This March 13th marks exactly two years since, after losing the budget vote, the then President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, decided to call elections. The accounts for that fiscal year had an insurmountable obstacle: Hard Rock. On one hand, the PSC demanded that he unblock the project if he wanted their votes, but on the other hand, Comuns assured him that if the macro-casino went ahead, they would oppose it. An insurmountable dilemma. Aragonès maintained his commitment to the socialists, and Comuns kept their word and voted against the budget. President Aragonès called early elections and lost them in favor of Salvador Illa. Months later, Illa also needed the support of other parties to be invested as president, and once again, Hard Rock was the bargaining chip: one of the conditions set by Comuns and Republicans was that he eliminate the tax reductions that Artur Mas's government approved in 2014 to lure investors from the Seminole tribe of Florida, owners of Hard Rock. Instead of paying 55% of the taxes levied on gambling, they would only pay 10%.

A year later, the Spanish government has definitively approved the first action plan for the sustainable management of mineral raw materials for the period 2026-2030, linked to a public investment of 414 million euros. This plan includes, among other things, the first mineral exploration program approved in fifty years, endowed with 182 million euros, whose main objective is to search for critical minerals, such as rare earth elements, both in new deposits and in spoil heaps or existing mines in Spain, as explained by Sara Aagesen, Ecologist in Action, at a press conference this Tuesday.

Taking responsibility for a specific section of the coastal path, inspecting it regularly, and reporting any illegal closures or deterioration that impedes access. This is the mission that SOS Costa Brava wants to entrust to the future "godparents" of the coastal paths, a new role with which the environmental organization intends to strengthen the monitoring of these historic routes along the sea and guarantee the public's right to walk freely and without obstacles.

Iberboard began removing the approximately 15,000 tons of waste that had accumulated at its Alcover plant in the Alt Camp region on Monday, as confirmed to ARA by company sources. This paper mill suspended operations in August 2014, leaving around one hundred workers in the area without jobs. In addition to accumulating tons of waste over the years, Iberboard also had numerous files for various environmental violations, such as dumping waste into the Francolí River and storing toxic waste for longer than legally permitted. The company made significant investments in machinery and also allocated resources to correct some of the identified deficiencies, such as noise pollution that disturbed residents, but ultimately filed for bankruptcy a year and a half ago. Since then, representatives from different departments of the Catalan government, such as the Catalan Waste Agency and the Catalan Water Agency, and the mayor of Alcover have met with company representatives and their lawyers to find a solution that would allow for the removal of the 15,000 tons of waste. The risk this poses in the event of a rise in the river level is a concern. Initially, the company was reluctant to take responsibility, but in October of last year, it finally committed to removing all the waste once it received authorization from the bankruptcy administrator. Approval was granted, and the company finally began waste collection in December. But on the first day, the engine of the excavator they had rented broke down, thwarting the anticipated start of the collection, which resumed today.

Pregnancy is a very important stage in a woman's life. Many changes occur on different levels—physical, emotional, social, etc.—and, especially, self-care becomes crucial. Some aspects of this attention to personal well-being are within the control of the pregnant woman and her immediate environment, but others, in many cases, are beyond their reach. This is the case with the effects of climate change and pollution, especially relevant in urban contexts, which can affect pregnancy and early childhood, and which are of increasing concern to these groups.

Now that we're entering one of the peak shopping seasons of the year, it's a good time to shed light on what happens to all the clothes we don't use. This Sunday, in the special report, you'll find the results of a Europe-wide investigation, in which an ARA contributor participated, tracing the surprising and often opaque routes of the clothes we discard. Using markers sewn onto various garments, a team of journalists reconstructed the journeys to major logistics hubs in countries like the United Arab Emirates and calculated the carbon footprint generated by this global system.

McDonald's has presented its new economic, social, and environmental impact report for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, a document that outlines its contribution to the country's sustainable development and the progress made in corporate responsibility. According to the president of McDonald's Spain, Luis Quintiliano, this document "reflects, with concrete actions, the company's firm commitment to generating a positive impact from an economic, social, and environmental perspective." The executive emphasizes that the McDonald's model "demonstrates that it is possible to grow sustainably, hand in hand with employees, franchisees, suppliers, and customers."

More than a thousand people, most of them linked to more than 150 civic organizations from different Catalan regionsOn October 5th, they staged a massive show of force through the streets of Lleida. They were organized by sixteen entities, including the Assemblea Pagesa de Catalunya (Catalan Farmers' Assembly). the Pueblos Vivos platformThe environmental group Ipcena and SOS Vall del Corb all took to the streets under a common slogan: "We defend the land." What did they mean by this? They explain it themselves. "We want a new rurality, one that isn't dependent on urbanism and territorial imbalance," says Víctor Altés, an agricultural engineer and member of Pobles Vius. The activists warn that the rural world is under attack. "When we say attack, we're referring to all these large-scale energy projects that have nothing to do with the needs of the land, but rather with a colonization of rural areas without even consulting the people who live there," Altés argues. The protesters lament that large companies and investment groups are assaulting rural areas surreptitiously and maliciously.

Southwest of Pylos, Greece, lies the deepest point in the Mediterranean Sea, in the so-called Calypso Trench. Specifically, 5,267 meters separate the surface from the deepest point. The landscape of an inhospitable desert sunk in the darkness of the sea would be the most predictable scenario, but researcher Miquel Canals' team has confirmed that there is human presence even at the deepest point in the Mediterranean. Remains of garbage bags, cans, and plastic bottles are some of the traces identified by a manned submarine that descended into the trench with the help of pioneering technology.

Llançà is one of the hottest spots for real estate speculation on the Costa Brava. Much of the area is built on, and of what remains undeveloped, most It is developable land with the possibility of building, as mandated by the municipal urban planning plan (POUM), approved more than twenty years ago. One problematic area where regulations permit buildings is the pine forest on La Farella beach: one and a half hectares of trees, right in front of the sand, surrounded on both sides by villas and residential developments. This is the last green area right on the seafront along the municipal boundary, between Cap Ras, which is a protected area, and Punta d'en Feliu, towards Port de la Selva. In this pine forest, last July, the Llançà City Council approved the Urban Improvement Plan (PMU) granting permission to the private owner of the plot to build 62 apartments for hotel use.

Barcelona Global has launched an initiative to make the metropolitan area an international benchmark in the fight against climate change. This Chapter Climate was held this Tuesday with a meeting that brought together around 100 business leaders and executives from different sectors, with the aim of activating a shared agenda and exchanging good practices between companies and institutions in the field of sustainability.

Tracjusa, the renovated Juneda slurry treatment plant (Garrigues) that will use a new gasification system produced with solid fuels from urban waste, will begin operating in the first quarter of 2027. This was announced today by the managers of the GAP livestock cooperative, which with the Griñó Group is co-owned by another group that requires the combustion of domestic waste supplied by Griñó (up to a maximum of 45,000 tons per year).

There's a saying in the agricultural sector that a bad year usually leads to a good harvest. This trend, more or less, has been maintained over time, and if you look at the historical record, you find a certain balance, and the numbers end up adding up. But the drought that has affected Catalonia over the last three years broke all rules and has led to disastrous figures. Catalan winegrowers, who in a normal year can harvest nearly 400 million kilos of grapes, settled for 357 million in 2022, and since then, their yields have continued to decline: 278 million in 2023 and 248 million in 2024. This means that last year, the yields were 38% less than normal. This year, fortunately, the situation has improved.

The coypu on display from the Onyar River near Girona create a great deal of excitement among passersby crossing the city's bridges. They are in greater demand than the classic carp, which has also been cornered by the Ebro thornback, another much more abundant foreign species that can reach comparable sizes. The coypu have found in the lower reaches of the river that runs through Girona, with its calm waters, rich vegetation, and naturalized banks, a perfect ecosystem for reproducing and forming families. They can be seen on the riverbanks or swimming in the water, and they do not flee at the presence of humans.

The unstoppable deforestation and the climate crisis threaten the great green lung that is still the Amazon rainforest and take her to the dreaded point of no return in recovery andpush towards savannization. That is to say, there is a danger that the rich diversity of vegetation and climate in the American region will become a vast expanse of semi-arid land filled with scrubland. In a new study published this Tuesday by the journal Nature Communication, an international team of researchers has found that there is another factor to consider when adding more concern about the future of the Amazon: rainfall.

Some suggest that thanks to small fires caused by lightning, humans were able to begin to use and master fire. This was crucial for the species to achieve higher survival rates, induce a change in diet, and favor technical development. But despite the importance of this phenomenon and the million years of progress of the species, scientists still have not been able to explain what causes high-intensity electrical discharges to fall from the sky.

After the virulent fires of the last two weeks have devastated more than 400,000 hectares and have forced the evacuation of more than 33,000 people from their homes in the northwest of Spain, the prosecutor's office specialized in environment and urban planning has decided to investigate whether the most affected municipalities They have forest fire prevention plans, mandatory protocols according to the state forestry law. In a letter sent last Monday, to which ARA has had access, the chief prosecutor, Antonio Vercher, ordered the provincial delegates in charge of this matter to verify whether the towns most affected by the "disastrous" forestry situation had these plans and urged them to hold criminally responsible whoever had the "obligation" to draw them up.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has conducted a detailed analysis of the ecological impacts of new fashion consumption trends. He fast fashion and theultra fast fashion are a concern within the organization, according to Elisa Tonga, head of the Resources and Markets branch within the Industry and Economics Division of this UN agency. Her department, in fact, works to promote efficient use of resources in all industrial sectors, not just textiles, and Tonga also contributes her experience as former head of Production and Consumption at UNEP.

Mrs. Pi is an environmentalist. She stopped using the capsule coffee machine for the sake of the planet, buys laundry soap in bars to avoid wasting water, and tries to get her children to wash their hair with an eco-friendly soap she buys at a bulk store. Her children tell her they shouldn't put that on their heads. She plans strategies. She takes the half-full bottles and hides them. "He won't see the half-full bottle anymore!" she laughs devilishly inside. She doesn't use spray deodorant; she prefers the roll-on one, although she's not sure which leaves a bigger carbon footprint, and that makes her suffer.