Greenpeace pressure on Balearic government

Staff Reporter THE international ecologist organisation Greenpeace, has called on its supporters in Majorca to participate in a massed demonstration tomorrow “in defence of island territory”. The group has asked the Balearic government to “call a halt to the erosion of natural environment being perpetrated in the Balearic Islands”. Greenpeace, which has sent letters to its associates on the island of Minorca, inviting them “one by one” to attend a demonstration next Saturday, was confident yesterday that “alarm bells are already ringing”. New housing developments on the coastline, the trend for “pollutant” energy consumption such as oil-fired central heating, the construction land-devouring highway schemes, the extension of incinerator installations at Son Reus, the eating away of protected natural areas and the elimination of the eco-tax that funded conservationist projects, are, in the opinion of Greenpeace, just a handful of reasons why its supporters should attend the demonstration. “The Balearic government has got to call a halt to the damage it is inflicting on the environment. It has to adopt a policy of realistically being able to sustain the Islands by stopping urban sprawl and uncontrolled touristic development, especially in coastal areas”, insisted Juan Lopez de Uralde, director of Greenpeace activities in Spain. Furthering the theme, he urged local authorities to opt for renewable power systems, which were efficient and energy-saving; to support the expansion of natural protected areas and the improvement of those already in existence; to stop burning waste which releases toxic fumes into the atmosphere, and to streamline management of natural resources.