Kaixo from Deusto!

 

I am back in Bilbao after being away for a couple of weeks and am picking back up with things. You might be wondering how I was able to take off for so long while our Study Abroad programs are short enough as is. The thing is, I was fortunate enough to get into a multi-country program that—while stationed in Bilbao— also took us around Scotland and Catalunya! While this was an invaluable experience from a cultural and educational experience. That is, without even thinking about all the independent weekend travel that I have been able to do. For those younger students reading this that might be considering Studying Abroad in Europe, what people say is not a myth, you can really find dirt cheap flights to go to different countries within Europe if you are flexible with dates and location.

Unfortunately, those cheaper options are not always the most environmental conscious. For example, my friends and I were able to find roundtrip flights from Bilbao to Lisbon for about 30 euros each. Using a carbon footprint calculator online I was able to see that this amounted to .2 metric tons of CO2 released into the environment per person.  If we had used a long-distance train, we would not have released any CO2 according to the same website. The two problems, this would have cost us between 80 and 100 euros each and 16 hours instead of 2. To most, these .2 metric tons might seem insignificant. However, to me, they show the very real gap between more environment conscious alternatives to do everyday things with the easier, more convenient options.

It is for this reason that it is of utmost importance to keep environment friendly practices as part of your day-to-day routine to offset the carbon footprint of those more convenient activities. The Spanish people have surprised me in their level of proactiveness when it comes to their level of consciousness when it comes to their carbon practices. They are very proactive about implementing small carbon footprint offsetting habits throughout their everyday routine. Some ways in which my host parents are very proactive about offsetting their carbon footprint are: planting trees, as two retired home-owners they plant different seeds in their land at least once every other day; using carpool or public transportation, although they are car owners (which is already more rare in Spain than in the US) they almost always use the metro system when going into the city and carrying out their everyday errands; and being vigilant with your energy usage, our building is very strict about heating monitoring as a way to lower carbon emissions. Finally, one of the ways that has surprised me the most is the Spanish waste management. Almost, if not all the houses I have been at throughout my time in Spain have about 4 different trash bins that divide the waste in: plastic, paper, food, and general waste. Even airports and public places divide their waste management to make recycling easier and more efficient. As the poster country for environmentalism (at least from a Latin American’s perspective) it makes you wonder why the US has gone slacked off in similar movements.