Federico Jiménez Los Santos...

Es cierto que el señor Jiménez Los Santos, bien conocido en España, es un periodista polémico, que da más que una estera a ciertos políticos y personajes del día a día español, en muchas ocasiones exagerado, que utiliza un tono fuerte y sarcástico para criticar, que a unos les gustará y a otros no, pero indiscutible que es un periodista con carisma. Igual que pudiera serlo el señor Gabilondo. Sin embargo, esta mañana, durante la transmisión de su programa ha cometido un grave error cuando hablaba de la previsión del tiempo, un error gravísimo, para mi inaceptable y que me entristece mucho que salga de su micrófono : que " ¿ sabían uds. que la temperatura ha aumentado 0.7 grados... ?", que "el protocolo de Kyoto es una invención...", que "yo me creeré el cambio climático cuando me lo enseñen...". Qué lástima es hablar de algo sin saber, sin tener ni idea y encima intentar hacer tesis válidas sobre ello. Es una falta muy grave para un periodista de su categoria, señor Jiménez Los Santos. Decir que la temperatura ha aumentado 0.7 ºC (¿ Qué temperatura? ¿la de La Tierra? ¿la de España?, ¿la de su pueblo?) es una burrada. Decir que lo del cambio climático es una pantomima, es una animalada. Infórmese, documéntese, que es su trabajo, pregunte a los científicos y por favor, cada uno a lo suyo. Hoy me ha decepcionado muchísimo.

Coup de soleil au milieu de l'hiver ?

Bien que cette photo montre les 27 dégrees d'un thermomètre au soleil, en une journée sans vent, il montre bien la réalité de ces dernières journées dans le Sud-Ouest de la France. Samedi 23 février j'ai vécu les scènes typiques d'une journée d'été : impossible de se promener au soleil avec un pull, des dizaines de personnes en shorts et sandales, soulagements à l'ombre, coups de soleil, les terrasses des bars pleines, les glaces sur la table, etc... Il y a ceux qui sont très contents de ce temps, mais moi, je crois qu'il y a de vrais motifs être mécontent et plutôt inquiet: pas à cause d'une journée chaude isolée au milieu de l'hiver, mais plutôt à cause d'un hiver extrêmement bénévole. Je n'ai presque pas allumé le chauffage chez moi cet hiver! Bref, quand on regarde l'hiver de l'année dernière, quand on le compare avec un hiver encore plus chaud cette année, et quand on regarde les Pyrénées qui ne trouvent pas leur manteau blanc...Oui, on doit s'inquiéter ou simplement prendre conscience que le changement climatique nous frappe maintenant et que nous en sommes les responsables. Alors, agissons !

ACTION

The 4th of March of 2007 I started to write these sentences : "Please, take 3 minutes to read this : 29 degrees at the Spanish Mediterranean coast, 16 degrees at 20:00h in Toulouse, 6 degrees in Kharkov, biking in short-sleeve T shirt, Pyrenees looking as in end June, Swiss sky resorts shut down, people sunbathing at the beach and looking for shadow in Spain, bears with insomnia in Russia, ice sheets breaking up in Antarctic, flowers blooming two-months in advance in Holland, citizens saving water in Belgium... "

However I never ended it up. Since then, I didn't write anymore in this blog. The first reason was the end of my PhD, a very hard period, and then I took few months off to travel. Almost a year later, I'm back. I think I'm pretty the same person, I have suffered a few slight changes in my personality and point of view about political and social issues. How has changed the climate change issue in all this time ? Now, living in the very heart of winter 2008 in the North Hemisphere, how different is it compared to 2007 ? Unfortunately I could start this article as I did with that of 2007. Today a friend of mine who is skying in the Swiss Alps have phoned me. Snow at almost 2000 m is melting. She lost her motivation. The snow layer is very thin and of bad quality. The weather is "unusually" warm. I'm three days in my apartment, I'm wearing short sleeve, I got a slight sunburn from the after lunch sun session, yesterday some folks were swimming in Biarritz...

Some people still ask what is climate change. I think there is still hope with them. They just need objective information. But what is sad is that today there are still some few irresponsibles (luckily everyday less numerous) brave enough to claim that our atmosphere can absorb unlimited amount of greenhouse gases. They piss me off. The time moves on and we are wasting so many time with a stupid debate, whether climate change is created by anthropogenic sources or is natural. In any case is an evidence that a climate change is going on. Humans may adapt to the new environmental conditions as they have always done during million of years along the human evolution. The problem is that these changes are happening a such a speed that we won't be able to adapt ourselves to the new environment ! What will happen then ? We certainly cannot answer that question with 100% precision, but imagine a scenario where long extreme droughts will be followed by devastating flooding among many others extreme climate events. For sure nothing good will happen. Following the moral precautionary principle and with the overwhelming scientific consensus, our only way is react NOW !