It is best known for all-night clubbing with top DJs, an A-list celebrity crowd and partying, but Ibiza is also home to two national parks and environmentalists living off the grid on solar power, and is considered of such ecological and cultural importance that the UN designated the Balearic island and its surrounding waters a World Heritage site.
Now people with interests in both camps are uniting over the prospect of oil exploration several kilometers off the coast in the glittering Mediterranean waters, which are home to oceanic Posidonia, a giant seagrass found only in Europe. Whales, dolphins and turtles are among the species spotted in the Mediterranean around Ibiza.
Recently in Ibiza Town’s port, a crowd of people were vying not to get into the latest upmarket club, but for a tour of the Rainbow Warrior. The Greenpeace ship arrived at the island on June 11 to rally opposition, under a banner reading: “No oil.”
Illustration: Yusha
Scottish oil explorer Cairn Energy, whose plans to look for oil in the Arctic have made it the target of ecological campaigners in the past, says that although it holds licenses to explore for oil in the Gulf of Valencia, to the northwest of Ibiza, any seismic testing or the drilling of test wells is a long way off. The company is awaiting a decision on its environmental impact assessment (EIA) by Spanish authorities due in late summer, which will determine whether it can continue.
The government says Spain imports more than 99 percent of its oil and gas, at great expense, and that it must ensure energy security.
In February, more than 10,000 people marched through Ibiza Town, and about 60,000 signed a petition against oil exploration in the region. Twenty people posed naked covered in mock oil for a piece of performance art. The battle went online, with a social media blitz by celebrities who regularly visit Ibiza, including singers Dannii Minogue and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
“I am against it, completely. Yes, it is selfish to say ‘we are against it,’ and then use cars and phones, and not be against it in Africa or elsewhere. But this is our territory. I cannot fight for Africa, so I have to fight here. We do not really need oil,” says resident Ida Kreisman, who runs a jewelry stall.
Rebecca Gil, working for the summer at a clothes shop in Ibiza Town, says she recognizes Spain’s need for economic growth, but exploring for oil is not the right approach.
“I understand the argument for it, but it is not the solution. The promise of money from the oil is a big lie,” she says.
A straw poll of waiters, taxi drivers, hotel workers and street entertainers found all were apparently opposed to the prospect.
“They are crazy. It is a beautiful island. This is a paradise,” says busker Juan Sanchez, standing in the shadows of the great medieval walls surrounding the hilltop cathedral.
Even local politicians have been surprised at the degree of unanimity.
“It is the first time people speak with one voice against a project like this. I cannot remember another time. This is the beginning of something,” says Vicent Serra, president of the island’s local government, the Consell Insular of Ibiza.
Serra is a member of the Popular Party, which is in power in Madrid and has argued in favor of exploring for oil, but he says he will put Ibiza first.
“I am against oil prospecting here. I was voted to represent the people here,” he says.
Jaume Ferrer, his counterpart in Formentara, a 212km2 island off the coast, is equally unequivocal.
“We feel threatened, attacked, because tourism is the main part of our economy. The tourism is based on our conservation of the environment. We say, ‘No,’” Ferrer says.
Jose Romone-Bauza, the president of the Balearics — Ibiza, Majorca and Menorca — told thousands of protesters earlier this year: “Our oil is tourism.”
The sentiment is echoed by Joan Tur, president of PIMEEF, a federation of 1,700 small and medium-sized businesses on Ibiza.
“Ninety percent of the economy here is tourism. The island is a jewel. We have pristine water and clean sand; we are careful about our environment. We cannot take the risk to have an incident. Even the fact of having an oil platform [nearby] would mean the island had less value,” he says.
The island’s natural worth is evident when traveling the coastline. The Posidonia, a flowering plant commonly known as Neptune grass, creates a 8km underwater meadow to the south of Ibiza. Conservationists say it provides an important place for fish to breed and serves an ecological function by cleaning the water.
“Cairn is looking at exploring for oil at depths of 1,000 to 1,500m, which would mean its platform had the same characteristics of Deepwater [Horizon, the source of the 2010 BP oil spill]. If there was a spill, it would be the ‘Balearic problem’ because of the currents,” says Pilar Marcus, a campaigner for Greenpeace, speaking aboard one of the group’s fast inflatable boats as two activists in the water held up placards reading: “No prospecting.”
Elsewhere in Spain, oil exploration is further ahead. In 2012 the government in the Canary Islands revived Spanish oil company Repsol’s permit from 2001, which had been canceled in 2004 by the Supreme Court of Spain after legal challenges. The move prompted outrage from environmentalists and locals who had previously fought the plans. Earlier this month, an environmental review handed Repsol the green light from Madrid to proceed with its exploration off Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
About 1,000 people protested in Telde on Gran Canaria during a public speech by Spanish Energy and Tourism Minister Jose Manuel Soria, who backs the search for oil. Riot police were deployed and video footage shows an officer hitting a demonstrator, which led to an investigation of an alleged assault.
Wim Geirnaert, a campaigner at the Save Canaries group, says the Spanish government is not listening to locals.
“Nobody wants these oil rigs. The main concern is our industry is only based on tourism. The other concern is for wildlife — if you go sailing where they have a license to explore you can sometimes see hundreds of dolphins,” he says.
Many in the Canaries fear that though the Balearics could get a reprieve because the Popular Party is dominant on the island and is in government in Madrid, the Canaries — where the Canarian Coalition party holds sway — will not.
“There is a concern they [the government] will find an excuse in the Balearics , such as ‘It is too close to the coast,’ but not in the Canaries,” Gerinaert says.
A spokesman for ACIEP, the association which represents oil exploration companies in Spain, says he understood concerns, but added that the nation’s oil industry was safe and mature, with tough legislation for the sector.
“In the Balearic islands, of course tourism is very important. There may be people worrying about the impact on the tourism and the fishing industry, but we have to say there will be no impact. It is possible to have both — and no impact, as Norway has shown. Also, it is exploration, not extraction, which is simply a boat on the sea,” the spokesman says.
Cairn Energy’s Spanish operation insists that oil exploration in the region is not remarkable, claiming that more than 200 oil wells have been drilled in the Spanish Mediterranean over the past 40 years.
“Exploration in the Spanish Mediterranean is not new,” its brochure says.
With escalating US-China competition and mutual distrust, the trend of supply chain “friend shoring” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fragmentation of the world into rival geopolitical blocs, many analysts and policymakers worry the world is retreating into a new cold war — a world of trade bifurcation, protectionism and deglobalization. The world is in a new cold war, said Robin Niblett, former director of the London-based think tank Chatham House. Niblett said he sees the US and China slowly reaching a modus vivendi, but it might take time. The two great powers appear to be “reversing carefully
As China steps up a campaign to diplomatically isolate and squeeze Taiwan, it has become more imperative than ever that Taipei play a greater role internationally with the support of the democratic world. To help safeguard its autonomous status, Taiwan needs to go beyond bolstering its defenses with weapons like anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles. With the help of its international backers, it must also expand its diplomatic footprint globally. But are Taiwan’s foreign friends willing to translate their rhetoric into action by helping Taipei carve out more international space for itself? Beating back China’s effort to turn Taiwan into an international pariah
Typhoon Krathon made landfall in southwestern Taiwan last week, bringing strong winds, heavy rain and flooding, cutting power to more than 170,000 homes and water supply to more than 400,000 homes, and leading to more than 600 injuries and four deaths. Due to the typhoon, schools and offices across the nation were ordered to close for two to four days, stirring up familiar controversies over whether local governments’ decisions to call typhoon days were appropriate. The typhoon’s center made landfall in Kaohsiung’s Siaogang District (小港) at noon on Thursday, but it weakened into a tropical depression early on Friday, and its structure
Taiwan is facing multiple economic challenges due to internal and external pressures. Internal challenges include energy transition, upgrading industries, a declining birthrate and an aging population. External challenges are technology competition between the US and China, international supply chain restructuring and global economic uncertainty. All of these issues complicate Taiwan’s economic situation. Taiwan’s reliance on fossil fuel imports not only threatens the stability of energy supply, but also goes against the global trend of carbon reduction. The government should continue to promote renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, as well as energy storage technology, to diversify energy supply. It
RSS