Galicia

In Galicia they have tired of finding garbage outside the cubes. So they will begin to rummage in it to fine their owners

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In Sanxenxo They are fed up of finding trash out of the containers. Hence, the cleaning service and the local police of this coastal municipality of Las Rías Baixas, very popular as Tourist destination During the summer months, they have assumed a peculiar task: rummage in the bags to hunt receipts, tickets or any other track that reveals who has skipped the ordinance. And the City Council already warns: the ‘joke’ can be expensive. What happened? That Sanxenxo, a municipality of the Pontevedrés coast, He said enough. Its authorities have tired of being garbage bags outside the containers spread throughout the people and want to cut that annoying root habit. As? Searching on the bags to identify their ‘owners’. And how will they do it? In A statement Published on Tuesday the City Council explains that the concessionaire dedicated to the collection of waste, Ascan, will be responsible for “analyzing” the bags thrown out of the collection points to “locate the offender.” It will also do so from the hand of the Municipal Police and with a strategy worthy of the classic detectives. The operators will look for receipts, cards or any other track that can reveal where the bag came from. What if they locate the person in charge? Sanction. The Galician City Council recalls that those who skip the Environmental Protection Regulations, public cleaning and garbage collection face a fine of up to 600 euros. After all, The Consistory insistsArticle 39 of that rule makes it clear that pouring garbage into “unauthorized places” is considered a very serious infraction. Why do you do it? Because over the last days the Consistory has encountered garbage bags thrown in the center of the town, in areas as crowded as Consistory or Praza do Pazo, although it has also located abandoned waste in other parts of the interior of the municipality. In Sanxenxo there are some 18,000 neighbors registered, according to the latest INE data, but the number of people who walk and spend the night in the town He shoots every summer. Some estimates They point out that its population It is quintupple During July and August and, at least in 2020, the town had 11,100 second residences. Only in August last year the INE registered 70,000 travelers housed in hotel stores. To give services, to them the usual neighbors, the town has 2,000 containers and 651 islands of waste, spaces that the City Council wants them to use yes or yes. Although it must resort to fines to achieve it. Is it the first to do it? No. Sanxenxo is not the first town hall to which it occurred to search in the garbage bags to hunt offenders. Before they have already done other municipalities in the country, with disparate results. Similar measures were raised in their day in Sherry, Barcelona, San Sebastián either Seville. In the case of Donostia, In 2015 The Consistory ended up issuing an order so that the operators in charge of the collection of garbage stopped opening the bags. The decision was made after the complaint of a neighbor they had fined 250 euros. Images | Sanxenxo 1 City Council 1 and 2 and Hugo Cadavez (Flikr) In Xataka | The rent has risen so much in Galicia that its beaches have problems hiring something fundamental: lifeguards

200,000 abandoned radioactive barrels are sought off the coast of Galicia: we have only found 1,000

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The Atlantic Ocean is one of the world’s largest nuclear cemeteries. It is estimated that more than 200,000 barrels with nuclear waste sent to the seabed rest Between 1946 and 1990. The mission to recover them is already underway. First days of work. The French oceanographic ship L’Tarante has begun to work in the search for abandoned drums in Atlantic waters. It arrives with the work of locating some of these barrels and evaluating whether they have caused some kind of impact on marine ecosystems in the area. The team has enforced their work since the first day. According to The local press reportsthe researchers managed to identify the first 1,000 drums and map their location. They have not yet transcended the first images of these barrels. The mission, called Nodssum-I, has an expected duration of one month. The ship arrived a week ago in the area where it will perform its work, located in international waters about 650 kilometers northwest of the coast of Galicia. It is estimated that the more than 200,000 barrels distributed throughout the exploration area are found between 3,000 and 5,000 meters. 200,000 drums. According to Explain the responsible team From the project, barrels contain nuclear residues of low or medium radioactivity. These include sludge, contaminated metal parts, cation exchange resins and even office equipment. In order to resist the high pressures of the ocean fund, these materials would have been encapsulated in bitumen or cement, Add the American Society American. Throughout the years that these waste has passed underwater, their radioactivity would have fallen significantly, it is added from the project. However, some long -term elements could still maintain a good part of this radioactivity. In addition to identifying and locating these barrels, the mission will take photographs of these in order to evaluate their status and integrity. For now the plans do not include the possibility of recovering these barrels. Evaluating the impact. Locating and studying drums is just one of the objectives of the mission. The team will collect water samples, sediments and even marine life to study the presence of radioactive or radiosiopo isotopes in them. Thus they also intend to study the interactions between marine ecosystems and these radioisotypes; Also understand the transport of these atoms in the seabed through processes such as erosion and sedimentation, and also through marine currents. Uly X. For this work the team will feature the instruments aboard L’Anchantante, including a 4.5 meter autonomous submarine called Uly X. This vehicle will allow researchers to photograph and study closely the lost drums in Atlantic waters. Nodssum-i and nodssum-II. The mission of one month of L’Atalante will be only the first part in a project that will encompass two trips to the search area, Nodssum-I and Nodssum-II. For now, Nodssum-II is in the planning phase, but we know of it that it will be a monitoring mission that will take detailed samples thanks to a submarine remotely operated like the Victor ROV, or a minisubmarine like the Nautile. In Xataka | Japan’s energy gauge: after trying to become independent from its nuclear, it has had to back down Image | French oceanographic fleet / Navire Océanographique L’Tarante

In Galicia it is already happening

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Make pension systems be sustainable In time while the population pyramid It will be reversed It is one of the main challenges For many countries in the coming decades. Japan, Denmark, Germany or Spain are already taking measures to delay as far as possible The retirement age. The worst possible scenario is that the number of active workers Be lower than the number of pensioners. It is something that It is already happening In some regions of the interior of Galicia. The Galician imbalance. According to the more recent data Of affiliation, Spain exceeded in March for the first time the figure of the 21.6 million affiliates. That is, active people who contribute a percentage of their salaries to social security pensions. For its part, Social Security paid in the same month 10.3 million pensions. However, if we focus on certain regions areas very punished for depopulation and demographic aging such as Galicia, the figure is reversed. According to published he Vigo lighthousein 15 of the 53 regions of Galicia there is a mismatch between the number of affiliates who provide contributions to social security and the number of pensioners. More pensioners than workers. The data of the GALEGO INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS They reveal that in the whole of Galicia there are 1,019,106 of social security affiliates, while The latest data of 2025 gave a total of 685,800 pensioners. That leaves Galicia with a ratio of 1.5 contributors for pensioner, compared to the 2.44 that is recorded on average In the whole of Spain. This ratio already leaves Galicia in a delicate situation. He BBVA Pension Institute He considers that, a ratio below the 2 is already serious risk. According to data published by The voice of Galiciaprovinces like Orense were already in 1.1. The “emptied Galicia”. Those regional figures only show a general photo in which territories with greater economic activity compensate for deficiencies of the most unpopulated areas and eminently rural from the interior of Galicia. This trend is especially observed in the provinces of Ourense and Lugo, where demographic aging and emigration of young people towards the Atlantic aspect with more employment opportunitiesThey have considerably aggravated the situation. According to the published data by him Vigo lighthouseOnly Pontevedra is saved relatively from this problem, while in Ourense and Lugo the situation is especially serious. Regions with a high depopulation rate such as Limia registered 5,943 quotes against 7,071 pensioners; o Verin with 6,674 active affiliates for 8,161 pensioners, which clearly reflects the existing imbalance. The lack of Labor opportunities And population aging in those interior regions has created a vicious circle difficult to break, where there are less and less young people to support a retired population in constant growth. The future is not encouraging. The forecasts for the next few years are not optimistic. According to projections of the GALEGO INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS By 2038 there will be 2% less active population in Galicia, despite the fact that those over 16 will grow 1.9%. In absolute terms, assets will go from just over 1.26 million in 2023 to 1.23 million in 2038, which will aggravate the imbalance between contributors and pensioners Leaving a ratio of 0.858 quotes for each pensioner. Or what is the same, more pensioners than active workers. In Xataka | If your dream is to retire at age 52 with 100% of the pension, Spain offers you a road: a high -risk job Image | Unspash (Carlos Torres), Flickr (Elantir)

The rent has risen so much in Galicia that its beaches have problems hiring something fundamental: lifeguards

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The tourism industry has faced for a long time A worrying dilemma In Spain (as in other countries): as its main destinations grow and gain attractive, The price goes up of the accommodation, which makes things more and more difficult for workers who support the sector. We have seen it In Tenerifewhere there are hoteliers who are forced to Sleep in caravans For the high cost of rentals. And we see it now In Galiciawhere housing is affecting an even more sensitive group: lifeguards. Although in the official registry of the community there are registered Thousands of lifeguards Prepared to monitor the beaches, some locations are costing to sign them. And one of the reasons is the high price of rentals on the coast. Costs. The news He has revealed it The Galician mail: Although the official registration of the Xunta has more than 4,500 inscribed lifeguards, a record that exceeds 13% to those accounted for in 2024, there are areas of Galicia in which it is not easy to “sign” professionals. It is not a general something. In fact there are municipalities that have covered their vacancies well. But there are certain points in the region in which not even this abundance assures them to find vigilantes. And what is the reason? There are several factors at stake. Input, how the population is distributed. Not all municipalities have the same bag of inhabitants and, therefore, of neighbors with the lifeguard title willing to cover sand sands that remain close to their homes. Another key is working conditions. The salaries are around 1,200 euros per month, according to Precise The Galician mailand they are hired for very short periods, from two to three months. These circumstances lead to professionals who choose to move to other more southern or warm destinations, such as the Canary Islands or Andalusia, in which they can opt for six -month jobs or for full years. To solve it there are those who even has raised The possibility of betting on “a permanent body” of lifeguards who cover the heat months, more extensive. Another handicap that affects the sector is the bureaucracy: the longer the aid takes, the greater the risk that the lifeguards have sought alternatives. Housing slopes. The above are, together with the regulatory issues of the sector, the factors that have marked the guild in Galicia in recent years and explain that the region has suffered shortage of lifeguards. Now one more factor comes into play. The mail assures that this summer the consistors are proving easier to sign vigilants, but where the reason has been found with difficulties is another: the housing price, In full climb. The general price increase in Galicia as a whole, 7.1% in the last year According to idealistadded to the high seasonal demand of coastal destinations during the summer months, Galician lifeguards who have to leave their locality and rent a floor. In practice that hinders hiring in localities that have to ‘import’ lifeguards out. Is the house so expensive? A few days ago Technitas published A report in which he points out that an 85 m2 apartment on Riazor beach (A Coruña) reaches € 1,400 per week, one hundred more than last year. In Vicedo (Lugo) a 65 m2 floor costs 650 euros, one hundred more than a year ago, and in O Grove (Pontevedra) a 75 m2 house requires a disbursement of 950 euros per week. The report speaks of vacation leases, but that scenario fully affects seasonal professionals who, like lifeguards, seek accommodation for a few months. Beyond Galicia. It is not a problem that affects only Galicia. Recently Antena3 He spoke With José Luis, a lifeguard who has been in Ibiza for 25 years and who has not left any choice but to buy a caravan to have a place to live. Renting an apartment is discarded, he explains, because it costs more than he earns with his watchman work. Even the caravan option begins to complicate. “Being in a campsite costs me about 1,800 euros per month.” “This is something that happens throughout Spain and the most affected places are the ones with the greatest tourist influx, such as Balearic Islands, Valencian Community and some areas of Andalusia and Catalonia,” Confirm to The mail José Palacios, coordinator of the Research Group in Aquatic Activities and Saporrism and President of DEAC, the entity responsible for granting the blue flags to the sand. Healing in health. To make sure they will have lifeguards there are consistories that directly choose to form them. This is the case of Ribeira, in the Barbanza region, which in 2024 and 2025 He has conducted courses Own who have allowed him to prepare the young people who will be in charge of controlling the sands of the region. Another strategy to prevent them from opting for less seasonal destinations is to expand their work period: instead of hiring them in July, they are incorporated into their positions in June, when many beaches of Galicia begin to fill. Images | Pedro Dias (Flickr) and Carmelo Peciña (Flickr) In Xataka | “Fodechinchos Free”: in a bar in Galicia Tourism Fobia is being redirected against the Spaniards of other regions

Tired of accidents with wild animals, Galicia has had an idea that already proves on its roads: Flasehar Jabalíes

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The data is not too updated by the DGT but the last counts leave no doubt: animals are a danger on secondary roads. According to traffic datain 2022, 35,661 accidents were counted with animals involved in them. In them, 505 people suffered wounds of diverse gravity and two people died. The problem is especially serious in some autonomous communities such as Castilla y León, where wild animals They often cross the road and put themselves at the driving of the vehicles. According to data from the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memoryanimals are involved in 61% of accidents produced on roads in this region. Nor Galicia is left behind. If Castilla y León is the region most affected by this problem and represents 27% of accidents with animals that occur throughout the country, Galicia occupies the second positioncovering 17% of accidents of this type. To try to minimize this problem, the Xunta de Galicia has launched a system to try to prevent animals from crossing the road. The system has been launched on a Lugo road. Attention, loose wild boar In its official statement, the Xunta de Galicia is clear about what animal is one of the main causes: the wild boar. It was expected not to be a kangaroo, as has been seen recently crossing an Oia road. In recent years, Galicia coexists with a problem of wild wild boars. According to figures collected by The voice of GaliciaThis animal caused a total of 4.6 million euros in material damage in 2024. This figure takes into account the total expenditure that the region had to disburse both compensation and prevention. In this last game you can frame the system that is already being tested in “the LU -540 road (Viveiro – Cabreiros)between kilometric points 37+340 and 39+520, a stretch close to the intersection with the AG-64 “, explain from the regional government. The tested system lifts a virtual fence on the road when cars pass through it. That is, when the system detects that a vehicle is active active light alerts with flash and sound alerts oriented to the outside of the road. Thus, it is about deter the animal from crossing the road at that time and redirecting it away from the road. Using movement sensors, the system is activated by sections and is off if there are no cars in motion. When a vehicle passes, it activates the system as it advances the road. From the Xunta they also point out that the system is autonomous of the general network since it uses solar panels and batteries to stay active both day and night. This is only one of the interventions that, according to the Xunta, have been carrying out in recent years to reduce road accidents caused by the appearance of wild animals. They point out that they have worked reflective prisms and wolf synthetic urine on other roads to scare away wild species. In addition, in recent years it has been insisted on the importance of ecoducts or creating a “Green Bridge Network”. These uplinks are designed so that animals can cross large roads without leaving a natural environment. On the A-8 road as it passes through Kobaron and Montaño, close to Bilbao, There are already two approved. Photo | Nagy Szabi and Max Saeling In Xataka | What does the Animal Welfare Law say about how to take your pet in the car: obligations and fines

Buying a Bad Bunny ticket is easier than reserving a Madrid-Vigo. So Galicia already plans to denounce Renfe

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You enter the application and everything is busy. There is no option to opt for another time slot. Touch wait, put the alarm and try tomorrow again. We do not talk about the nth battle to reserve a class in a gym too saturated, we talk about what Galician users who intend to reserve a Renfe train and check with stupor how You can’t do it two months in view. Or, in the worst case, how they can never do it. The entrance of the dynamic prices He has caused many travelers to be in the position of not knowing what will happen with a trip. With numerous discomforts when booking tickets. With the confirmation that each trip is a battle to free from the phone. Especially when we talk about complicated dates such as summer or Christmas holidays. And that’s why Galicia’s Xunta threatens to denounce Renfe. Some tickets impossible to buy This happens because there is “a monopoly position.” This is how Diego Calvo has defined, Ministry of Presidency, Xustiza and Deportes de Galicia the situation in which they are living with Renfe. A situation that is born, in his words, for an “abuse of domain” that “prevents Galicians from planning trips.” This situation derives from the fight involved in seats since the dynamic prices that is, those who fluctuate depending on the availability and demand. Faced with the fear that prices are triggered, users try to reserve the train squares as soon as possible and these are exhausted in a very short time Two months seen. The company itself warns of this On its website But the problem is especially serious when dates indicated as festivities, holidays or Christmas. First because high demand triggers prices and because, second, days or hours apart you can make you buy the same ticket at a much higher price. That, if you can buy it. As the temporal limit is blocked two months after Buy tickets for a Bad Bunny concert. What they denounce from the Xunta is that its citizens are being harmed because while other parts of Spain can be chosen between Iryo, Ouigo or Renfe, the latter only circulates. This is not only a problem for prices, it is also a problem for which it looks like an insufficient number of places offered. Therefore, they have commissioned the Galician commission to compete with a report in which it is analyzed if Renfe is using an “abusive behavior” by preventing long -term tickets and emphasizing, in words collected by ABCthat from Renfe they have not “justified the reasons for these conditions.” The argument of the Xunta is that Renfe is contravening the Law of Defense of the 2007 Competition by preventing long -term bills from reserving because “it lacks an objective economic justification.” In The voice of Galicia The problem has echoed a long time, pointing out that users feel irritated and mistreated. Photo | Marcelo In Xataka | The center of Madrid is the last battle of Renfe and Ouigo: he wants to leave from Atocha and only Renfe has the approval

Galicia blocked 64 eólicos projects judicially. Now the Supreme Court has returned them to life

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In these last 15 years, wind energy in Galicia He has faced multitude of legal problems due to great social opposition. In fact, the Superior Court of Xustia de Galicia (TSXG) has suspended in repeated different occasions wind projects for environmental risk complaints. Finally, these conflicts have reached the Supreme Court, sitting a precedent in Spain. The sentence. The Supreme Court He has validated The environmental processing of the Xunta de Galicia, reactivating the 64 judicially blocked projects. The sentence has also reinforced the legality of administrative agreements, such as the Campelo wind farm in A Coruña. Also, how The confidential has had accessthe TS has rejected the idea that several wind farms that share infrastructure should be considered as a single project, thus simplifying the environmental evaluation. The origin. The conflict began by The expansion of wind farms that exceeded 200 meters high. According to the countryneighborhood and environmental groups argued that some of these parks were in sensitive areas and did not meet environmental guarantees. All this leads to the judicial situation to be further complicated by the lack of a final resolution, with more than 130 pending lawsuits until the end of 2024. A precedent. According to El Confidencial, The Superior Court of Xustiza de Galicia had asked to wait for the Court of Justice of the European Union (TJUE) to rule on an issue raised by the Ecological Association Adega. However, the Supreme Court rejected it. In addition, the Xunta de Galicia has clarified that the TSXG is the only one in Spain that has questioned the compatibility of the Law 21/2013 With European regulations. This issue could affect not only projects in Galicia, but also those of other autonomous communities that need an environmental evaluation. The Minister of Economy of Galicia, María Jesús Lorenzana, celebrated that the Supreme Court has validated processing Of wind projects, highlighting that the more wind energy occurs, cheaper could be the price of electricity. The impact. All this conflict is not an isolated case, but reflects a broader problem related to energy inequality in Spain. The precedent that the TS feels has guaranteed the continuity of wind projects in the community, but the opposition will continue to exist. Therefore, to move towards a sustainable energy transition, it will be necessary to balance the interests of the economy, the environment and local communities. Image | Pexels Xataka | Now we can see the rise of renewable energy in the world: we just needed the satellite images

In the emptied Galicia there are municipalities taking care of gas stations and shops. THE OBJECTIVE: Don’t run out of services

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The Emptied Spain It is depopulated Spain, but also the one that is emptied from companies and services. Both, the Lack of neighbors And the absence of businesses that cover their most basic needs, are part of the same vicious circle that in the long run the peoples to abandonment. In Galicia They have decided Breaking that loop with a curious movement. To avoid running out of supermarkets or gas stations there are municipalities that are taking care of their management. The objective: that the neighbors should not move kilometers for something as simple as buying the bread. Even at the cost of the City Council itself assume private services. The ghost of depopulation. The depopulation He is one of the great ghosts of the rural of Spain. And Galicia is no exception. A few months ago his Consello de Contas He issued A report in which he warned that in the community (especially in the provinces of Lugo and Ourense) there are almost a hundred towns in ‘danger of extinction’, a status that is explained by a combination of factors: a register below the 5,000 inhabitants, a low population density (less than 20%) and more deaths than births. INE himself calculates that in 2021 there were almost 25,700 Gallegos residing in municipalities that do not pass from the thousand registered. According to his nomenclator, in the community there are also around 1,900 depopulated villagesmany of them in Lugo. Only in 2023 it is estimated that the province lost about 40. Other populations are still alive but with a handful of hundreds of neighbors and having lost much in a short time. To name a case, Murasin the Terra Cha, I had 1,151 neighbors In 2000. In 2024 were 600. A vicious circle. We commented before. The localities of emptied Spain do not remain alone without neighbors. They often do it also without businesses that cover their needs. And one and the other, that of inhabitants and services, feed a vicious circle that ends up accelerating the emptying of the peoples. Although there is experts That they conclude that at general “accessibility to services” in Spain is good, especially if we talk about health and education, they also recognize that differences arise when the provincial scale is lowered. A quick search arrives on Google to find Complaints of populations about the public transport or lack of something as simple as bars and shops. And how to solve it? A question similar to that was asked a while ago in Pol and Ribeira de Piquíntwo localities of the rural of the province of Lugo that together barely go from the 2,000 residents. The first, Pol, has 1,542 registered, 27% less than in 2000. The second, Ribeira de Piquín, had about 500 residents, 80% less than at the beginning of this century. Both municipalities share Another featurein addition to the province and a diminishing census: given the loss of basic businesses their respective municipalities have decided to step forward and guarantee the continuity of private services. A kind of municipalization which aims to prevent your neighbors from having to look for life for issues as basic as buying bread. Their cases have attracted the interest of media such as The voice of Galicia either Eldiario. A “municipal” supermarket. In the case of Pol the Consistory he found the risk that The only supermarket From the town, located in the population of Mosterio, closed. Its owner retired and in the absence of relief or other shopkeepers that would like to transfer it, the panorama was complicated for the neighbors who reside there. “No one was interested in carrying it. It was deserted,” explained in December Its mayor, Lino Rodríguez, Progress. The City Council solution: Buy the super To keep it open. It is not yet known How will it manage, through a foundation, attracting a franchise or with an autonomous, but the goal is clear: to guarantee the continuity of the service. “We acquired the entire block, which has an area of ​​about 800 m2, for a total of 150,000 euros,” Rodríguez added In December. The project went ahead with the support of the Diputación and aspires to go beyond trade: Pol wants to recover an old sausage mark and create social housing at the top. At the end of last year the town had already paid 75,000 euros for the premises, it hoped to pay a similar sum of 2025 and already thought about furniture and facilities to serve customers. “We need to acquire the material goods of the interior, such as refrigerators, freezers and cold cameras. But throughout 2025 we will try to prepare the charcería,” He reported. OBJECTIVE: Refers in the town. In Ribeira de Piquín, the City Council has also moved to preserve a key service, although in this case the focus is on a gas station. At the end of 2024 the Consistory was in process for rent an already built service area but it carries more than a decade closed The idea is reopen it in 2025 and that the neighbors do not have to move to another town to replace or look for fuel. The project is carried out through the Terreo Foundationparticipated by the City Council, and with support of the Diputación de Lugo, which provides funds through an agreement. The rent will be done through a direct award procedure, Precise Progressand once completed the idea of ​​the City Council is to adapt the station to the regulations to register it. In the budget they also reserve funds to hire full -time personnel who can take care of the suppliers and serve users. Is it an isolated case? No. The gas station will not be the only (or first) project that is promoted with the terreo lever. Before it was launched A fish farma livestock exploitation and even a kiwi plantation. “The municipalities as small as we have many difficulties for the private initiative to come and invest. Hence we have no other option … Read more

Give a stretch to its underwater borders west of Galicia

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Spain is about to give A considerable stretch north. One, yes, that will only be appreciated under water or in the offices. After Years of workmeetings and oceanographic campaigns, Spain is about to ensure that its underwater borders west of Galicia are extended by 38,500 square kilometers, an extension that will be added to The already achieved A long time ago in the Cantabrian. This has just ratified the UN at a meeting with Spanish delegates. For the final seen we will still have to wait a few months. Maybe bureaucracy sounds, but extending underwater limits beyond 200 nautical miles (just over 300 km) is much more interesting than it seems. What happened? That Galicia prepares to give A small stretch. And with it the whole country. Of course, the border extension will not be visible, nor will Spain redraw the silhouette we usually see in the maps. The reason is simple. What will really be expanded is the continental platform, the underwater border located west of Galicia. There is still the final OK for change, which is expected for August, but for the moment the United Nations already It has ratified it. Click on the image to go to Tweet. Who has announced it? The news was advanced on the weekend Vigo lighthousewhich has echoed in turn of the information that He has been publishing In networks the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME) and Luis Somozainvestigator of the institution and scientific coordinator of the expansion of the continental platform of Galicia. The reason? The Redibration of the underwater borders of Galicia It was these days In New York, where a Spanish delegation was transferred. There the UN It has ratified The expansion of the continental platform north of the Bank of Galicia. Of course, the newspaper specifies that the final approval will not arrive for a few months, in August. And how much will it be expanded? A good pinch, as Luis Somoza himself recognized Thursday after the meeting held in New York. “We have secured an extension of 38,000 km2 beyond 200 miles,” revealed in x. To better learn the geology of that huge plain, which exceeds 5,000 m deep, at the end of May a new scientific campaign will be undertaken with the Sarmiento de Gamboa ship. Click on the image to go to Tweet. Is it something new? The advances do. The background struggle to widen underwater borders no. In August 2006 Spain He already presented A proposal to expand the domain of the continental platform in the Cantabrian, an aspiration that achieved a key advance in March 2009, when the New York commission gave the green light to the extension of the legal title of Spain of some some 78,000 km2 in the area. In the case of Galicia, in 2009 Spain looked at the outer limits of the continental platform beyond 200 marine miles. On the surface, that would mean adding about 50,000 km2 under Spanish sovereignty. Apart from Galicia and Cantabria, Spain was interested in a third point: the Canary Islands, more specifically an extension of 206,000 km2 to the Oste of the Islands. If the three ambitioned regions (Cantabrian, Galicia and the Canary Islands are added) they would go from 330,000 km. And based on what? The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which includes the scientific criteria that allow the limits of the sovereignty of a country over the seabed to go beyond the 200 nautical miles. In 2010 Spain presented Before the UN precisely that, the scientific evidence that would endorse the aspirations of the underwater borders in Galicia. Spain is not the only one immersed in such a process. In 2010 The country I pointed That the attractiveness of the platforms, rich in gas and mineral deposits, among other resources, had aroused the interest of other tens of nations with coast. Specifically, he spoke of 51 countries that had moved to achieve their continental slopes. Why is it important? The area that is now in the focus, west of Galicia, has depths of between 800 and more than 5,000 my the objective of geologists is to achieve a more detailed cartography to know it better. The data will be presented at the UN with a view to the August appointment in which, As progress Lighthouseit is expected to put the final touch to more than a decade of work to expand underwater borders. The objective: “shield” its preservation and allow Spain to explore and exploit its resources. Images | Gregorio Puga Bailón (Flickr) In Xataka | Galician marshare have launched a ‘sos’ in the face of their great threat: the risk of collapse of the AruSo estuary

15 years ago, a forest engineer decided to grow sponges in Galicia. The war against plastic has ended up giving him right

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In the mid -90s, Juan Carlos Mascato finished studying forest sciences in Hamburg and enrolled in a company in the area. He was lucky: of all the things that company could have needed, he needed someone to speak Spanish, someone to send to Paraguay. It was then that he met the Lugfa and began his crusade against the plastic. Today is the largest producer in Europe in the sponges and natural scourers. And all from a small town in Pontevedra. What is the LUFFA? The LUFFAS are a genus of plants slightly related to pumpkins, cucumbers and melons. In fact, in Southeast Asia is a Very popular food as long as they are collected soon. Otherwise it becomes too fibrous to be consumed. So fibrous that, duly processed, they can be used as exfoliating sponges. For centuries, this type of vegetables (or some of its variants) were widely used and were among the crops of any orchard that would be precious. But the irruption of plastic from the 40s sent them to the drawer of history. Until now what THE WAR OF THE PLASTICS They have returned them to the first line. And what does the European Luffa giant do in Caldas de Reis? It is an excellent question. As Silvia Rodríguez explained in the countrythe clearest reason is that the Mascato family (of German mother, but Father Gallego) had a farm available in a town with a very particular climate that made it a good candidate to try subtropical crops: Caldas. Chance does not end there, of course. Because the processing of the LUFFA includes a fermentation phase in which the hot springs of the Gallego municipality fit as a ring to the finger. No one is a prophet in their land … And in this case it doesn’t happen either. Because the truth is that Iberian vegetable sponges It is little known here in the country. Of the 200,000 sponges that manufacture a year, only 10% stay in Spain. The rest goes to countries such as Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand, Sweden, Finland, Norwegian or East next … Right now, the company works on an online marketing project in Germany and expanding its productive infrastructure to the US. What sponges can teach us. Because although the story is already very interesting, there is something that really crucial: that for decades we have despised many traditional solutions simply because they were. And that is a mistake. This was made clear in 2015 Karolinska Institute of Stockholm when granted your youyou The Nobel Prize in Medicine. Many interpreted him as a prize for traditional Chinese medicine, but it was not accurate: your feat was incredible. Since 1965, your youyou It was analyzing thoroughly Each and every one of the remedies that the millenary Chinese civilization had been selecting. And, indeed, most pure superstition, pseudoscience and placebo. However, he found the Artemisininea revolutionary treatment against malaria. Rethink the past. This is an example of the book that if we approach us with an open (but rigorous) look at the technological history of humanity, we can find really creative solutions to the problems of our day to day. In the middle of a world invaded by plastics, natural sponges are an excellent example. Image | Jan Helbrant | Tony Buser In Xataka | How an idea can model societies with hundreds of millions of people almost 1000 years later: Schultz’s hypothesis

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