27/11/2013 00:00
TW
0
By Jason Moore ARE we taking climate change seriously? Last week in a show of support the people of the Balearics were urged to turn off their lights for five minutes. The Balearic government said the next day that there had been a dramatic fall in demand for electricity but the Gas and Electricity Board said that they had been a surge in demand the next day because of the cold weather! So in other words any good that was done was quickly reversed. I am one of those people who is getting slightly alarmed at climate change and I do think that we should be doing more. No it wasn´t Al Gore (I) it was our recent freak weather which got me pondering. This leads me to my next question; if the Palma city council are so concerned about climate change wouldn´t it be a good idea if the Christmas lights were scaled back? I don´t want to be a kill-joy but we are either going to take this seriously or we are not. The Christmas lights will be switched on at the end of this month and they will still be on at the end of January; so two months of more than 100'000 light bulbs every night. Put the lights on later such as December 15 up until the Three Kings and then turn-them off and have them on for San Sebastian on January 20. Surely this makes sence.

It is quite ironic also that mass tourism is almost destroying tourism! The increase in the number of flights through Palma airport is causing more carbon emissions which in turn is causing greater problems for the environment. Let us take this problem seriously and act in a forward thinking way because these five minute stunts are just that and are not worth the time nor the energy!