There is still a planet left to destroy
It is interesting to read in this newspaper, side by side, the interview that Carla Turró does. to journalist Marzio G. Mian (a specialist in the key role the Arctic is currently playing in the new cold war – this is not a play on words – between Russia and NATO countries) and the chronicle by Sonia Sánchez Regarding COP30, the global climate summit taking place these days in Belém, Brazil, in the Amazon region. COP30 is laden with milestone anniversaries and symbolism (the Amazon rainforest—the lungs of the world, as it has been called—is an icon of the fight against climate change, and at the same time one of the natural areas on the planet most subjected to speculative and financial pressures), and also with doubts, and frankly, big money. What Mian explains about the Arctic is a perfect example of how climate change alters geopolitical conditions: the fact that Arctic ice is melting only means, for some governments (with Russia's at the forefront) and for many global investors, a new vast expanse of land to conquer and exploit, taking everything they can. The world isn't ending: first, we must squeeze it dry. Then we'll see if we go on to colonize other planets, a type of alternative that Elon Musk's teams and other figures who like to rhyme are already working on. megamillionaire and visionaryAlthough it also rhymes with parasitic.
Ten years have passed since the Paris Agreement, a milestone that should be considered alongside the five-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic. The graphs (which we can also see in the COP30 report) show that, since the agreement was signed by 195 governments worldwide, CO2 emissions have increased.2Far from subsiding, they have only increased. They plummeted, it's true, in 2020, as is to be expected, due to the global shutdown of activity. But since then they have skyrocketed, reaching their peak in August 2025. The idea that the pandemic would mark a turning point and a change in our way of life didn't even amount to a naive statement of good intentions: rather, a mirage. Looking at it now, there has indeed been a change: we have managed to take our consumerist, escapist, and self-destructive impulses to a paroxysm we have likely never before witnessed.
That climate change is accelerating is no longer just a warning from scientists, but a reality we experience firsthand, especially those of us living in areas particularly affected by this change, such as the Mediterranean. However, we constantly face paradoxes like COP30: a global summit against climate change filled with climate change deniers. Effective decisions will likely only be made when such a disaster occurs that ignoring the problem becomes impossible. Meanwhile, the two defining characteristics of the human species—greed and stupidity—continue to prevail.