Part of Cuban Territory will be under the Sea in 2050 due to Climate Change

By Luis Chirino

More than 2 percent of the Cuban territory will be under Caribbean waters by 2050 due to ongoing sea level, which is caused by climate change, according to a national commission researching the natural phenomena.

Some 2.550 square kilometers will be submerged by 2050; this stands for 2.32 percent of the Cuban territory, but in 2100 the total area expected to be underwater will reach 5.994 square kilometers, Granma daily reported on Saturday.alt

The research commission is considering a Macro-project about coastal dangers and vulnerabilities for the years 2050 and 2011. This project includes experts from 16 scientific institutions and state agencies.

Cuba is an archipelago with 111.000 square kilometers and a population of 11.2 millions.

Memories of my childhood

A bellflower lying on the street made me to remember my childhood. I lived in an old house with zinc roof, surrounded by shrubs of bellflowers, a wild flower that grows in the fields of Cuba and serves as food to the bees for making honey.

I spend my childhood in a very peaceful place of the countryside. It was the decade of the 70's and there was not electricity service in some rural regions of Cuba at that period, so listening to the radio was the hobby for people living there.

It was a peaceful and healthy life, breathing fresh air. Rainfalls were something very common and fields and crops remained green, storms were not so severe, rivers and water reservours remained filled for long periods and the hobby of the locals was to go fishing at those places. The heat was not so intense and the idea of ​​climate change and its catastrophic consequences never came to my mind.

Today I wonder how this could happen and how far we have been responsible. The truth is that all humanity is suffering the consequences. Big natural desatres, high temperatures, strong hurricanes, earthquakes, severe storms, severe droughts, global crisis and famine.

There is a willingness to find solutions ... but we have time to solve this problem?

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We must help to preserve enviroment

Holguin has been developing a comprehensive rehabilitation project of the areas devoted to opencast mining, intended to ensure the protection of environment.

The project intends to repair the environmental damage caused by opencast mining operations by cultivating plants in the affected areas. It includes drainage, storage of organic matter and pine and casuarina planting.

Following the process of cultivation of the land birds appear, which help to disperse seeds creating a natural ecological process that contributes to the conservation of enviroment.

In this regard, the Pedro Sotto Alba Nickel Company in Moa has been working in the enlistment of 23 hectares of forest for their delivery to the national forests fund.

According to specialists of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment here, the application of green manures and investments in irrigation systems are some of the initiatives implemented to mitigate major impacts to the environment.

Comprehensive rehabilitation of mineral deposits is an international practice, but not all countries have serious policies regarding the protection of environment.

In Cuba, mining works are regulated by Law 76 that ensures fair and equitable correspondence between the annual nickel production and the necessary reforestation of areas damaged by mining operations.

Gibara: The legend of the Cup of Love

Gibara, village of fishermen, never ceases to amaze visitors with its unique natural and architectural beauty and a legend of love that was perpetuated in one of the pantheon of this city with a sculpture known as the Cup of Love.

It is a round figure that stands majestically on a pedestal and has a glass jar partially covered by a robe; ornaments used for funeral purposes in the last decades of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There are garlanded with flowers on the pedestal, symbols of beauty and short life. The vase or amphora, representing the rest, the immaterial. It has large broad leaves that occupy the third part of the body of the cup, which mean death and resurrection, coupled with the annual cycle of plants. The robe may have two meanings: "a sign of superior dignity" or "the establishment of a veil of separation between the person and the world."

There are several versions around the legend, here is the one closer to the truth:

The girl suddenly gets sick and because of her health condition, his boyfriend Adolfo couldn't visit her in her room, until almost midnight when he finally saw her.

The young lady, whose name was Ignacia, feeling that she was almost dying, gave him back her engagement ring as proof of loyalty and love. She finally died in the morning.

After that, Adolfo asked Ignacia's father to let him cut some locks of the girl's hair.

Two months later, Adolfo refers an engraving in which appears the figure of the crypt. Later, in a letter written to Ignacia's aunt, he informed that the pantheon has been entrusted to Italy.

The hair cut was used to prepare the young flowers, the leaves of willow and many more details contained in the coup.

The Cup of Love represents a feeling of sorrow for the loss of a beloved person. In the case of Adolfo and Ignacia, what prevailed was the intention to perpetuate the romance of both lovers. It is also a very beautiful sculpture that can accompany us in every moment of our existence and even beyond it.

This reflects the richness of popular fantasy. Some typical in residents of this village; it is amazing how they embellish the most common fact of life. That's why Gibara has not only a magical setting of its culture but also because of tits people, belief, way of being, aspirations and imagination that makes them specials.