Algarve Says NO

WE HITING THE STREETS IN FEBRUARY - ARE YOU WITH US? 

Thanks to all that donated in January. Your donations totalling € 948,02 has enabled us to pay for our first print run of campaign materials which we will be receiving this week. (+-30% of our printing is now taken care of)

Link here to sign the petition!

The funds raised so far last month has enabled us to start distributing some of the campaign material. If you have a shop window and want to participate, please e-mail us - info@asmaa-algarve.org

Latest News: Official website of the Balearic Council confirms receipt of 33,000 official signed petitions. Ibiza really has said NO!

In an article published today on the official website of the Balearic Island Council (in Spanish), it was announced that president, Vincent Serra will deliver tomorrow a certification from Alianza Mar Blava registering a whopping 33,000 signed, official petitions. 

UPDATE:   deadline is now February 22nd -there was some administration error which means we have 9 more days to get official signatures.  'OFFICIAL' petition here or linked at the side bar.
 

 
The meeting in Brussels is with the European Commissioner for Environment, Janez Potocnik along with various local politicians from the different island councils. Representatives from the Blue Sea Alliance (Alianza Mar Blava) and conservation group OCEANA will also be present.

The group, led by Serra, will ask the European Commissioner to support the clear wishes of the people, institutions and organizations of the islands who strongly reject any plans for oil drilling in the Balearic Sea. 

One week later, on February 17th, Vincent Serra will visit Paris to speak with Mechtild Rössler, deputy director of the World Heritage Centre of UNESCO, along with Fanny Douvere , responsible for the World Heritage Marine Programme. 

His aim will be to discuss the danger the oil project poses to Ibiza and Formentera’s UNESCO protected zones. These are the big boys. Their support will be crucial.

Read the Spanish article here.

Portugal desperately trying to stop the big oil boys invading the Algarve – appeal for help

As most of you are surely aware, Ibiza is not alone in trying to protect it’s precious eco-system and way of life from the evermore desperately grasping claws of big oil. 

This blogger (Love4Ibiza) feels that after the enormous outpouring of support shown to our small island from friends and strangers all over the world, it would be nice to reach out and support others. Let’s give Portugal a hand Ibiza.

The link to their petition is right here.

Why a Scottish company is causing fury in Ibiza

Click here for full story from Caledonian Mercury.

 Plans by Edinburgh’s Cairn Energy to look for oil and gas off Ibiza’s coast have united residents and friends of the island in anger. Even regular island visitor Paris Hilton has taken to Instagram to campaign against the Scottish company’s intended activity.

On Saturday I joined 15,000 people to demonstrate and sign a petition against a proposed 3D seismic survey by Cairn Energy of the Mediterranean between Ibiza and Valencia. It’s a plan that has roused unprecedented opposition from the Ibiza and the neighbouring small island of Formantera which together make up the Pitiusas Isles.

To put the figure of 15,000 in context: the total population of the Pitiusas is only a little over 100,000, including those who would be too young to sign the petition. Organisers expect to have 25,000 signatures by the end of this week. That’s about a quarter of the population. In Scotland that would represent over a million people.

Signing the petition is not that easy. To make your voice count you have to put your name, address and national identity number on three separate letters to be delivered to different addresses. Indeed, the whole process seems to have been designed to make opposition as difficult as possible. It’s hard to organise when a large part of the statutory three-month consultation period is taken up by the Christmas break. This is also the time of year when most people take their holidays as almost everybody works in the tourist trade over the summer.

...

Despite these problems there has also been an unprecedented unity of opposition shown by the multiple tiers of local government. The socialists and greens have long voiced environmental concerns, but this time they have been joined by representatives of the right wing Partido Popular who have a majority in most of the local councils as well as nationally in Madrid. Cairn has united them in a way that nobody else has ever managed.

...


Cairn says it will avoid this problem by letting off smaller explosions which will drive away endangered marine life before the louder ones are let off. The company also says its activities will be overseen by naturalists. But, until dead dolphins start getting washed up or not, it’s hard to know which set of experts to believe.

There is, however, a not-too-hidden subtext to the current anger. At the moment there is only a mechanism for protesting about the initial survey. Clearly, if signs of exploitable oil or gas are revealed, it won’t stop here.

...

The thought of drilling off the coast of Ibiza and Formantera really scares many residents, visitors and politicians of every hue. The Mediterranean Sea is almost entirely landlocked so anything similar to a repeat of BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico could be totally catastrophic because the oil spill would have nowhere to go.

The waters around Ibiza are particularly sensitive. Just off its coast is an area designated by Unesco as a World Heritage Site for the marine ecosystem supported by posidonia oceanica seagrass which is only found in the Mediterranean.


You can sign this online petition, although it has no official standing.

If you want to know more about the opposition to drilling the Alliance Mar y Blava is the united organising body. Most of the information is in Spanish as is the local newspaper, Diario de Ibiza, which covers the story almost daily.

Google Translate works pretty well with both. Spanish. Finally, for the sake of fairness, Cairn Energy’s website is here.

Stars mobilise in defence of party island

A celebrity army has gone to war over the decision to allow oil drilling off Ibiza 

WHEN the Spanish government gave permission for an oil company to start prospecting in the Mediterranean waters around Ibiza, it reckoned without the opposition of some of the world’s most glamorous islanders. 

Residents and regular visitors such as Jade Jagger, Kate Moss, Sienna Miller and Paris Hilton are using their considerable celebrity wattage to try to stop what they see as the desecration of their Balearic paradise.

BRASIL DIZ NÃO - HANDS OFF IBIZA !!!

Brazil has joined in support of Ibiza - Click here to join group.

Also can be found in side bar to the right.

Paris dit NON #IbizaSaysNo

Paris has joined the suppport for Ibiza #EivissaDiuNo  -  Click here to join the group.

You will also find it on the side bar to the right.

Bauza promises to Enforce their Weight in Madrid to Avoid Surveys

The President of the Balearic Government, José Ramón Bauzá, and those of the four insular consells staged yesterday putting up "a common front" to prevent campaigns from search for oil off the coast of Ibiza and Balears. 

At the fourth Conference of Presidents of this Parliament, the first being held in Ibiza, Bauza said that "without any doubt" will assert, as the PP regional baron, its weight to the leadership of his party to try to prevent prospecting, although he recalled that already did long ago he and his counterpart in the Valencian Community, Alberto Fabra. «More than one year ago. It is not any new news.

I will do everything to avoid it», stressed the President. To seal its commitment, the head of the autonomous Executive fell to the lobby of the headquarters of the Council to sign their allegations against the environmental impact study of the Cairn Energy project at the Gulf of Valencia, which will add to the more than 20,000 collected so far by the Alliance Mar Blava. 

So did the Presidents of the tips of Mallorca and Menorca, María Salom and Santiago Tadeo, who yesterday expressed his 'solidarity' with Ibiza against seismic campaign. Bauza stressed "strong rejection" of the Comunitat Autònoma against surveys and recalled that "the oil of the Islands is tourism". 

«No to go get oil because we already have it. We will defend it where is and maximum institutions.

We cannot put at risk our economy or the protection of the environment", he said, at the time that said it has already moved to the Government its opposition to the planned projects and to the Balearic Islands Minister of environment, Gabriel Company, will accompany the Presidents of Ibiza and Formentera on 11 February in Brussels to meet with European Commissioner for the environmentJanez Potocnik.

Cairn's Greenland oil failure under fire

From 2011 but relevant for its environmental failings - Click here to read article

Energy firm angers green campaigners and lets down investors after sixth well off Greenland draws a blank

The British oil company leading a controversial drive to discover new oil and gas reserves in the pristine waters off Greenland has come under fire from environmentalists and again disappointed investors after failing to find anything with its sixth well.


Greenpeace also claimed the Edinburgh-based company had irresponsibly pumped more "red-listed" hazardous chemicals into the ocean than the entire oil operations of Norway and Denmark combined.

The campaigners claim more than 225 tonnes of toxic materials – described by the Ospar convention as giving "reason for suspicion because of several polluting effects on the environment" – had been leaked into the Greenlandic Sea this year by Cairn.

"The only thing they've achieved is unnecessarily polluting an important wildlife area with thousands of tonnes of hazardous chemicals," said Greenpeace energy campaigner Vicky Wyatt.

IS THIS WHAT IBIZA CAN LOOK FORWARD TO?

Cairn Energy violates its own rules by acting in an area protected by UNESCO

 Translated by bing from the article here.

Cairn Energy is not clear in its code of ethics. 

If Monday they were almost half a hundred links to web pages that do not exist, which left out the fudge's environmental impact study presented to the Ministry of industry, yesterday the company embodied also by writing that is directed by a few professionals willing to breach its regulations. 

 On the website of the company, the Scots do not hesitate to "recognize the potential impact" that their «activities of exploration and production may have on the environment», so have developed what they call «an extensive set of policies and procedures that apply to all operations».

 In addition to undergo all environmental guidelines for national and international, also claim to have its 'own voluntary commitments», including «do not operate in the places UNESCO World Heritage».

Makers of the city of Ibiza have been those who have sounded the alarm, and have not hesitated to include something unusual in the allegations to the study of environmental impact of the company: the company's own standards.

Ibiza was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1999, within those places that the organization called «mixed statements» by its cultural and natural value justified by the famous meadows of posidonia.

The Consell Insular de Ibiza sent last November a letter to the director of the Centre of the UNESCO World Heritage, Kishore Rao, showing its concern for oil exploration and urging him to act to stop the project. 

In the letter the Council explains that the meadows of posidonia oceanica, declared world heritage by the United Nations entity «could be subject to excessive risk», given the proximity of farms, just 35 miles, which could result in «pollutants harmful consequences for the natural environment».

If you do any drilling of the seabed, it would do so by rotating steel bits or diamond-tipped, implying the production of a series of mud or mud needed to facilitate the penetration into the substrate. It is a powerful blend of minerals and acid chemicals that are pumped well down to lubricate the drill head, up to the surface the detached fragments, and clog the drilled well to avoid that gas or oil escaping.

All this mixture of mud and chemicals, rich in heavy metals and toxic as cadmium, arsenic, copper, mercury, and lead, which is generated, is thrown into the sea after a process of purification rudimentary, turning it into a lethal cocktail for marine life within a radius of 500 meters of the well drilling rig, according to studies of the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia and the Cabildo de Lanzarote. 

The same studies confirm that MUDs are a cover over the seabed that would end with the meadow of posidonia and which, in some cases, could reach the beach sand in the form of spots.

Statistical data gathered by the researchers indicate that 76% of the pollution of the North Sea has its origin in the sludge of drillings and not extracted oil. 

Environmental management

This section extracted from the own rules of the company, the oil company stands out a whole series of questions that guide and govern its environmental policy, which includes in its section «Regulation», «adhering to the requirements of national and international environmental laws and industry guidelines» as well as their «own volunteer commitments,"as not to operate in the UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Ibiza is in danger!!! Oil exploration is About to Start near the Coast

Ibiza is in danger. It’s not a myth, not a metaphor and not an exaggeration. 

This is very good article written in English with all the information about how you can help, with link to OFFICIAL forms: Outside Spain take to local Embassy, but makes sure to follow directions carefully described within the link to the OFFICIAL forms.

The island is facing an ecological disaster, and we have only a few days left to take measures. 

Oil exploration is about to start near the coast of Ibiza, threatening the ecosystem of the Mediterranean, the natural beauties of the Balearic Islands and the health of their inhabitants, as well as the region’s economy based on tourism.

All the political parties, businesses and inhabitants of Ibiza come out unanimously against the project that sends the island to its doom. 

Right now there are four projects of oil production around the Balearic Islands: one by Repsol Investigaciones Petroliferas (Ripsa), one by Spectrum Geo Limited and two by Cairn Energy.

The most exigent case is that of Cairn Energy, whose Spanish subsidiary is called Capricorn Spain Limited.

The company is waiting for approval from the Government of Spain to start oil exploration in the sea between Valencia and Ibiza just 48km off the coast of the island, and is about to start right now.

The process of exploration begins with a ship equipped with submarine cannons that help identify if the quantity of oil located under the sea-bed is big enough to start the production. Every 10 seconds the cannons emit 249 db of noise, which is much more than the pain barrier (180 db) or even atomic bomb (200 db). 

 

The immediate affect of this work will be detrimental to millions of inhabitants of the Mediterranean: the fish will abandon the Gulf of Valencia for many months, the habitat of thousands of birds will be endangered, the migratory routes of cetaceans will change, dolphins and turtles will suffer from extreme pain and internal bruises.

No matter which technologies are used, how professional the staff is and how high the taxes paid by Cairn Energy to the country’s crisis-hit budget are, there is always a risk of an oil leak. 

(See here for non existant environmental studies in the Cairn report)

Ibiza had a taste of it back in 2007 when Don Pedro ship sank near its shores, but the terrible oil blobs in Playa den Bossa and Talamanca were just the beginning.

The aftermaths of Cairn Energy project can be far worse.

The small island will turn into a big cemetery, and the endless party will stop for a long, long time.

Cairns Environmental Studies Non Existent

The environmental study of Cairn Energy refers to reports culled from the internet that do not exist.

 
Eight hundred pages full of references to reports allegedly from the internet that do not exist. This is the documentation tabled by Cairn Energy to the Ministry of industry to endorse its environmental impact study, as he published the oil Mundo.

La has pulled the copy and has added up to 34 references to studies that supposedly are published on the internet, but most of these links do not work, redirect to a page blank, or a notice that the content has been removed from the network. 

As pointed out the world, the Ayuntamiento de Sant Antoni has been commissioned to alert about this proliferation of erroneous links, something that has included as one argument over his allegations against the study of environmental impact of Cairn Energy.

In short, the oil company has supported this report studies whose truth or existence can not be verified. 

"Open door policy" of the central Government towards the oil companies

Meanwhile, Alliance Mar Blava is coordinating the awareness-raising and mobilization of the pitiusa citizenship, a call to action that has already been settled with around 18,000 claims to be delivered outside the headquarters of the prefectures in the pitiüses Islands, located in the Casa de Vila Mar on Tuesday morning.

This forceful response of citizenship, not only of the Pitiüses, but around the world, since has counted accessions of citizens around the world, frontally contrasts with the way the central Government. 

The world describes as "open door policy" carried out by the Administration when it comes to allow companies to track in looking for sources of energy anywhere in the Spanish territory.

This high permissiveness is attached to a lack of diligence to check if the plans of the oil companies and other energy companies are in contravention of laws such as the one issued by the European Union.

Studies that there are no references that has disappeared, appointments to wrong web pages... Eight hundred pages full of nonsense against which citizenship will have to fight to having as a mediator to a central Government that gives good a study of environmental impact that could not or approve a partial of the secondary education

Bauza and the Presidents of the tips of Mallorca and Menorca sign Allegations against Seismic Surveys

A common front against oil exploration in the Gulf of Valencia designed by Cairn Energy.

This is what they wanted to put on record today the President of the Balearic Government, José Ramón Bauzá, the President of the Consell Insular de Mallorca, Maria Salom, and his counterpart in Minorca, Santiago Tadeo, to sign at the headquarters of the Ibiza Consell allegations to the study of environmental impact of seismic surveys of the oil company Cairn Energy in waters close to the Pitiüses.

With this gesture, the top leaders of the rest of the Balearic Islands and the President of the Comunitat Autònoma Islands wanted to join the 20,000 pitiuses, birth or heart, who have exercised their right of claim against this first phase of oil exploration, which focuses on the exploration of the seabed of the Strip located between the coasts of Ibiza and Formentera and the East Coast peninsular through sound waves that could be fatal for wildlife Marina that inhabits these waters.

At a press conference, Bauza has explained the "total rejection" to oil prospecting: "the oil of the Balearic Islands is tourism. 

These surveys put at risk the engine of our economy"and he has ensured that the Balearic Islands Minister of environment, Biel Company, will accompany the Presidents of Eivissa and Formentera on February 11 will travel to Brussels to meet with the European Environment Commissioner, Janez Potocnik.

Bauza has not explained whether he will speak with Mariano Rajoy or will use its influence as a regional baron of the PP well valued in calle Genova to press against the Cairn Energy project, supported so far by the Ministry of industry:

"I can only say that we will do everything possible, do not rule out any type of initiative, and we have clear that this must be stopped".

For his part, the President of the Consell de Mallorca, Maria Salom, has announced that the next plenary of the Mallorcan consell will adopt a motion against oil exploration: "what is bad for Eivissa is also bad for Mallorca" has secured.

The Menorcan President, Santiago Tadeo, also has spoken out against the oil company Cairn Energy projects: "all we are autonomous community and we must think about our future. 

Menorca biosphere reserve is and we should defend this value.

 We are very concerned about the news we have received on this oil project and new ones that have arrived, and this is something that should be above ideologies and political colors."

Please Use OFFICIAL FORMS #EivissaDiuNo

Please bear in mind that ONLY the official petition has any legal weight at all. 

Click the link above for the OFFICIAL FORMS. Thank you

Whilst it's nice that people click on a petition to show their support, it does not actually help our campaign very much. 

We NEED 30,000 correctly completed, official petitions to make any actual difference to what decision is made by the government. 

We implore you, please only use the online petitions if there is really no way you can sign the official petition. 

Remember, it's needs printing 3 times and the Spanish version only. Thank you so much!

Dolphins in the aim of Cairn Energy

The Ibizan coast is a paradise for dolphins. Several groups live in different parts of the coast, by way of large families with mothers and offspring. 



A Dutch researcher based in the island warning of the threat posed to survive the explosion of the type ´air gun´ that plans to make the Cairn Energy company to search for oil between Ibiza and Valencia.

The dolphins of Ibiza are a large family, formed by dozens of members of all ages young and mature, which live and breed here. This is the conclusion of the observations and investigations that four years is making the Dutch Wietske Hoekstra, a tourism entrepreneur who has consecrated his life to these cetaceans since his youth and which is defined, simply as «passionate about dolphins».

All translations by Bing.

Specturm Geo requests surveys 25 miles off coast of Santa Eulària

During the campaign of allegations against surveys of Cairn Energy, Ibiza and Formentera are facing a new threat that could change forever the pitiuso landscape, since a new oil company has applied for permission to search for hydrocarbons just 25 kilometers from the shores of Santa Eulària through the Spectrum Geo Limited Company. 

The threat of these companies has achieved something unprecedented: that PP and PSOE-agreed to work together to stop something that could lead to the destruction of the ecosystem of Ibiza and Formentera. 

As anticipated by the President of the Consell Insular Ibiza, Vicent Serra, institution became aware of the intentions of this new oil company on January 20 and all the administrations of the Balearic Islands have positioned themselves openly against this project, which would include a search area of hydrocarbons of 14,000 square miles that run from North to South of the Balearic archipelago.

#EivissaDiuNo Ibiza Says No!

The rumble under the sea will be higher than the impact of the Hiroshima bomb from its hipocentro, a few meters from the dome gusuku sites. 

The seismic campaign that the Scottish oil Cairn Energy, through its subsidiary in Spain Capricorn Spain Limited, intends to run 35 miles off the coast of Ibiza break out every 10 seconds a submarine disaster of unpredictable consequences for the fauna decibel 249 marina Gulf of Valencia.

See the links on the side bar to the right, please join and sign the online petition .. they all have information you need. Please share this with all your friends far and wide.

EIVISSA DIU NO (SUBTITLED)

EIVISSA DIU NO (SUBTITULADO) from Ledicia Audiovisual on Vimeo.

International Ibiza Says No by #eivissadiuno

Click here for the international group, please join and sign both online and paper petions, all information there.

Also on side bar here you can go straight to the online petition and much information for Spanish speaking people.

World Wide Petition to save Ibiza/Med/Algarve #EivissaDiuNo

Please sign, click this link .. it's vitally important.  Thank you!

Anyone can sign, thank you!