Mallorca is immersed these days in a period of intense heat and temperatures at the maximum. The marked rise in the thermometer coincides with the most favorable summer time for this, according to the Mediterranean climate. The resident population has it incorporated into their daily customs, assumed to be natural and tourists come to the island precisely for this reason.
On the other hand, it is no less true that these very hot cycles, increasingly accompanied by Saharan dust, have increased in intensity and frequency in the same way as floods and storms in autumn and winter. Scientists and the sensitized population see this as a clear manifestation of climate change.
Precisely this same This week the content of the latest report of the committee of experts that advises the UN on such a transcendent issue was revealed. Good news was not expected in this regard, but the conclusions reached show even worse results and urgently refer to an immediate reaction from society in general that must be stimulated, protected and guaranteed by public managers in order to curb a greenhouse effect that, Nowadays, given its progression, it leaves the Paris Agreements out of date.
This commitment between governments sets a maximum tolerable temperature rise of 1.5 degrees when UN experts document that, if the current emission of gases into the atmosphere is not stopped more quickly, the accumulated greenhouse effect will mean an average increase 2.7 degrees at the end of the century. Now it is already 1.1 degrees higher than the pre-industrial period. We are heading towards extreme weather effects, with increased floods and droughts associated with rising sea levels. The melting of the polar zones is, in some respects, irreversible.
Most scientists agree in attributing climate change to human action while calling for both individual and collective reaction. We are, therefore, before a responsibility that does not admit exceptions.
The Government has begun to deploy in recent times advanced policies regarding the protection of the environment, such as regulations that curb the commercial use of plastics and the limit to vehicles with the highest emission of polluting gases. Especially in the latter case, the measure has met with suspicion from the affected industrial sector and a very slow state management. Support for local policies and consideration for an island territory, in the case of the Balearic Islands, with a disproportionate fleet of vehicles would be more consistent.
On the other hand, the funds Europeans that will be distributed among entrepreneurs and freelancers to alleviate the crude effects of the pandemic, are largely destined to green-minded investments and low-polluting practices. This is the way forward within a set of transversal policies compatible with respect and care for the natural environment. The health of the planet is at stake and with it that of the Balearic Islands and each of its residents and visitors. We have all caused damage to the collective habitat and we all have the responsibility to commit ourselves to its non-extendable repair.
– .
