Green vegetation covering Romeu train station

Nowadays we can enjoy cycling in the old railway lines, both in the UK and Portugal and this is included in my list of outdoor activities. The railway paths are usually full of wildflowers, trees and animals such as butterflies, passerines or squirrels and people can walk, cycle or horseride free from car nuisance. In Portugal, many of these old railway lines have been converted into offical cycle paths called "ecopistas", "ciclovias" and "ecovias", which are included in the country's cycling network. In the UK the surface is not always bike friendly and can be somehow challenging for kids, but that makes it more nature-like and also more skill building. In Portugal, the surface is usually improved and the cycling is easy, which makes the "ecopistas" increasingly popular amongst bike and outdoor activy lovers. It is indeed a very nice way of travelling and enjoying nature but it is also very sad that this new resource is the result of an extremely damaging policy of railway dismantling implemented in the 60s in the UK and in the 80s and 90s in Portugal. Many railway lines have disappeared while thousands of tarmak roads were built, and people urged to change their mode of transportation and to spend money on cars, insurances and road taxes. All in the name of progress (and of R. Beeching, in the case of the UK). This policy also contributed to serious environmental problems such as air, light and water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, noise, habitat loss and health problems such as lung diseases and eventually stress. In Portugal, the region of Tras-os-Montes had an extensive railway network but by 2015 all the lines were gone. Romeu is one of the villages left without railway and trains since 1991. The station, which belonged to the Tua line, one of the most beautiful lines in Portugal, is now totally abandoned. It is quite nostalgic to enter inside this ruined station (as many others in Portugal) and imagine the passengers that used the line as well as the life that it must had brought to the village. It is still worthwile to visit Romeu, even without the train operating, and the experience is recommended as it makes us think that development, which should be progressive and sustainable can also be backwards, agressive for local populations, and environmentally damaging.

The green fishing ropes that are killing the ocean

Fishing is one of, if not the most, polluter industry of the ocean. It is a paradox. The fishing industry depends upon a healthy sea to economically survice but at the same time it is causing the oceans' death. Even the small scale fishing industry uses methods that are very damaging. The cages to catch the octopus, the lobsters and the crabs are tied up with ropes and left afloat offshore. All these are made of plastics which degrade in the sea and decompose in smaller particules or are destroyed and washed away to the beach after energetic storms. This summer I have been surrounded by small particules of plastic, mainly remains of fishing ropes, while swimming. These are so small that is impossible to collect them all and because they are so small it is incredibly easy for these to enter our food chain - with which consequences for our health, we still do not fully understand but there is a high likelihood these are bad, especially affecting negatively our fertility. Plastics are already taking its toll on marine life. In two weeks two dolphins were found dead on the beach. Even though I have not seen their stomach I have previously seen a dolphin killed by plastics in this beach. The sea is a "common" which benefits us and it is essential for us all but we are destroying putting at risk current and future generations. The ocean is also fundamental for the planet's climate regulation and for climate change mitigation, but also this we are ignoring.