The worst summer of our lives

Summer of 2026. Any evening of our lives. Any morning, any noon. A common denominator: heat. The European temperature, whether by day or by night, we can already say that this summer has averaged 22.5 degrees. On average. Since the mid-nineties, the temperature in Europe has been increasing by about 0.56 degrees. The fastest rate of all the continents. And our Mediterranean, this summer, at over 29 degrees. A ticking time bomb in the form of potential storms.

Therefore, one of the hottest, if not the hottest ever in Europe, according to data published by Columbia University. Indeed, it is the worst year of our lives if we refer to the extreme heat suffered by the European continent. Fires are its most visible face. And the forecasts are evident. What is to come will not be mild or more temperate; therefore, measures are needed not only for prevention and mitigation.

We must think about climate protection in our community –by the way, I have no record of any shock policy from the Prohens Government regarding this issue– and, at the same time, combat denialism and implement more measures of global solidarity. The Balearic Islands must be declared a climate refuge, and this must make us work towards a great climate pact in the Islands.

Conversely, water and agricultural challenges, deaths from heatstroke, and the management of high temperatures will only worsen. We must think of a new model of life in this new climate framework, from changing schedules to many more green areas in urban centers. And, of course, a tourism that does not further aggravate what we have suffered.

If this is the vector element for the future of our islands, the eclipse of last August 12th has shown what may become of us in the future. No one disputes the beauty or the social effect of enjoying a total global phenomenon of this dimension. And it must also be said that it occurred without major incidents, which is at least good news.

But we cannot ignore that, if the climate impact is already here, the dystopia of the eclipse has also shown us what our reality may be if there is no clear change of course in the tourism model. 25 million tourists in 2050? We are surely falling very short…

No one is against tourism per se; in fact, many of us have discovered mass and à la carte tourism in these decades, from low cost around the world to weekend getaways to our islands. But everyone, or at least the vast majority of those of us who live on the islands, is already against a model that, as people repeat, “cannot continue like this.” Massification, luxification, and the expulsion of the fragile, which now includes all of us, demand urgent changes.

Economist John Kenneth Galbraith wrote a book where he explained how a world of the “satisfied” enjoys and a majority “suffers.” And the massification of the eclipse on the D-day of this month of August shows exactly the course we must reverse: a quantitative and qualitative reduction of our model is necessary, unless we want an eclipse every day on the Islands in the coming summers.

Perhaps it is already late, but we are still in time to follow the proposal of geographer Rémy Knafou, who has been suggesting for years that everyone involved in tourism must work to rethink a new model in which all sectors participate in the proposals and solutions. A way of thinking about the future that he has defined as “reflective tourism,” in which everyone analyzes the impact they cause. Perhaps we are still in time if we do a great job in the short term to turn the course of the Islands.

Here the enemy is not the tourist, nor the second resident, nor who buys, nor who sells. It is the model, which makes it easy for all of them. And, therefore, the solution is by the book. First, to be clear that we must degrow. And until it is said clearly, we will not have real solutions.

We must go to 15 million, not 25 million annually. And this also means inviting speculators to be the most taxed in the entire EU. Playing Monopoly on the Islands must be prohibitive. And, of course, working with all sectors for sustainable islands where one can live.

There are no magic solutions, but many in the short, medium, and long term, but one thing is clear: “We cannot continue like this.” This is the clearest path that has been expressed by the people who have taken to the streets on the Islands these years. And, if we do not do it together, we are sincerely doomed to disaster. To standardized islands, with temperatures already uninhabitable, with great inequality, and where living and visiting is simply a permanent hell.

And what is the PP responsible for? For letting things be, for not limiting, for not truly reducing or taxing the speculators. The answer from the PP is clear: those before did nothing. Even assuming this false idea, those before are no longer governing. Therefore, it is time to judge Marga Prohens.

The position is quite clear. What must be done are restrictive measures to reduce, to degrow, to limit. It seems that a country can impose Schengen when it feels like it; perhaps it is time to set limits, a Schengen for when a territory cannot take any more. This is what we will have to judge in 2027.

And yes, it has been the worst summer of our lives, especially for those of us who still think that the European project is a unity of destiny. Seeing that a geopolitical challenge arising from a humanitarian drama has been met with the response of breaking Schengen and imposing retaliatory measures by certain countries governed by sovereignists who loathe the EU only reinforces the idea that we have lived through the worst summer of our lives, politically speaking.

If we want European borders to buy houses, we must also have European responses to manage the reality of a continent that knocks on our door every day.

Migration today is the ultimate example of the dehumanization and criminalization of a global Trumpism, widespread in the EU, that offers no solutions but makes you feel very good about hating the other.

A migration that, by the way, has to do with the rise in temperature, which causes many areas to become unlivable and generates climate-driven migratory flows.

And of all this, of the climate hell, of the saturation we already have and, of course, of the dehumanization of those who are different, Mrs. Prohens has neither a voice nor, of course, a vote. Rather, a friendly silence towards presidents like Meloni and Trump.