Some lessons from the Balearic Islands one year after the Valencia storm
These past few days marked the one-year anniversary of the deadly storm in Valencia. In the days and weeks that followed, many people from all walks of life from the Balearic Islands joined together to lend a hand to so many who had lost everything, in a truly commendable act of solidarity. This year should serve as a lesson, given that extreme weather events linked to climate change are and will continue to be increasingly intense and virulent, as we witnessed in Sant Llorenç in October 2019 and in Ibiza a few weeks ago.
The first lesson is about denialism. Although within the scientific community there is only certainty on this issue (as my colleague Miguel Pajares points out, while in 2011 97% of published studies on the subject pointed to the reality of climate change and its anthropogenic origin, by 2021 that figure had risen to 99.9% of the 88,125 most frequent studies), within society it is absurd in the 21st century, and is sometimes accompanied by other anti-scientific eccentricities such as flat-Earthism. Politicians should actively combat these discourses and not leave scientists to fend for themselves.
Regarding denialism, we should be just as concerned about the excuse it provides for those responsible for action, for not acting. Or for ceasing to act, as is happening now, with the EU letting the Green Deal die and weakening emissions regulations. Ah, those were the days when we could turn to the EU to stop the environmental misdeeds of local bigwigs!
The second lesson concerns the economic model. Here too, the scientific community is clear that the problem is either capitalism itself, or the way in which capitalism extracts profits at this particular moment, beyond the emissions accumulated since the beginning of industrialization. If we make more environmentally friendly and low-emission products, but nevertheless opt for increased consumption, with a population that grows and consumes more and more, we're doomed. Similarly, there is no such thing as 'sustainable tourism' (which is almost an oxymoron) unless it's possible to arrive on foot and avoid increasing the ecological footprint we already leave every day. In this regard, continuing to break records for tourists who arrive mostly by plane, and secondarily on highly polluting cruise ships, doesn't help. As the Ibiza Preservation Sustainability Observatory reminded us this week, in the case of Ibiza alone, emissions linked to fossil fuels grew by 24.8% last year compared to the previous year. The culprit is Jet-A1, a fuel whose use has doubled and now accounts for almost half of all emissions from fossil fuels. When will the much-needed, yet much-discussed, shift to a new economic model finally happen? Do we really need more analysis, or do we simply need to start planning together for the transition to a different future, with shared objectives that guarantee both sustainability and the well-being of the majority?
In relation to the above, the regulations recently approved by the regional government don't seem to be moving towards a different economic model and contradict the same executive's rhetoric on sustainability and circularity: the Law on Strategic Residential Projects or Law 7/2024 on administrative simplification, for example, represent... Do you remember those times when the government of Jaume Matas and the center-left-led Consell competed to see who could protect more territory, complete with anecdotes of industrial espionage? So now it seems that building in a rustic style and expanding to the maximum in medium-sized towns without any planning is the new modernity. Another outrage perpetrated in the name of freedom, or under the pretext of solving the housing problem, when in reality it was confirmed this week that not a single public housing unit has been built in more than half a legislative term.
Finally, the DANA storm is also related to the responsibility and negligence of politicians. Carlos Mazón, his indecency, and the deaths, and despite the fact that Valencians must continue to endure it, have served to ensure that political leaders of all stripes, every time there is a weather warning, are very careful not to communicate it when it's time to act accordingly. In any case, the logical thing to do would be to anticipate and implement measures to stop the planet from warming, starting with our own homes. And that means committing to mitigation and adaptation measures to climate change, and not taking steps backward like the ones we just discussed. This would be the final lesson of the DANA storm in Valencia.
