• Environment: The Thunberg already prepare Beata, Greta's sister, for the feminist cause

This Saturday the favorable winds have left environmental activist Greta Thunberg just 700 kilometers from Finistierre and increasingly closer to Lisbon, the city where she will disembark soon, on her way to the Climate Summit in Madrid . Since last November 13, the young Swedish woman travels aboard the La Vagabonde catamaran, crossing the Atlantic to attend the Summit, which was suddenly transferred from Santiago de Chile to the Spanish capital last month when the enormous anti-government protests in Chile broke out .

At the current rate, the activist will step on Portuguese soil between Tuesday and Thursday of next week. La Vagabonde is expected to pass in front of the emblematic Torre de Belém and under the iconic 25 de Abril Bridge until reaching the Doca de Alcántara, where the mayor of Lisbon, Fernando Medina, will receive Thunberg. Although the Assembly of the Republic extended a formal invitation to address the Portuguese deputies, the Swedish finally will not attend the appointment at the São Bento Palace: the young woman is eager to arrive in Madrid as soon as possible , and that is why It will remain in the Portuguese capital just a few hours, which will be useful to meet with a few environmental activists and rest after a long trip plagued by bad weather conditions.

Thunberg's big challenge will come the next day, when he tries to move to Madrid . Aware of the fact that aviation is responsible for 2.4% of CO2 emissions, since 2015 the young woman refuses to travel by plane and insists on traveling in non-polluting means of transport, and especially by train. However, there are very few rail connections between the Iberian capitals, and all are long-lasting and include sections that are not electrified, which requires the use of diesel locomotives.

The day trip: 13 hours through Alentejo and Extremadura

If you intend to leave early, Thunberg has a 13-hour journey ahead .

Starting from the Lisbon-Santa Apolónia Station at 08:15, I would take an electric Intercity to the Entroncamento, where I would stop for an hour. Then I would get on board the only Regional that connects with Extremadura: that of the Eastern Line, which works with a 50s car that never exceeds 100 kilometers per hour . After making stops in 12 picturesque towns in the interior of Luso, including the village of Torre das Vargens and the traditional town of Portoalegre, the young woman would arrive in Badajoz at 2:16 PM, six hours after her initial departure.

Assuming there are no delays in the journey, I would have a few minutes to go up to the Regional that would take her to Merida , where she would have to change trains again and go to the Media Distancia that links the capital of Extremadura with Madrid, a city that would reach 20: 08 hours As is well known, the Extremadura roads are not electrified , so the trip, in addition to being long, would involve violating many of the principles of sustainable transport defended by the young activist.

10 hours at the Trenhotel night

The second option is the night shift on board the Trenhotel Lusitania, the service that emerged 25 years ago to replace the mythical paths of the Talgo Luís de Camões and the Lusitânia Expresso. Although during a time this train passed through Extremadura, since 2012 it crosses the center of Portugal to the north and crosses the border near Fuentes de Oñoro, in Castilla-León.

Renfe describes the Trenhotel Lusitania as a service in which the trip is "flying" despite the fact that the journey takes no less than 10 hours and 15 minutes . The last routes of these characteristics in Spain -Lisboa-Madrid / Hendaye, Madrid-Galicia and Barcelona-Galicia- are made with the locomotives of the 252 Series, famous for frequent breakdowns, but even if everything goes well and the train de Thunberg arrives in Chamartín on time, he does so with a large polluting stretch.

Although the part of the journey through Portuguese lands is modern, between the Spanish-Portuguese border in Vilar Formoso and Salamanca the roads are not electrified , and in that 100-kilometer section the Trenhotel depends on a diesel locomotive.

Bet on the electric car?

The Ministry of Ecological Transition and Sustainability of the Junta de Extremadura has offered an electric car to the activist so she can move from Lisbon to Madrid without violating its principles.

Although the trip would probably be much shorter than by train - it takes between five and six hours to cover the 600 kilometers of highway between the two capitals -, the option has been criticized by Extremaduran environmental organizations, which point out that the vehicle It includes lithium batteries .

The President of Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara, has given the green light to mining this material in the Autonomous Community, an action that would be carried out in natural areas of considerable beauty. Through a viral video, the Save the Mountain platform has requested that Thunberg not accept the Board's offer.

Through social networks many Extremadura have requested that the young woman make the rail journey through the area to put the focus on the poor state of the network , recognized as the worst in Spain.

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  • Madrid
  • Estremadura
  • Spain
  • Greta Thunberg
  • Renfe
  • Portugal
  • Environment
  • Climate change

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