Ray Allum has lived on the island for over ten years, and he’s a strong advocate for the environment here. In this guest article he muses on Lanzarote’s current environmental situation.
The entire territory of Lanzarote is classified as a Bisophere reserve by UNESCO.
The aims of the Biosphere reserve are the preservation of it’s natural and cultural values.
César Manrique, a world renowned artist, was born in Lanzarote. His philosophy of Nature / art, art / nature has been greatly instrumental in keeping Lanzarote the beautiful island that we all know and love. He was a major influence in the development of Jameos del Agua, Mirador del Rio, Timanfaya and The Cactus Gardens.
Lanzarote has a responsibility, along with the rest of the world, to preserve the environment. The big areas where it is falling down are the very small use of natural resources for energy production.
Lanzarote is one of the sunniest and windiest places on the planet, yet there is very little wind or solar power generated.
Another area that concerns me is vehicles – Lanzarote is ideally suited to electric vehicles, and yet there are very few on the roads currently.
Waste Disposal
Disposal of waste is a big worldwide problem. Although councils on the island have made great strides to improve matters by providing different bins, so they are used properly, I still find general waste bins full of plastic containers, cardboard and bags.
It is estimated that plastic bottles take from 70 to 450 years to degrade!
We have all seen pictures of plastic in the oceans and we know the harm, it can cause to the environment and wildlife.
On any given day, there are around 200,000 people on Lanzarote. If they each dispose of just one plastic bottle per day, that amounts to 73 million per year.
All of us that love Lanzarote should try to follow César’s example and improve the island’s relationship with the future.
Note: Ray runs Aqua Clara and provides a filter system for homes and businesses, which turns tap water into drinking water. We installed one of his filters at our house ten years ago. In that time, we’ve relieved the environment of something over 3,500 plastic bottles, been able to avoid carting large bottles around in the car and up our drive, and we’ve saved money!
Find out more about Ray’s filters here: Agua Clara.
