Sea level rise is one of the impacts of the climate crisis that are already irreversible, as the UN warns. As the oceans warm, water rises mainly due to a phenomenon of thermal expansion, and to this is added the water poured in by both melting terrestrial glaciers and the continental ice of the poles as it thaws. It is precisely this last cause, the melting of the polar ice caps, that has been accelerating the most in recent years. Now, a new study published in Scientific Data, from the Nature group, offers the most precise portrait obtained to date on ice loss in Greenland and Antarctica.

There is an invisible line connecting the holm oak forests of the Castanya valley, in Montseny, with the offices of Canberra and the UN climate summits. This line is the trajectory of Pep Canadell (Sabadell, 1961). Trained at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) under the tutelage of Jaume Terradas –a direct disciple of Ramon Margalef himself–, he has dedicated his life to building an international scientific alliance capable of putting indisputable figures to the CO₂ that we dump on Earth. After an extreme summer that has once again melted thermometers in Europe, the scientist speaks to ARA from Australia, via video call. Despite being a world authority on climate, he keeps the spirit of that field student intact: he speaks plainly, avoids arrogance, and never tires of reminding us that the Earth is not an inert machine, but a living organism that is beginning to show signs of exhaustion. He has just been recognized with the 22nd Ramon Margalef Award in Ecology 2026, which is awarded annually by the Government of Catalonia.

To find a wolf, you must learn to look at the landscape through the eyes of a wolf. Gabriel Lampreave knows this well. He has spent 25 years following the trail of this canid in Catalonia. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack: these elusive animals travel vast distances in a short time. “You have to learn to read the territory,” this rural agent explains with humility, in charge of coordinating the monitoring of the two large predators we have, the brown bear and the wolf.

Extreme temperatures have long since ceased to be an exception and have become a recurring threat to health. Now the arrival of a super-El Niño could exacerbate this trend and cause 451,000 additional heat-related deaths worldwide over the next six months, according to an estimate by the Climate Impact Lab, a research group linked to the University of Chicago.

The rise in temperatures in Catalonia has been unstoppable for some years, but there are areas where the effects of warming are especially significant. This is the case for the mid-altitudes of the Pyrenees. In this area located between 1,500 and 2,200 meters above sea level, the maximum temperature has risen by 1.8 ºC in just the last 24 years. A thermal increase that is even more notable regarding minimum temperatures, where the increase has been 2.1 ºC in the same period of time.

They were found completely sedated at Cairo airport on May 2nd. The three infants were traveling bundled up inside the suitcases of a passenger flying to India. When the Egyptian authorities intercepted him, they found, in addition to the little chimpanzees, ten bags full of rare reptiles.

The planet has been spending its freshwater reserves for a decade. This is warned by the report on the state of global water resources from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), published this Thursday. The study concludes that the storage of continental water – in groundwater, rivers, lakes, soil, vegetation, snow, and ice – has maintained a downward trend since the 2014-2016 period. And it is not just a question of drought: the water cycle is becoming increasingly irregular, with alternating periods of lack and excess.

Almost two years after the tragic DANA of 2024, the Generalitat Valenciana has once again been late, and last night it sent an ES-Alert when the rains that affected the province of Valencia had already been torrential for more than an hour. Specifically, at 10:08 p.m., it broadcast a message to all mobile phones in the area informing about the risk of flooding and asking to limit travel, in addition to moving to higher floors if an increase in water level was detected.

The effects of climate change are making extreme weather events more frequent and intense. In Catalonia, this autumn will be marked by extreme rainfall fueled by this summer's temperatures, which have left a thermal anomaly of four degrees above average in the sea water temperature. For this reason, the Civil Protection of the Generalitat has issued a warning about the risks that sudden and intense downpours can entail. The administration has called for caution and is also considering using ES-Alert messages when there are episodes of unforeseen torrential rain to warn of potential damage.

The world knew that the next El Niño would be powerful, but this Thursday, forecasts confirmed that this climatic phenomenon will be of great intensity and will have unpredictable consequences. The UN warns that the peak of this episode will be experienced at the end of 2026, but that it will extend until 2027, a year that could become the warmest recorded to date.

Drought is not just a problem at home: it is a phenomenon that has increased by 30% since 2000 worldwide. In fact, it is estimated that by 2050, three out of every four inhabitants of the planet will be affected by drought. Even so, the United States has blocked a global agreement against drought and has postponed international negotiations on this issue until 2028. All the world's governments gathered in Mongolia this August have not managed to sign a binding treaty in this regard, but they have announced that they will mobilize 1.3 billion dollars to restore land and combat desertification in 23 states. The protocol to finance these projects, however, was to be defined within this global agreement against drought, which has been left pending.

Yesterday, early in the morning, in Torredembarra, the sound of working chainsaws could be heard. It was the day after the storm. The new episode of violent weather had caused about fifty trees to fall in different parts of the municipality, and they needed to be removed. Some were blocking the way, others had fallen on parked vehicles or could pose a danger to pedestrians. A large cypress tree fell on two cars on Monday afternoon. One was driving with four people inside, one of whom was hit on the head and had to be taken to the Municipal Primary Care Center (CAP) for treatment. Precisely, another tree had fallen and affected the pediatrics module of this facility, and by night it had already been intervened to remove it. Some shops were closed with staff trying to remove the water that had entered the premises as best they could.

In the collective imagination, there has long been an almost direct relationship between the high temperature the sea reaches during summer and the possibility of torrential downpours in autumn. This thought, combined with the experience of the devastating dana that affected the Valencian Community in the autumn of 2024, makes it not unusual to wonder if such an extraordinary episode of torrential rains could be repeated this year.

Market logic justifies that what is only within reach of a few generally increases its value. This dynamic that sets the price of goods and services also infiltrates human behaviors, which end up conditioning decision-making. But what happens when what is at stake is an element on which the daily lives of citizens depend? The tension between the desire to collect travel experiences and to ensure the lives of the population of a vulnerable territory is what highlights the dynamics of tourism in the midst of an ecological crisis.Already in 2007, the award-winning editor-in-chief of the digital publication Travel Age West, Kenneth Shapiro, gave a name to a tourism phenomenon that was then beginning to proliferate: last-chance tourism. At that time, the concept referred to trips to areas threatened by environmental changes, such as the imminent threat of a volcano eruption or an expedition to observe an endangered species, among others. Over the years and with scientific evidence that the ecological crisis affects every corner of the planet, this word used in the jargon of travel agencies and nomadic gurus has undergone some nuance. Now, last-chance tourism is also the experience of visiting destinations that are at risk of disappearing or radically changing in the coming years due to damage caused by human pressure. Examples include visiting Australia's Great Barrier Reef, due to ocean acidification and rising water temperatures; or the Maldives islands, due to rising sea levels.Living between the thaw and the AMOC

But there is no need to change continents to observe the loss of ecosystems in areas where tourism plays a significant role. “In Iceland, the most evident change at first glance caused by the climate crisis is the retreat of glaciers. It is something that can be perceived even when comparing photographs taken just a few days or weeks apart,” explains Catalan photographer Natàlia Antequera, who lived in this Nordic country from 2021 to 2024. The Arctic is the region in the world suffering the highest temperature increase and, as a result, causes Iceland to lose 10 billion tons of ice per year, according to NASA data.At this rate, the European island could run out of ice by the year 2200. In nature's balance, every element plays its part, and melting is not only a sign of collapse in itself, but also a trigger. Specifically, in recent years, Nordic countries have been suffering from the stoppage of the AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation), the part of the thermohaline circulation that passes by the Icelandic coasts and plays a key role in regulating the climate in the Northern Hemisphere. This danger prompted the island's government to declare the AMOC a national threat last November, becoming the first European state to take this stance.

]]>

Heat waves are becoming increasingly common, and beyond meteorological alerts, these mercury spikes also test the capacity of our cities. "We are building buildings for a climate that no longer exists," asserts Pablo Martínez, architect and founder of the think tank Trescientosmil. He is one of the authors of the'Atlas of Heat Vulnerability, developed together with the earth sciences department of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center - National Supercomputing Centre (BSC-CNS). This is a visual tool that collects up to 70 climate simulations to map out which cities in Spain will suffer more heat waves in the future, which will need more cooling measures, and which are less prepared to face them by 2050.

]]>

Barcelona darkened prematurely for a few seconds. And even when the Sun was still shining, it was noticeable that it was not a normal day. The terraces on Rambla de Catalunya were half empty, a strange occurrence for a day in the first half of August. “You can tell it’s eclipse day,” explained Arantxa, a waitress, with less work than usual. In the Plaça de Catalunya area, however, some Barcelonans were having beers at La Sureña and did not hide that they were a few haters of the eclipse. They had no problem admitting it. "I don't care about the eclipse, I'm fed up with it," Marta said. "The only thing we'll do is light a cigarette when it starts. We'll see which lasts longer, the eclipse or the cigarette," Sergi said, laughing. They think she's making a mountain out of a molehill.

]]>

Only a few hours remain until the historic total solar eclipse that will take place this Wednesday, August 12th. A phenomenon that has not occurred in our region for 121 years and which is causing great anticipation, both locally and internationally.

]]>

Surely many of you, upon arriving at the beach, have commented with your surroundings on the high temperature of the sea this year. Well yes, it's not just a feeling: a large part of the Mediterranean, and specifically its western sector, is experiencing an intense marine heatwave since the end of May.

]]>

Few times has an astronomical phenomenon concentrated so much popular expectation and scientific interest at the same time. The total solar eclipse next Wednesday, August 12, will not only be a milestone for millions of people who will have the opportunity to contemplate one of the most extraordinary spectacles that nature offers. It will also represent an exceptional opportunity to test instruments, validate scientific models, and obtain data that, under normal conditions, are simply impossible to achieve. Catalonia and the Peninsula will be the global epicenter of astronomy.

]]>

During the summer, thousands of people go out to enjoy nature, from walks in forests or along a river to excursions in some of the country's natural parks. And yet, although many, being prepared, might put a small first-aid kit with mosquito repellent, disinfectant, or gauze in our backpack to deal with small unforeseen events, few think about the much less obvious risk that lies behind such a common and seemingly harmless gesture as picking a bunch of wildflowers or tasting some berries, which in some cases can end up in the emergency room.

]]>