Caring for Hvar's Environment

Published in Environment

What inspired ECO HVAR for the environment

 

The Island of Hvar is clean, relative to other places. Visitors always appreciate that, and many comment on it, although it is no more than they expect. After all, Hvar’s success as a tourist destination has depended on its reputation for clean land, sea and air.

By and large, the island’s good reputation is justified. But there is room for improvement. When I first started walking around the island’s countryside, many years ago, I was struck by two things. First, the amount of rubbish that was piled up here and there, although it was often hidden under bushes and undergrowth, and so not visible at first sight. Second, the surprising amount of herbicide that was used around the olive groves and vineyards. 

 

 

Two types of rubbish were evident, as everywhere in the supposedly civilized world: litter and rubble, the former spread by careless or uncaring individuals, the latter by irresponsible building firms. 

 

 

I am told that before there was organized rubbish collection across the island, it was the norm for household rubbish to be thrown into whatever space happened to be convenient, whether a neighbour’s dry well or some nearby ruined building. Now there are rubbish containers in every settlement, this problem has been lessened, although it is still in evidence here and there among islanders too set in their ways to change their habits.

 

Why do people, especially the young who are going to inherit this environment, drop litter? Take cigarette butts, for example. Most smokers are in the habit of discarding their fag-ends on the ground. Perhaps the thinking is that they are only small, so they don’t matter; or they will biodegrade; and/or they will do no harm. Many smokers also discard their cigarette packets on the ground, to join the more general litter created by the packaging from sweets, snack foods and drinks. The question of why this is happening becomes more complex when the littering is done by people, especially youngsters, right next to a rubbish bin.

 

When I lived in London, I routinely picked up litter as I walked my dogs through the local parks. I was sometimes thanked by people who witnessed this, especially by the park attendants. Here I do the same. I am not the only person to clear up rubbish from the environment. People who understand how important cleanliness is to Hvar’s future as a tourist destination are pleased and grateful. In recent years there has been an increase in actions to clean up beaches, paths and public places. The next major breakthrough will be to persuade people not to drop litter in the first place.

 

 

The use of pesticides surprised me as everyone I knew insisted that they farmed their land organically. It turned out not all of them were telling the truth. I have had interesting discussions with pesticide users over the years. Their reasoning ranges from “Well, it’s not really a poison” to “OK, it is a poison, but it’s the mildest possible and it’s perfectly safe” to “I have to use chemicals because it’s easiest and I don’t have time to do otherwise”. But the facts are that Hvar’s fields, notably the Stari Grad Plain, were cultivated naturally very successfully for centuries; the chemical pollution is damaging the soil, underground waters and the whole eco-structure of the island; and there is apparently a relatively high incidence of illnesses which might be attributable to pesticide use.

 

 

 

Of course, many people do farm their land without using pesticides. I hear that recently the dangers of pesticide use have been publicized on television. More people are turning to organic crop production, which is encouraging others to consider it. The wild flowers which brighten Hvar's countryside throughout the year are not only brilliantly beautiful, but essential to the island's ecology.

 

 

Hvar Island has stunning natural beauty and deserves to be clean. Any kind of pollution is unacceptable and harmful in all kinds of ways. ECO HVAR for the environment was conceived to help Hvar realize its potential as the cleanest island on the Adriatic.

 

© Vivian Grisogono 2013

You are here: Home environment articles Caring for Hvar's Environment

Eco Environment News feeds

  • Energy and net zero secretary lays out stark picture of how climate crisis and nature depletion is affecting UK

    Ed Miliband has accused the Conservatives of being “anti-science” by abandoning a political consensus on net zero as he gave MPs a stark outline of how the climate crisis and nature depletion are already affecting the UK.

    In the first of what is promised to be an annual “state of the climate” report, the energy and net zero secretary set out the findings of a Met Office-led study that detailed how the UK was already hotter and wetter, and faced a greater number of extreme weather events.

    Continue reading...

  • Up to five areas could enter drought status and more hosepipe bans expected after three heatwaves and lack of rain

    As many as five areas of England are expected to go into drought this summer after the hottest June since records began in 1884.

    Three heatwaves, which tend to increase water consumption, combined with a lack of rain means that large swathes of England are heading towards drought status and the damage to the environment that entails.

    Continue reading...

  • UK’s energy system operator forecasts emissions a third over target by 2035, in second official warning in a month

    Britain is expected to fall short of the progress needed to meet its climate targets over the next decade because it is not growing its supply of clean electricity quickly enough, according to the government’s energy system operator.

    The latest 10-year forecast of Britain’s carbon emissions by the government-owned body has revealed that by 2035 the UK will be producing almost a third more carbon emissions than in scenarios where it is on track to meet its legally binding climate targets by 2050.

    Continue reading...

  • Jane McCarthy, who has terminal cancer, withheld payments for three years in protest at Buckinghamshire council’s fossil fuel investments

    A woman who withheld council tax payments for three years in protest at her local authority’s continued investment in fossil fuels fears losing her home.

    Jane McCarthy, 74, said she decided on the protest after becoming increasingly fearful about the impact of climate breakdown on future generations, particularly when she learned about climate tipping points at a local meeting.

    Continue reading...

  • Increasing frequency of heatwaves and flooding raises fears over health, infrastructure and how society functions

    Record-breaking extreme weather is the new norm in the UK, scientists have said, showing that the country is firmly in the grip of the climate crisis.

    The hottest days people endure have dramatically increased in frequency and severity, and periods of intense rain have also ramped up, data from hundreds of weather stations shows. Heatwaves and floods leading to deaths and costly damage are of “profound concern” for health, infrastructure and the functioning of society, the scientists said.

    Continue reading...

  • Rosario in Sante Fe likely be to 10C above normal, as Japan braces for Tropical Storm Nari

    An unseasonably mild start to the week is expected in northern and central parts of Argentina, where it is winter. A plume of warm air will sink southwards from neighbouring Paraguay on Monday, lingering through Tuesday, before giving way to a cold front on Wednesday.

    The maximum daytime temperatures on Monday and Tuesday will be up to 5C (9F) higher than normal in these regions, while Buenos Aires is forecast to be about 7C above average on Tuesday.

    Continue reading...

  • Researchers in Europe found everyday plastics, especially farmers’ baler twine, being used by the birds as a building material and entangling their young. It is a problem that affects other species too, say experts in the US, UK and Argentina

    On a late spring morning in the farmlands of southern Portugal, Dr Marta Acácio set her ladder against a tree and began to climb. Four metres up, she reached the giant white stork nest that was her goal. She knew from telescopic camera shots there was a healthy looking chick inside – and now she wanted to ring it.

    But when Acácio, an ecologist from University of Montpellier in France, tried to scoop up the chick, it would not come away: it was tethered to the nest by a piece of plastic baler twine. She turned the chick over and recoiled: its belly was a mass of maggots.

    Continue reading...

  • Household energy bills in some Republican-leaning states could rise by more than $600 every year, analysis of the so-called ‘big, beautiful bill’ finds

    The cost of electricity is poised to surge across the US in the wake of Republican legislation that takes an axe to cheap renewable energy, with people in states who voted for Donald Trump last year to be hardest hit by the increase in bills.

    As air conditioners crank up across the US during another sweltering summer amid an unfolding climate crisis, rising energy costs will become even more severe for households due to the reconciliation spending bill passed by Republicans in Congress and signed by Trump, who called it the “big, beautiful bill”, on 4 July.

    Continue reading...

  • The Fourth of July tragedy was described as something no one could have seen coming. But in ‘flash flood alley’, an eerily similar event 40 years ago holds important lessons

    The rain was pouring down in Texas in the early morning hours of 17 July 1987. James Moore, a reporter for a local NBC news station, was stationed in Austin when his editors called and told him to grab his camera operator and head to Kerrville, a Hill Country town about 100 miles (160km) away. They had heard reports of flash flooding on the Guadalupe River.

    “We just jumped in the car when it was still dark … we knew there were going to be problems based on how much rain there was,” Moore said. En route, he got another call over the radio that told him to head instead for the small hamlet of Comfort, just 15 miles from Kerrville.

    Continue reading...

  • Site had to be saved from closure after visitor slump in 00s but is now a thriving biodiversity success story

    Amid the gentle hills of Carmarthenshire’s Tywi valley, the domed glasshouse of the National Botanic Garden of Wales sparkles from miles away. Designed by Sir Norman Foster, when the garden opened in 2000 it was the largest single-span glasshouse in the world, set among 230 hectares (570 acres) of themed gardens and a nature reserve – but today, the most special part of the site is actually a modest hillside where Welsh black cattle graze.

    At this time of year, there is little to see in the organically managed pasture other than the cows. But in the autumn, this field boasts an astonishing 23 different species of colourful waxcap mushrooms – some of which are considered as endangered as the Siberian tiger or mountain gorilla.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds