Climate, life, politics

The exact number of people who have lost their lives due to extreme temperatures in Europe during the recent heatwave that has particularly affected the center of the Old Continent is unknown. Estimates suggest, now that we are beginning a new wave, more than 2,000 people in France, more than 1,200 in Belgium, and more than a thousand in Spain. Millions of animals intended for human consumption have also died. And shortly after the most intense days, thousands of hectares of forest are burning, because the high temperatures have turned forest masses into fuel.As happens with the Danes, a phenomenon somewhat more Mediterranean, we can act as if it had nothing to do with us, and deny, as the far-right does, that any of this has to do with climate change and global warming caused by human action. Politicians like Trump promise more oil than ever and cheaper; billionaires like Elon Musk pollute as never seen before with their continuous launches of satellites into Earth's orbit and their rockets to Mars; and genocides like Netanyahu drop tons and tons of explosives on Palestine and Lebanon which, in addition to annihilating human beings, have environmental effects that will last for generations.The denialist far-right conditions and shapes PP governments in various communities – the latest being Andalusia, the most populous in the country –, questions the work of the scientific community, and criminalizes environmentalism and the defense of life. Politics, in general, is not up to the magnitude of environmental and climate problems, which put the life and well-being of future generations at risk, as a then-adolescent Greta Thunberg, promoter of the "climate strike" that mobilized thousands of young people around the planet, and who today is considered a dangerous communist, already denounced a few years ago.The truly dangerous thing is to do nothing, or to do more of the same. It is also a waste of time getting bogged down, as they have done these days in France, in absurd debates about whether it is ethical to have air conditioning at home with temperatures above 40 degrees. This does not mean that, on an individual level, everyone should not do their part, but I can assure you that I have nothing to do with the more than 20 million tourists who will visit us this year, nor with the half dozen cruise ships that a few days ago unloaded more than 15,000 people at the port of Palma and emitted tons of polluting gases. Nor with the record number of private jets owned by billionaires (some from the area, like Miquel Fluxà) that generate as much CO2 as you and I do in a lifetime. Instead, most schools do not have air conditioning and no one demands accountability for it.We must be able to have air conditioning, and it is clear that we must use it responsibly, as we do with water. But if those who pollute the most and can do the most to prevent it do nothing, and no one forces them either, our contribution will be a grain of sand, but only a grain of sand. It is the politicians who must set rules that guarantee not only social justice, but also climate justice, which implies taking concrete measures that ensure the well-being of present and future generations.This legislature, which is already heading downhill towards the elections, began with a sensible acknowledgement from the President of the Government, who said that limits needed to be placed on our main economic activity, tourism. The figures today point in the opposite direction: we think that the increase in tourist spending and luxury tourism will redeem us, when in reality what they do is raise the prices of the most basic things for residents, starting with housing and continuing with food.Not only have the homework not been done, but in Mallorca we will continue to feed the largest incinerator in the Mediterranean with the waste from the tourists of Ibiza and we will fill the roads with trucks that will transport pre-treated shit so that it does not smell, while we hope that one day there will be real restrictions on car circulation, which makes life impossible for so many Majorcans. Spaces like Es Trenc are unprotected, and others that are, like a good part of the waters of the Balearic Islands, will experience the summer with more aggressions to Posidonia than in centuries, at the hands of ships of all kinds that have already planned to go see the eclipse from the sea next August.We will be very overshadowed. For a long time now, all of this has been unsustainable and words can hold up almost everything, except for the patience of the residents. Because, increasingly, the only ones who will be able to enjoy the island will be those who look at it from their luxury urbanization or from their yacht, while the rest of us resign ourselves to another summer without leaving our home cave. And no complaints, because at least we have a home.