spain! We've had so much rain here that you'd think the Rio Manzanares would look more like a RIVER and less like a GARDEN! But no. While maybe 6-inches higher, the river is still pitifully low. Why is that? Someone told me the river was being "retained" or collected upstream for reservoirs. I'll have to look into that to satisfy my curiosity.
It rained all day yesterday and the day before. Tuesday night, I think, it rained all night long. This is SO unusual for Madrid these past few years but I hope it's a trend. (I won't hold my breath, though) If it keeps up like this throughout the autumn and winter we should be standing very well for the next hot, dry summer of 2008.
I was out doing things all day yesterday, going to the Social Security Office in Aluche to clear up something (done!), then to the bank next door to TRY to clear up something (failed), then to Gran Via to drop off some papers for work (done!), then to visit a sick-yet-recovering friend. I did all this by taxi because A) It was raining, and B) because it was faster - but the three trips cost me about 25€. This is not cheap but yesterday the time saved was more valuable than the money spent. Had I taken public transportation it would've easily added 1.5 - 2 hours to my busy morning. Thank goodness taxis are so easy to find in this city.
There I was in the taxi, at every stoplight, marveling at the water cascading down the street. Just amazing for here. In Columbus, Ohio we would sometimes go an entire week of nearly non-stop rain in summer, spring, fall, and winter, but not here. That's why whenever the clouds billow up in the Madrid sky I always take a moment to admire them as they're so rare. And thunder, what's that?! Something also rare in Madrid.
What I do miss here are the storms. In Ohio we have huge, blustery, serious storms with rain, lightning, thunder, hard gusts of wind. LOUD storms. I miss those. I tell this to Spanish people and they think I'm crazy. "How can you miss storms? I'm afraid of them!", they tell me. I guess most people on earth are rightfully afraid of storms. I love them. There's almost no better way to experience nature's power and influence, to actually feel the world around you as if it's saying, "Hey insignificant beings! I'm here! Remember me? Tread Lightly!"
Today's a clear, typically sunny day. I like the clouds. They give the skies so much character. Who likes a blank canvass?
It rained all day yesterday and the day before. Tuesday night, I think, it rained all night long. This is SO unusual for Madrid these past few years but I hope it's a trend. (I won't hold my breath, though) If it keeps up like this throughout the autumn and winter we should be standing very well for the next hot, dry summer of 2008.
I was out doing things all day yesterday, going to the Social Security Office in Aluche to clear up something (done!), then to the bank next door to TRY to clear up something (failed), then to Gran Via to drop off some papers for work (done!), then to visit a sick-yet-recovering friend. I did all this by taxi because A) It was raining, and B) because it was faster - but the three trips cost me about 25€. This is not cheap but yesterday the time saved was more valuable than the money spent. Had I taken public transportation it would've easily added 1.5 - 2 hours to my busy morning. Thank goodness taxis are so easy to find in this city.
There I was in the taxi, at every stoplight, marveling at the water cascading down the street. Just amazing for here. In Columbus, Ohio we would sometimes go an entire week of nearly non-stop rain in summer, spring, fall, and winter, but not here. That's why whenever the clouds billow up in the Madrid sky I always take a moment to admire them as they're so rare. And thunder, what's that?! Something also rare in Madrid.
What I do miss here are the storms. In Ohio we have huge, blustery, serious storms with rain, lightning, thunder, hard gusts of wind. LOUD storms. I miss those. I tell this to Spanish people and they think I'm crazy. "How can you miss storms? I'm afraid of them!", they tell me. I guess most people on earth are rightfully afraid of storms. I love them. There's almost no better way to experience nature's power and influence, to actually feel the world around you as if it's saying, "Hey insignificant beings! I'm here! Remember me? Tread Lightly!"
Today's a clear, typically sunny day. I like the clouds. They give the skies so much character. Who likes a blank canvass?
UPDATE: Later this same day, MadridMan gets his wish!
TeleMadrid reported on TV this morning that the region's reservoirs/embalses are at about 78% - up about 40+% from last year's horrible drought conditions. We've been particularly LUCKY this summer, having very mild temperatures and a surprising amount of rain - throughout Spain, really. Still, thoughtfully, the regional Madrid government for water conservation, Canal de Isabel II , continues running it's public service announcements to conserve water.
I must say I'm truly impressed with the amount of effort and resources put into promoting ecological and conservation programs here in Madrid and Spain in general. It's definitely a good thing. A recent report said that 80% of madrileños recycle glass. Good. But they didn't mention plastics and paper. It's so frustrating walking through the streets and seeing people, usually store owners, throwing cardboard boxes into the trash. MOST people do recycle but not everyone, particularly not in the poorer parts of Madrid/Spain. MORE frustrating is walking behind people on the sidewalk as they tear off their plastic wrappers and casually release them to the winds.
I'm proud to say that I have almost NO TRASH to take to the trash containers. In fact, I probably only make one trip to throw out trash per week - while my recycling bags overflow with plastics, glass, metals, and paper! Makes me feel good to do my part. RECYCLE, WORLD! I realize recycling containers aren't convenient or even available in some parts of the world but please do make an effort. Love your world and it'll love you back.
BE GREEN! Saludos, MadridMan
I must say I'm truly impressed with the amount of effort and resources put into promoting ecological and conservation programs here in Madrid and Spain in general. It's definitely a good thing. A recent report said that 80% of madrileños recycle glass. Good. But they didn't mention plastics and paper. It's so frustrating walking through the streets and seeing people, usually store owners, throwing cardboard boxes into the trash. MOST people do recycle but not everyone, particularly not in the poorer parts of Madrid/Spain. MORE frustrating is walking behind people on the sidewalk as they tear off their plastic wrappers and casually release them to the winds.
I'm proud to say that I have almost NO TRASH to take to the trash containers. In fact, I probably only make one trip to throw out trash per week - while my recycling bags overflow with plastics, glass, metals, and paper! Makes me feel good to do my part. RECYCLE, WORLD! I realize recycling containers aren't convenient or even available in some parts of the world but please do make an effort. Love your world and it'll love you back.
BE GREEN! Saludos, MadridMan
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