La Toñi, the oldest orca in the Iberian population and matriarch of a group of specimens known as Gladis, has appeared with ten pellet impacts on her dorsal fin, some still lodged in her body. A scientific team detected the wounds on Monday, when they spotted the animal in the Strait of Gibraltar, after two years without seeing her in the area.

While Europe is getting down to business with legislation that tightens the noose on plastics, the Government is processing the draft Catalan waste law, which is to replace the law from 1993. In fact, its drafting has been years in the making – it began to be drafted in 2018 – and, along the way, some of the flagship measures that had been planned have disappeared or have gone from being obligations to voluntary or promotional measures, such as the obligation to provide fiscal bonuses to citizens who carry out good selective collection. On the other hand, ambitious points for 2030 are incorporated, such as the obligation for municipalities to implement efficient collection systems or the prohibition of single-use cups at festive, cultural or sporting events. According to sources from the Department of Territory, the changes are due to the European and state context: they argue that it has changed "significantly" and that many measures from the 2022 text are now mandatory, such as the deposit, return and refund system (SDDR).

In July 2023, in Portbou, two fins made an appearance on the beach, very close to the sand, and swimmers didn't think twice. Some swam quickly towards the shore. Shouts and nerves. Others, about fifteen, opted to temporarily take refuge on a large platform floating in Portbou bay. The scare was significant: they were two blue sharks, popularly known as "tintoreras," calmly swimming near the beach. Some bathers even managed to record the two specimens from the sand. And once again, the videos went viral on social media.

And what if they told you that Catalan ports can become points for regenerating marine life? Life Boosting Units (LBU), biomimetic panels installed on the walls of ports and other human-made marine infrastructure, prove that this can be a reality.

Illegalities in waste management do not always involve an international trafficking like the one uncovered last week coming from France. Often the route is much shorter and offenders do not even need to change counties to achieve economic benefits at the expense of endangering the environment and human health. This is the case of the network that operated between two companies in Badia del Vallès, a landfill thirty kilometers away, and land in Cerdanyola del Vallès, now owned by the Consorci del Parc de l'Alba. The defendants are awaiting trial.

Cristian Fàbrega Gallego is a professor in the Department of Electronic and Biomedical Engineering and coordinates the master's degree in renewable energies and energy sustainability at the University of Barcelona. He speaks to ARA to explain the environmental impact and energy consumption of artificial intelligence data centers, which are multiplying around the world.

Let the majesty of orcas not deceive you: they are intelligent, strategic, and relentless predators in the oceans. An investigation published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Ethology has recorded and documented for the first time a never-before-seen behavior in these cetaceans in the Gulf of California, Mexico. As can be seen in the images, the orcas coordinate to hold and ram a prey, throwing it into the air.

Why do some forests burn more virulently than others? Among the answers, factors such as ambient temperature, wind, or topography often appear as key drivers. However, there is another, much more invisible element: the humidity of living vegetation, a factor very complicated to calculate accurately. Until now.

Now that, unfortunately, fires are once again occupying a large part of the news and the debate on forest management and prevention tasks is being revived, it is opportune to recommend a documentary series from Arte France that Canal 33 broadcasts on Monday evenings. You will also find it on the 3Cat platform (not very well labeled). It is titled L’arbre qui cache la forêt and has been translated into Catalan as L’arbre que amaga el bosc. In French, it plays on the expression equivalent to ours of “trees that do not let you see the forest.”The series starts from a very attractive premise, which affects the way of narrating more than the overall content. Each chapter starts with a historic and emblematic tree from a territory: the birch of the Great North, the thuja of the Great Pacific Northwest Rainforest, the giant eucalyptus of Australia, the baobab of Madagascar, the European oak, or the ceiba of the Amazon. The tree is the excuse to explain the entire forest ecosystem that is articulated around that majestic and centuries-old specimen chosen as the protagonist. As often happens in this type of productions, it is a relaxing and privileged window to observe the world. With the giant thuja, we travel to the west coast of Canada, to a forested area of sixty-four thousand square kilometers. With the birch, we discover the surface of more than one billion hectares of boreal forest that occupies the northernmost part of the planet.The tree that hides the forest is fascinating. It goes from making us observe the most minute details, focusing the lens on the most imperceptible spores or the insects that inhabit the trunk, to the contrast of the general plan, showing the tapestry that the treetops draw or the role of the salmon-filled river in nourishing the vegetation. The work of realization and photography is so careful (and perhaps a little too color-retouched) that the image ends up looking like one of those screen saver postcards that computers offer by default, which seem almost magical in their spectacularity. Locations that, due to their imposing vegetation and the solitude of the place, also have something sublime, of hidden mystery. The dubbing into Catalan is of great linguistic richness and lends the narration a slightly affected tone to force the poetic. You get used to it easily, even though the narrative intensity is a bit exaggerated. The story is added to by the testimony of experts in that corner of the world: biologists, ecologists, activists, sculptors, mycologists, and specialists in the most unheard-of disciplines that landscape can present. From any detail almost invisible to the human eye, a whole well of knowledge grows. It is fascinating to discover the influence that the tracks of millions of reindeer have on the shape of a forest and their impact on carbon capture. The series transcends trees in particular and the forests they portray to remind us of the complexity and importance of these ecosystems. Watching these documentaries makes you understand the tragic extent of fires and the little importance we give to forests.

What began with an inspection of a waste management plant that was dumping construction materials from Barcelona has ended up uncovering a network that illegally moved tens of thousands of tons of waste from France to Catalonia. An operation involving the Civil Guard, Europol, and the French Gendarmerie has resulted in the arrest of four people who allegedly formed part of an organization dedicated to environmental fraud and illegal waste trafficking. The investigation has established that at least 46,000 tons of waste from France were brought into Catalonia and clandestinely buried in agricultural land, mainly in Sant Esteve Sesrovires (Baix Llobregat). The City Council has already announced that it will request to be involved as a private prosecution.

This year, the United Nations is promoting climate action on World Environment Day. The slogan "For the climate, now" invites us to act united for a world that is moving towards a paradigm shift through two strategies: mitigation, to limit global warming, and adaptation to protect people and territories.

Can oil put out fires? The question seems like a contradiction, almost a prank. Obviously, no one would think of putting out flames with oil. But if we think about the origin of this product, the idea makes perfect sense.

Thousands of Albanians are occupying streets and beaches across the country to protest against tourist investments that have taken over the entire coast and threaten its biodiversity. A flamingo-shaped float is passed from hand to hand in the center of Tirana. Other flamingos are also seen in different formats: posters, flyers, badges, and even on sugar packets. Thousands of Albanians display the image of this bird in one way or another, which has become the symbol of what is the largest environmental mobilization recorded in Albania in recent years. This is why the movement has been dubbed “the flamingo revolution,” in reference to this bird that inhabits the protected landscape of Vjosa–Narta, one of the country's most important natural areas, and which developments linked to luxury tourism threaten.

The Romans said that the sea belonged to no one and that fish had no value, but this is not so. At least not in the world we have built. To see the oceanic dimensions of blue natural capital, let's take an X-ray based on figures provided by the scientific community at the Encuentro de los Mares conference held in Tenerife this week.

Very few people know that oil was produced in Collserola. In the middle of the last century, owners of farmhouses in this mountain range surrounding Barcelona owned olive trees, made self-consumption oil from them, and sold the surplus. But with the abandonment of the countryside throughout Catalonia, all this productive activity was also lost and the olive trees of Collserola, some centuries old, were swallowed by the forest. If in 1956 21.5% of Collserola were cultivated land, now it is only 6.4%. This not only represents a loss of the typical biodiversity of the area, but also has a dangerous collateral effect: it increases the risk of fire.

It’s not a race, but if it were, the climate emergency wouldn’t just be winning—it would be doing so with one feat after another. “It’s as if every year a new runner appeared and broke a record, and did so by a wide margin, and the following year it was broken again—that wouldn’t be normal,” says Francisco Doblas, head of the Earth Sciences Department at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), in a vivid analogy. The paradox is that, in this case, record highs are not achievements to applaud, let alone celebrate.

A 2017 scientific study claimed having one fewer child was the most effective way to fight climate change – more impactful than going vegan or ditching your car. A small but growing number of people have consciously chosen not to have children to help the planet. Yet sacrifice may prove unnecessary. After half a century of population explosion and global overpopulation alarms, the problem now appears reversed: population decline. "We're not preparing for what's coming. Just as rapid population growth disrupted the world, the coming population drop will be equally – or more – swift and disruptive", warns Darrell Bricker, Ipsos researcher and co-author (with John Ibbitson) of Empty Planet.

The Barcelona Chamber of Commerce has warned this Monday that a significant portion of the water infrastructure investments planned in response to the drought episode that affected Catalonia between 2021 and 2024 are delayed or, in some cases, stalled, including the Tordera and Foix desalination plants. Likewise, the business organization has warned that European regulations require administrations to invest more in water purification and regeneration, which may necessitate future increases in investments in this area.

She dreams a lot, every day, and in order not to forget them, she tells George the dream right away, in her sweet voice, while she hasn't opened her eyes yet: “I was leaning against the balustrade of the terrace of a large, old, stately house. In front of me, a deep blue lake surrounded by majestic trees. I was wearing a long cream-colored dress that the warm late summer wind caressed my skin. You were wearing a tuxedo and waiting for me in a Riva boat at the dock; I took off my high heels and went down a ladder to the lake. You took my hand and, as soon as we set off, in the blink of an eye, we were in St. Mark's Square, at the Venice Film Festival. Doesn't that seem incredible to you, George?”

“Extractivism destroys everything and leaves nothing”, says Mercedes, forty years old, with a sign in her hands which reads “Water for life, not for mining”, as people arrive at the demonstration, in Plaza del Congreso in Buenos Aires, against the modification of the glacier law, promoted by Javier Milei's government. The deputies were discussing the modification of a 2010 text that prevented mining and hydrocarbon activity to protect the natural dynamics of ice and water quality in areas with glaciers and periglacial areas – frozen ground –. After twelve hours of debate, the law reform was approved with 137 votes in favor, 111 against, and three abstentions. “This only serves mining companies: it serves no Argentinian”, states Mercedes.Argentina has nearly 17,000 bodies of ice, covering almost 8,500 square kilometers (more than forty times the city of Buenos Aires). This was calculated by the Argentine Institute of Nivology, Glaciology and Environmental Sciences in the so-called National Inventory of Glaciers. "It is only 0.3% of Argentine territory," environmental lawyer Enrique Viale tells ARA. "It is a small surface area – he acknowledges – but mining is very voracious." Glaciers supply the hydrographic basins of a large part of the territory and constitute an important reserve of fresh water, suitable for human consumption. In this sense, both glaciers and periglacial areas are key to the balance of ecosystems and the conservation of biodiversity.The 2010 law offered broad protection to all glaciers and the periglacial environment, cataloged as "strategic reserves" of water; but the modification aims to conserve only ice bodies that fulfill an "effective hydrological function". If previously any glacier was protected by default, with exceptions, from now on it will be necessary to prove that the glacier deserves protection. "I'm here for the water," says Camila, 26, in Congress Square, as she pushes her bicycle. Camila, moreover, acknowledged to ARA that she feels "anxiety" about what might happen with "the gamble," which is being played with our most essential resource. “I would advise many of these people who make ideological use of glaciers to inform themselves well about what the modification of the law entails”, Roberto Cacciola, president of the Argentine Chamber of Mining Companies (CAEM), tells ARA. This businessman, who is dedicated to the extraction of gold and silver in the province of Santa Cruz, argues that, before intervening in territories, mining companies must pass several environmental impact studies and, if they do not, “the project is not carried out, period”. “Mining is a key economic activity –he adds–, not going any further, your mobile phone is full of metals and minerals”.Blank check to multinationals

One of the first measures Javier Milei approved upon becoming president was the regime of incentives for large investments (RIGI), with which it is intended to make Argentina an attractive country for large capitals, particularly in the mining sector, with tax benefits and deregulation. The majority of mining companies operating in the country are foreign, mainly from Canada, Australia, the United States, and China. “We are totally aligned with the national government,” says Cacciola, who argues that mining not only attracts investments but also brings jobs and prosperity to the territories.The other key point of the law modification is to give more decision-making power to the provinces: if until now the national government established environmental minimums for the whole country, now each provincial government will be able to define which areas are to be protected and in which mining activity is enabled. This, according to the government, reinforces the federal character of Argentina, but some experts, like Enrique Viale, warn that conflicts between jurisdictions may arise over access to water: “The mining lobby, which is one of the most powerful in the world, is responsible for silencing the consequences of its activity, because if people really knew them, there would be significant rejection”.In Congress Square, an eighty-year-old man carries a sign that says "Think like a glacier". "Glaciers, like mountains, are not dead beings, they are not a decoration, but they provide us with water and life". His name is Nilo Cayuqueos and he is of Mapuche origin. The Mapuche are one of the original communities historically in open conflict with public administration over land tenure and resource exploitation. "Mother Earth is wise, but Western culture has twisted everything for the benefit of money –he says–. It is fundamental that people become aware of what is at stake".

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