spain

The Genal Valley in Southern Spain is famous for its sweet chestnuts, and that could give the economically struggling region a huge boost as vegans and vegetarians in Northern Europe develop a taste for Castanea sativa. But a new threat is putting the valley’s reputation, and future, at risk, BBC News reported Tuesday. “We’ve lost […]

The Spanish government is considering a slew of new climate-regulations in order to slash its greenhouse gas emissions, including a ban on sale of gasoline and diesel cars beginning in 2040. A draft of the country’s “Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition” published Tuesday also proposes measures such as ending fossil fuels subsidies, a […]

Leslie became the rare named Atlantic tropical system to hit Europe late Saturday when it rammed into Portugal as a post-tropical cyclone, injuring 27 and leaving more than 300,000 without power, The Associated Press reported Sunday. Leslie had been downgraded from a Category One hurricane before making landfall, but it still lashed Portugal with hurricane-force […]

A sperm whale found dead in southern Spain was killed after ingesting 64 pounds of mostly plastic garbage, a necropsy of the marine mammal recently revealed. The 6-ton, 33-foot-long juvenile male beached near a lighthouse in Cabo de Palos in the region of Murcia in February. Región de Murcia An examination of its digestive tract […]

Wildfires have killed at least 39 people in Spain and Portugal since Sunday. Hundreds of fires in both countries are being fanned by winds from Hurricane Ophelia in the north, currently barreling towards Ireland, and encouraged by extremely dry terrain from a scorching hot summer in the region. Sixty-four people died in a wildfire in […]

The Chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Lewis Strauss noted in a 1954 speech to the National Association of Science Writers that the splitting of the atom and the dawn of the Atomic Age heralded, in his view, a coming era of electrical power that for consumers would be “too cheap to meter.” Soon, […]

Worldwatch Institute Global use of solar and wind energy continued to grow significantly in 2012. Solar power consumption increased by 58 percent, to 93 terrawatt-hours (TWh), and the use of wind power increased by 18 percent, to 521 TWh. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock Although hydropower remains the world’s leading renewable energy, solar and wind continue […]

World Wildlife Fund Challenges in scaling implementation of renewable energy must be addressed if the target of 100 percent sustainable renewables by 2050 is to be achieved, according to a new World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report. In the report, challenges inhibiting scaling up implementation in seven countries—China, India, Germany, Morocco, Philippines, South Africa and Spain—are […]