The meteorological conditions in the area of the Bisbal d'Empordà fire have been very adverse for most of the hours it has been active. Throughout Friday and Saturday, the fire burned uncontrollably in the Gavarres massif, but on Saturday night, the Firefighters were able to stabilize it. Its extinction is not expected until at least the middle of the week, if there are no flare-ups.

Catalonia has closed the month of June with more than 200 deaths attributable to heat, according to estimates of mortality attributable to heat from the Daily Mortality Monitoring System (MoMo) of the Carlos III Health Institute. It is the highest figure in a June since records began. MoMo is the only tool that allows us to map deaths that occur daily in the State almost in real time, which are calculated using the excess mortality indicator; that is, how many deaths that occur [observed] exceed those that were expected [estimated] in a given territory and period.

Every June 8, World Oceans Day invites us to reflect on the health of this vast blue frontier that regulates life on Earth. This year, the commemoration arrives with an air of cautious victory following the historic adoption by the UN of the High Seas Treaty, a legal framework designed to protect biodiversity in waters that do not belong to any country and which represent two-thirds of the marine surface. However, to understand the global health of the ocean, sometimes you have to look at what is small. 

A new episode of intense and widespread heat is setting record highs across much of Western and Central Europe. Sustained high temperatures for several days and sleepless nights are affecting countries accustomed to heat this week—though not this early—such as France, Catalonia, Spain, and Italy, and parts of the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Germany, where it is increasingly less exceptional for the mercury to soar. The impact of the heatwave on health is high, and several states have issued meteorological alerts to warn the population of dehydration, heatstroke, and even death.

When Meg Lowman (New York, 1953) began climbing trees in the 1980s, hardly anyone studied forest canopies. That world suspended among the branches was, in large part, an unknown territory. Forty-five years later, this American ecologist is considered one of the pioneers in forest canopy research.

After the intense heat of recent days and experiencing the warmest spring since records began, the astronomical summer will officially begin this Sunday at 10:24 AM, even though it seems to have set in weeks ago. And it will arrive in grand style, as the first heatwave of the year will also kick off. The anticyclone and the gust of warm air from North Africa will strengthen, driven by southerly winds that will cause a low-pressure system located in the Atlantic.

Cats are beautiful, elegant, mysterious. “And my hand intoxicates itself with the pleasure / of touching your electric body,” wrote the poet Charles Baudelaire about his cat, Tibère. For about 10,000 years we have lived with these felines more or less harmoniously. But recently scientists have been demonstrating that their large proliferation is seriously affecting biodiversity, as shown by a pioneering study carried out in Sant Cugat del Vallès.

Catalonia is advancing unstoppably towards an increasingly warm and dry climate. 2025 has been the fourth consecutive year with an annual temperature of more than 2°C above the average of the pre-industrial period (1850-1900). Therefore, since 2022, temperatures have soared like never before. And they have been exceptionally warm. These last four years mark the path towards the worst predictions of the impact of the climate crisis and global warming in our country.

A universal public subsidy of 150 euros per month that can only be spent on agroecological and local food. This is the Food Social Security system proposed by a report from the cooperative el Pa Sencer, which was presented this Tuesday in Barcelona at an event chaired by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Sofía Monsalve Suárez.

Almost all children in the world face at least one climate threat. But nearly half – about 1.1 billion children – are exposed to three different climate threats that put their health and survival at risk, according to the report Children’s climate risk report 2026, published this Tuesday by Unicef.

Climate change will profoundly alter the dynamics of sea breezes in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. This will cause more pollutant gases such as ozone to be retained over coastal areas and increase the health risk for millions of people. This is according to a study by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), which has projected the evolution of sea breezes and air quality according to the climate change scenarios predicted for 2050 and 2100.

Global warming is advancing and temperatures continue to rise relentlessly. This spring has been no exception. In fact, Catalonia has experienced the warmest spring since records began, according to data from the seasonal climate bulletin published by the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (Meteocat). This report covers the three months of meteorological spring – March, May, and June – even though astronomical summer will not officially arrive until June 21.

Europe is experiencing an exceptional heat episode these days for a month of May, with values between 10 and 15 degrees above average. The temperatures, more typical of the summer heatwave, have sent thermometers soaring above 35 °C in several countries on the continent, from the Iberian Peninsula to Central Europe, as well as in southern countries, the United Kingdom, and the Balkans. Numerous regions are on alert for extraordinarily high temperatures. In fact, in recent hours, the government of Italy has activated the national climate alert system, raising it to the maximum risk level for highs of up to 35 °C in cities such as Rome, Bologna, Brescia, Florence, and Turin, and some regions have restricted outdoor work during the hours of maximum insolation to protect workers.

It is one of the most iconic animals on a European scale and surely one of the most representative and studied amphibians in the world. And yet, until now it was unknown that common salamanders (Salamandra salamandra) have a very special property, not at all common in nature and invisible to the human eye: under ultraviolet light they are fluorescent.

After the Harry storm in January, which flooded the riverbeds and streams of the Baix Empordà, the Palamós EDAR wastewater treatment plant became completely unusable. Electrical installations, pumps, motors, and laboratories, submerged under two meters of water and mud, were completely damaged. 187 l/m² fell. The Aubi stream, next to the plant, overflowed, and workers had to swim out. Total disaster. Since then, the Consorci d'Aigües Costa Brava Girona, belonging to the Diputació, which is responsible for the infrastructure, has been working against the clock to repair the damage and bring the machinery back into operation. The objective is clear: to have everything ready to face the summer campaign with guarantees. The priority is maximum, as it is a key infrastructure for cleaning the wastewater from the coastal towns of the Baix Empordà. An area that, from Sant Joan onwards, significantly increases the number of visitors and residents.

Much more than an endemic species, the Ibiza wall lizard (Podarcis pityusensis),which has inhabited Ibiza and Formentera and the surrounding islets for millennia, is a living cultural and identity symbol, as well as a key piece of the island ecosystems. And yet, it is being erased from the territory. In fact, the situation it is in is so critical that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has placed it on its red list in the category ofendangered.The reason for this extreme situation is that an invasive snake, the horseshoe snake (Hemorrhois hippocrepis),which arrived hidden in ornamental olive trees imported from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa in the 2000s, has already spread across 90% of Ibiza's territory, and is devouring most specimens of lizards. Now, moreover, and worryingly, the snake has made the leap to Formentera and many of the nearly 40 surrounding islets, where unique populations of this small lizard live.

In May of last year, workers at NASA's Goddard Laboratory received the order to go home and work remotely. The Trump administration was rescinding the lease on the building where, since the 1960s, this institute has led the climate and Earth research of the North American space agency. It was an attempt to dismantle the center, which preceded the threat of total closure proposed by the White House in its budget for NASA last year. Fortunately, Congress halted that massive funding cut. But that did not prevent the purge of the Office of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk from targeting NASA's Earth science program and other U.S. scientific agencies that are crucial for global climate research.

The last precedents of strong or very strong El Niño episodes left worrying data that were exacerbated by the influence of global warming. The super El Niño of 2015-2016 was the most powerful on record, with an oceanic warming index of more than 2.5 ºC. An extraordinary fact that contributed to 2016 being the warmest year recorded worldwide up to then.

The world is looking towards the Pacific with unease. Forecasts from major international climate agencies warn of the probable formation of what has popularly been dubbed a super-Niño over the coming months in this area of the planet. An episode of the El Niño phenomenon much more intense than usual, capable of shaking global climate. Its consequences could range from extreme droughts to torrential rains in different parts of the planet, but above all due to a clear and general rise in temperatures.

El Niño is a natural climate phenomenon that occurs when the surface waters of the equatorial Pacific Ocean warm more than usual. This warming alters the usual large-scale circulation of winds and rainfall. Normally, trade winds push warm water westward in the Pacific, near Indonesia and Australia. But when these winds weaken, the warm water shifts towards the central and eastern Pacific, especially off the coasts of Peru and Ecuador. This causes the sea temperature to rise and alters precipitation.