Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/333851
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 22 JUNE 2014 39 THIS WEEK IN the shade of the trees at Villa Bologna in Attard, Mario Scerri and Kim Agius from 'Experi- ence adventures and more' pre- sented €30,000 to Astrid Vella of Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ah- jar and Anabel Spiteri of Hos- pice Malta, collected by the 28 pilgrims who took part in this year's Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain for Hos- pice and FAA. FAA teamed up with Hospice Malta for the walk to the great Gothic Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, a newly-popu- lar tradition dating back to Me- dieval times, in view of the two organisations' shared interest in health issues. Hospice Malta's palliative care for people suf- fering from cancer and other terminal illnesses is well known and widely appreciated. As part of its remit to tackle issues of quality of life, FAA campaigns against air pollution that con- tributes to a number of serious illnesses and lobbies in favour of pleasant, tree-lined streets to encourage exercise and reduce health problems. This is di- rectly echoed in the Camino de Santiago effort where the local training treks have encouraged exercise among a much wider circle than the pilgrims them- selves. The presentation of the out- standing amount marks the impressive efforts that all par- ticipants made before and af- ter their actual Camino trek. This crew of widely different ages and backgrounds came together over three months of training and gelled into an amazing team, determined to help each other to succeed in this unique life experience. The 120km trek from Sarria to Santiago was certainly not easy as the trekkers had to face heat, cold and rain with exhaustion building up day after day, cul- minating in the awe-inspiring entry into the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The €30,000 collected will be used to aid Hospice's and FAA's work in favour of meas- ures to prevent cancer, heart disease, asthma, diabetes, de- mentia and the many condi- tions that a poor environment contributes to. €30,000 raised for Hospice and FAA Wherever there are dragons in legend of high adventure, there's bound to be damsels too. So it is also in the natural world, it seems, because just as there are dragonies there are also damselies. But these are related! Dragonies are easy to see: they're usually large, colourful and make a show of ying and hovering over their pond (they're very territorial). On the other hand, damselies are tiny and much less showy, and when they land they close their wings almost modestly, unlike their extrovert cousins who hold their wings out straight. We have several dragony species in Malta but only one damsely: the Island Bluetail (M: Damigella). It's a slender thing that you will easily overlook unless you squat and look carefully at every leaf of vegetation hanging at the water's edge. And then maybe you'll spot one, like a slim black matchstick with a thorax of vivid green (if it's male) or blue or green or pink if it's a lady. Damselies feed on mosquitoes and midges, which are common around ponds. Text and photo Victor Falzon 409. ISLAND BLUETAIL Visit Friends of the Earth's website for more information about our work, as well as for information about how to join us www.foemalta.org. You can also support us by sending a blank SMS donation on 50618070 (€4.66) or 50619223 (€11.65). GREEN IDEA OF THE WEEK 311: UPCYCLE ICE CREAM CARTONS - Plastic ice cream cartons can often be recycled, but why not give these versatile containers another lease of life? Use them for growing seedlings, as dividers for deep drawers or kitchen cupboards, or for storing toys, pens, packs of seeds, or any other small things around the home. EU energy ministers have recently voted to limit biofuels to 7% of Europe's transport energy in an attempt to prevent biofuels competing with food and causing deforestation. The deal comes after months of deadlock, and 20 months after EU Commissioners proposed a tougher 5% limit. Friends of the Earth is warning that hunger and harm caused by biofuels from crops such as palm oil, soy, rapeseed and cereals is still set to increase. A 7% limit means an increase of 50% on today's levels of biofuels use. The measures agreed by EU energy ministers includes a limit on biofuels from food crops at 7% of all transport energy in 2020 (up from 4.7% today) and a 0.5% indicative non-binding sub-target for so- called 'advanced' biofuels. It also requests annual reporting by the European Commission on indirect land use change emissions. The amendments endorsed by the Energy Council will be sent to the new European Parliament for a 'second reading', likely in autumn 2014. Friends of the Earth is calling on MEPs to push for a complete phase-out of crop based biofuels. A recent Friends of the Earth Europe report shows that unless EU biofuels are capped, by 2020 they will occupy 11 million hectares of agricultural land around the world, an area the size of Germany's entire farmland. Bioenergy as a whole will occupy 70 million hectares of land by 2030. Europe's thirst for biofuels is causing people around the world to go hungry, rainforests to be cleared, and global warming to accelerate. This decision to limit their use is welcome but too little and very late. We need to phase out this reckless use of food for fuel completely. Text by Martin Galea De Giovanni EU ministers vote to limit biofuels