One good one bad news

Spain is one of Europe's worst complying countries with the Kioto protocol. We flunk by about 45% our national emission allowance. This is due to intensive urbanization, intensive electric usage (our country is quite hot, with a huge tourist industry) and, above all, intensive ineffciency.

The intensive urban sprawl is quite a concern, because it is based on private cars rather than on public transport. Urban sprawl canibalizes countryside, disrupts traditional ways of life, and is more inefficient than common towns. Individual homes are more difficult to heat, to cool and to get commodities such as water, gas and electric pipes. All in all, our country behaves like a badly mannered new rich.

There´s a good news, however: this is the first year that national emissions have gone a bit down, maybe a 0'5%. This is mainly thanks to reduction of industrial CO2, prompted by carbon assignments. However, there's a growing concern about the boundless growth of diesel cars emissions, not only for their carbon imprint but also for their particulate mater.

Now I ask. Why didn't the former Aznar government assign emissions? This happened in 1996. Why didn't they start getting hold of the bull's horns? Spain has lots of renewable energy: wind, sun, bio mass. Our country could lead a technical revolution towards a much more efficient production and social model. However, they preferred to follow Bush doctrine (cut the trees to avoid more fires). So where do we go from here?

I for one have started to make cuts. But will we be on time? My opinion is "the bottle is half empty"