euroweeklynews.com
27 April - 3 May 2023
Cleaning up
Glenn Wickman MALLORCA is known for its stunning beaches and crystalclear waters. However, with the in creasing population of residents and tourists, the shorelines are becom ing more polluted. To address this issue in Colònia de Sant Pere (Artá), a beachcleaning initiative has been launched with 30 volun teers from the Colonia Neta and Fundació Som organisations. The aim is to encourage responsibility for keeping the coastline clean and to raise awareness about the impact of personal lit ter on the environment. Kay Newton, co founder of Colonia Neta, says: “When we see first hand what is happening on our shores, we are motivated to reduce plas tic consumption at home. When we curtail our use
Credit Kay Newton Facebook
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COLONIA NETA: Beach cleaners on duty. of plastic it cannot get in to the sea. “Beach cleaning is es sential to preserve the beauty and health of our shoreline and also to maintain the tourism in dustry in Mallorca. Litter not only ruins the aes thetic appeal but poses a threat to marine life and the delicate Mediter
ranean ecosystem. “Plastic waste, in par ticular, is a significant concern as it takes hun dreds of years to decom pose and always remains in the water, harming ma rine life,” warns Kay. For further information visit Colonia Neta on In stagram and fundacio som.org.
MORE than 150 students from 10 schools and col leges throughout the Balearic Islands this week took part in the first round of a homemade satellite launch competi tion organised by the Eu ropean Space Agency. The region is the latest Spanish region to join the national league to select the best ESO and bac calaureate students who will then go on to face representatives of other European centres. The 24 Balearic teams assembled and launched their rockets on Monday at Son Albertí aerodrome in Llucmajor. The launch es were a success, with a team from the IES Pasqual Calbó in Menorca voted the winner. Their project will repre sent the region in the na tional phase of the com petition in Granada (Andalucía) on May 19. The ‘CanSat’ project by the European Space Agency consists of build ing satellites the size of a can of soft drink by repli
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Space race
cating a real space pro ject. Competitors must work as a team, control their budget and defend their creation in front of a jury. Participants are re
quired to develop all ele ments of a space satellite, including energy source, sensors, a communica tions system and a parachute for safe land ing, in such a tiny space.
Cereal harvest alert FARMERS in Mallorca are warning that this year’s cereal har vest could be much lower than normal due to the lack of rain fall and high temperatures. Producers hoped that this year would see an improvement following difficult conditions in 2022 due to the war in Ukraine and high production costs. But with rainfall this month being much lower than expect ed and the record high temperatures for the time of year have led farmers to predict another poor season. The heat predicted for the next few days will reportedly cause the grain to grow smaller than usual, thus affecting the size and quality of the crop. As well as cereal and grain, predictions are not much better for certain rainfed crops such as olives, almonds and carobs. Spokespeople for the sector reveal that despite the nega tive forecast, the drought situation on the island is not as bad as in other parts of Spain such as Catalonia, where this week the main irrigation channel in the region had to be closed ear ly for the first time in more than 100 years due to critically low water levels.
