Month: July 2026

Don Benito and Villanueva wanted to show Spain the advantages of merging town councils. They have ended up doing the opposite

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He February 20, 2022 It promised to be a historic day in Extremadura. In Spain, in general. After months of debate, arguments and growing media interest, that Sunday the residents of Don Benito and Villanueva (Badajoz) cast the ballot to decide something crucial for the future of both municipalities: whether they would merge into one. The ‘yes’ vote won, although with such a narrow margin and, above all, such a low level of participation that the union did not come together. Four years later, just jump into the air. February 20, 2022. To understand what just happened in Extremadura you have to go back at least four years, to February 20, 2022when the residents of Don Benito and Villanueva de la Serena held a referendum to decide whether to unite into a single town. Both town halls are located in Badajoz, they are separated by a few kilometers almost completely urbanized and share services like a hospital complex. Furthermore, in 2022 both were governed by PSOE mayors and they were in favor of their respective consistories embracing each other as one. A muted ‘yes’. The referendum backed the merger, which for a time seemed to clear the future of ‘Vegas-Altas’, the name under which he wanted to be baptized the new village. The problem is that that support was not strong enough to close the debate. To begin with, participation in the 2022 vote was modest for a decision of such significance: in Villanueva (25,873 neighbors) 58.94% of the census participated; in Don Benito (37,310) 50.42%. In the first location, 90.49% of the votes supported the alliance; but in Don Benito only 66.27% did so. It may seem like a high percentage, but the town councils had agreed that to move forward the support had to be at least 66%. That is to say, in Don Benito the procedure was passed by a few votes. As if that were not enough, there is another fundamental factor: the referendum was actually a popular consultation with advisory naturenon-binding. The merger was never ratified in a plenary session nor did the Board approve any constitutive decree. Only a protocol was signed in 2023 that remained a dead letter. Buried and buried well. That was almost five years ago. If the failed merger between Don Benito and Villanueva de la Serena is news again Now it is because, after more than four years without real progress, the first town (the most populated) has decided to definitively bury the union. Although the project has been stalled for some time, the Dombeniense Government, now led by the PP and Always Don Benitohas definitively shelved the idea. On Monday the municipal plenary session unanimously approved a motion declaring its definitive stoppage. What’s more, for “reasons of transparency, legal certainty and political clarity”, the Don Benito City Council has decided Formally communicate your decision to all the parties involved: the Ministry, the Government of Extremadura, the Provincial Council of Badajoz and of course the Villanueva City Council. Their approach is simple: they want to continue “collaborating” with their neighbor, but without ‘going through the altar’, limiting their agreements to the Comprehensive Services Association that already exists. “It’s not the time”. Don Benito’s decision is not important just because of what he says. Equally or even more relevant is who says it. The motion has passed with the unanimity of the plenarywhich means that all groups are in favor of putting it in the box. Including the PSOE, the party that promoted it in 2022. Each party (PP, Siempre Don Benito and PSOE) puts forward its own arguments and places emphasis on one issue or another, but the reading seems clear: the merger has it very complicated even if there is a change of government in 2027. “This is not the time to talk about the merger now,” assume in the PSOE, which advocates “recovering the economy and exciting the neighbors again.” Crossover of arguments. The case of Don Benito and Villanueva de la Serena is interesting beyond the province of Badajoz or Extremadura because it shows how difficult it is (on a political and social level) to unite two town councils. And in this case the neighbors had a good handful of arguments in favor. Beyond the economic and service cohesion that already exists, in 2021 the University of Extremadura published a report which concluded that the new urban area would be the second economic center of Badajoz and the first at the regional level in agriculture and livestock. According to their calculations, ‘marriage’ would increase household income by 2.75% and employment by 5%. Together they would add up today to a population of around 64,000 registeredmore than Merida. Opponents of the merger they put the accent at another point. They argue that the project is nothing more than “the result of a political decision driven in haste, without the necessary social consensus and without rigorous technical planning.” In fact, they regret that in February 2022, “the legal complexity” of the link was not clearly explained to the neighbors, nor were its “risks” and “real costs.” Broadening the focus. Except for a very strange surprise, everything indicates that the dream of Vegas Altas It will remain just that: a dream. In Spain, however, there are other examples of local mergers that have gone ahead. Two of the most recent are those of Oza dos Ríos-Cesuras and Cerdedo-Cotobadeboth in Galicia. The first It was forged in 2013setting a milestone that has not been experienced since 1981, and the second in 2016. Although in Galicia the processes advanced more agilely than in Extremadura, they have not been free of challenges. In 2022 The Country still warned of the challenges that Oza Cesuras had ahead of him a decade after his marriage, with unfulfilled investments and timid changes. In Galicia there has continued to be talk about some other unionalthough without landing them. Why does it cost so much? The million dollar question. In Spain there are almost 1,400 municipalities … Read more

The most powerful solar installation in the world is in the Pyrenees, it reaches 3,500 °C and is not a power plant

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In the middle of summer and with the heat wave upon us, frying an egg on the hood of a car parked in the sun is a reality that gives us an idea of ​​the thermal potential of the sun. But that sensation falls far short of what happens in the heart of the French Pyrenees: there, a building embedded in the side of a mountain concentrates sunlight until it becomes a source of artificial heat so intense that it would be capable of melting steel. The great solar oven. It is the Odeillo solar oven, in Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via, and it is one of the two largest and most powerful installations of this type in the world along with that of Parkent, in Uzbekistan. The most striking thing about the installation is the colossal curved mirror measuring 54 meters and 48 meters wide that is integrated, composed of 9,000 facets. This design has a reason for being: it concentrates sunlight up to 10,000 times its natural intensitywhich allows you reach temperatures of between 3,300 and 3500°Caccording to data from the facility’s operating laboratoryPROMES-CNRS. The system combines two optical elements: a field of 63 motorized flat mirrors that follow the path of the sun and constantly return its light to a large fixed parabolic reflector with a surface area of ​​1,830 square meters. All that light converges on a focal tower, that point barely 40 centimeters in diameter where it develops a thermal power of one megawatt. The Odeillo installation. Philipendula via Wikimedia Context. The origin of the Odeillo solar oven dates back to the 1940s, when the chemist Félix Trombe, who at that time He was director of the Meudon rare earth laboratorymanages to concentrate sunlight with a reused anti-aircraft defense mirror. In 1949 the first prototype is built in the citadel of Mont-Louis, just over 10 kilometers from Odeillo. After several increasingly powerful attempts, between 1962 and 1968 is built the current oven. Its location was chosen with complete intention: the French Cerdanya offers a high number of sunny days per year and an atmosphere of great optical purity at altitude, ideal conditions to minimize radiation losses. In figures. Throughout the article we have broken down some of the most impressive numerical data of this solar oven, which we condense here: Main reflector height: 54 meters Parabolic mirror area: 1,925 square meters Rated thermal power: 1 megawatt Maximum temperature: 3,500 °C Solar concentration factor: 10,000 times normal solar radiation Why is it important. Because this oven has been in operation since 1969 and constitutes the first serious attempt towards the large-scale exploitation of solar energy for industrial purposes, long before the today so common solar plants existed. Although pioneering, its function is more research than energy. Thus, it paved the way for one of the first solar tower plants on the planet, that of Thémis in the early 1980s. Today it has essentially two applications: the study and manufacture of materials resistant to extreme conditions with applications such as the aeronautical industry and the development of solar fuels. A recent example: Sunfuela research project that uses heat from the solar furnace to produce alternative fuels by heating metal oxides to generate gases that are then converted into clean fuels. Yes, but. Taking into account its figures and the fact that it is 50 years old, the Odeillo solar oven is a true engineering prodigy and the precursor of the solar energy boom that we are experiencing. Of course, it is worth remembering that it is not an electricity generation plant: it does not produce electricity significantly nor is it part of the current renewable mix. As for its comparison with Parkent, both are the only two theoretical 1,000 kW solar ovens in the world, with similar focus temperatures. Of course, Odeillo wins in real power: although the Uzbek park has a slightly larger mirror (1,840 square meters compared to 1,830), its lower altitude (1,050 m compared to 1,600 m) reduces the available solar intensity, limiting its useful power to 700 kW compared to Odeillo’s 1,000 kW, according to SolarPACES. In Xataka | Macron believes that Spain has “a problem” with renewables. What it really means is that they are “competition” In Xataka | The wind industry has been dreaming for years of a turbine that can be assembled without concrete or machinery. France has said ‘hold my cubata’ Cover | Rabatakeu

incremental games. And it makes perfect sense

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The video game is an interactive medium. Even genres like walking simulators have some of the best mechanics in the industry (there are moments of ‘What Remains of Edith Finch‘ either ‘Mixtape‘ which are impressive), but there are a type of games that are made so that we play as little as possible. They are the ‘idle games‘, games designed to be played alone or with as little attention as possible from the player. Within the same genre there is a twist: incremental games in which there is a certain strategy to achieve that objective of jplay less and less and get bigger rewards. They have a lot of pull. And also all the sense in the world. The psychology of games made so you don’t play First of all, we must make some concepts clear. Incremental games are titles designed so that the numbers within the game do not stop growing. Progressively, we get larger numbers, more resources or more power. At the beginning, we must pay some attention, but the goal is to achieve optimize the game so that we don’t even have to look at the screen. ‘Idle Slayer’ is an example of this type of game: the character advances alone and we only have to pay attention at certain moments to optimize the achievement of those resources, but the doll advances whether we look or not. If we pay attention, resources will increase faster, but it is not totally necessary either. More than Marathon in the last 24 hours Then there are the incremental games. These are already more active and require us to pay attention by clicking on the screen or making frequent decisions. The goal is the same: to reach a point where there are even systems that click for us, prioritizing automation. The most normal thing is that genres intersect because, really, they are not separated. ‘Idle Slayer’, ‘Cookie Clicker‘ (which may be the most famous) or ‘AdVenture Capitalist’ are clickers at first and end up becoming ‘idle’ games in which the goal is the same: automation of everything. Are they big sellers? Well, they are not at the level of large productions or the most played games at all times on Steam, but they do tend to have communities of around 500 or 1,000 people at any time. They are good ‘distractions’ to have there on a second monitor while we do other things, with the satisfaction of seeing how the numbers on the screen go up little by little. In short: we invest, we make decisions with what we earn and the idea is to automate. And the most interesting thing about incremental games is, precisely, the psychology behind them. In some studies that have been made about this type of games (two very good ones are “Play to wait” and “Busy doing nothing? What players do in idle games“) details what tools they have to hook us and encourage us to “play”. The keys that stand out are: Continuous progress: Even though the actions are simple, we see rewards and have a constant sense of progress. Reinforcement and anticipation: Waiting is not empty, since when we get a reward, we are already planning the next one. Motivation cycle: we wait, we collect the prize, we reinvest to achieve improvements. Planning: The fun is not in the immediate reward, but in what we will get in the future when those investments bear fruit. And the low cognitive load: we can resume them at any time and they are suitable for short sessions. Those are the main characteristics why these games are liked, but then there are the psychological levers that they activate, those “brain tickles” that make us want to continue playing. What comes into play here is the reward system with that feeling of “the next improvement is coming, so I’m going to take five more minutes”, but also elements such as the accumulation effect that comes into play when we see multipliers that give the feeling of personal effectiveness and, above all, that we don’t have to pay attention. Known as “delegation of action”, the player outsources that work to the system and the pleasure when playing comes precisely because the numbers get bigger and bigger without us having to make an effort, so we have a certain satisfaction in feeling that the world moves forward without our surveillance, but that it is generating rewards for us. You may think that it is empty dopamine, but the satisfaction and attraction of the genre is also marked because there is a certain planning on our part. With what we have achieved, we buy some improvements and not others because this way we will get the rewards we are looking for. In turn, that satisfaction does not come only from the rewardbut rather that we feel that we have made the right decision to obtain said reward. Although I have sometimes had times of being “hooked” on some of these games, they are not really my type. As a curiosity, yes, they are fine, but in the end those mechanisms and the dopamine they generate do not make much of an impact. I like the reward of a ‘type game’ better.Devil‘ either ‘Destiny‘ which, in the end, is based on the same thing, but with a much clearer and more direct interaction on my part. Except ‘Rusty’s Retirement’, that game is spectacular and I really liked it, Now, I completely understand why these incremental games are so successful. In Xataka | Independent analysts agree: “The Steam Machine is an expensive curiosity, not a gaming device for the masses”

We have turned the absence of demands into the most expensive good on the market. And we call it silence

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Rolls-Royce has an engineering department dedicated exclusively to calibrating how much silence should enter the cabin of a Phantomand what exact type. Not absolute silence, which they found creates nausea and disorientation, but a specific silence: an almost imperceptible residue of engine sound that confirms to the occupant that the power is still there. Only he has decided not to bother him. They call him “engineering silence“and costs almost more than the engine. This gives us a clue as to where the shots are going: silence has never come free. The mansions have walls of one and a half meters, the gardens served as an acoustic barrier and the operas are built so that not even half a creak reaches the neighboring box. The fact that silence is a luxury is not new, it is history, what is new is that it is no longer necessary to buy land to achieve it. Now silence is manufactured. And like any manufactured product, it can be sold, packaged and improved in the next version. Silence has been a side effect of privilege: the rich living away from the noise because they could afford the land and the distance. Now we move to silence as a product designed by sound engineers. The active cancellation headphonesone more simile xatakerothey do not eliminate noise but rather shape it. They generate the reverse wave calculated exactly to cancel out the frequencies of the airplane or the noise in the cafeteria. It is the same logic, but in reverse, that Volkswagen and other manufacturers use when They pump through the speakers a synthetic engine roar so that a stealthy electric car sounds like it has another engine. We make fake noise for those who want to feel powerful and fake silence for those who want to feel safe. In both cases, what you pay for is not the sound or its absence, but the feeling of having control over it. But the silence of a Rolls-Royce and the silence of an unanswered call have something in common that goes beyond sound: they are both, in reality, absence of demand. And control, not silence, is what has become a premium item. The most expensive version of acoustic disconnection is not not hearing the noise on the street, but not even having to respond. The assistant that filters calls, the agenda that decides who deserves your attention and who doesn’t, the possibility of sending someone off with a “my team will contact you” without it sounding like an excuse. This is not sold by Apple, Bose or Sennheiser. It is bought with power. The noise, meanwhile, has stayed exactly where it was: in those who cannot afford to avoid it. The silent carriage of the AVE because the rest is not and no one expects it to be, the neighbor messing around with the drill at odd hours, the bank notifications that you cannot silence in case a danger signal appears at some point, the hum of work WhatsApp groups (another epidemic) who assume that you are available on a Tuesday night, because answering quickly is an obligation for those who do not have the margin not to do so. The silence has been gentrified. Even something else: it has been converted into a subscription. And like any subscription, as soon as you stop paying, the noise returns. In Xataka | There is a generation working for free as a documentarian of their own life: they are not influencers but they act as if they were. Featured image | Xataka

The best offers from El Corte Inglés and MediaMarkt in technology and entertainment, today, July 5

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After Amazon’s Prime Day, many stores have gotten to work offering very attractive offers. Both El Corte Inglés and MediaMarkt continue to have many discounts available through their campaigns, so in this article we are going to review the best deals in technology and entertainment. JBL Tune 777 NC by 79 eurosBluetooth headphones that promise an autonomy of up to 70 hours. Lenovo Legion Go S by 649 eurosa consolidated PC with a very attractive price, especially in the midst of the RAM memory crisis. LG OLED C5 by 949 eurosan OLED television that is perfect for movies and gaming. HP OmniBook X Flip 14 by 917.23 eurosa convertible laptop with an OLED screen and Windows 11. nintendo switch 2 by 459 eurosthe console with a video game to choose from four different options. Nintendo Switch 2 + game of your choice The price could vary. We earn commission from these links JBL Tune 777NC One of MediaMarkt’s Deals of the Day is the JBL Tune 777NCBluetooth headphones that currently cost 79 euros (before 129 euros). However, Amazon has a practically identical model (770 NC), at least in specifications, so 69.99 euros. In any case, we are talking about headphones that promise a autonomy of up to 70 hours of usea very high figure that we do not often find. They also have adaptive noise cancellation and have fast charging. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Lenovo Legion Go S Although many devices have increased in price due to the RAM crisis, there are many others that do the opposite, lowering the price through offers. It is the case of the Lenovo Legion Go S which is currently in El Corte Inglés for 649 euros (at the same price at MediaMarkt). We are talking about a console with a Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor, eight-inch screen, 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of internal storage and Steam OS operating system. Lenovo Legion Go S (512GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LG OLED C5 MediaMarkt has the offer again LG OLED C5a television that we recommend for its quality-price ratio. It incorporates an OLED panel of, in this case, 55 inches that offers a refresh rate up to 144 Hz (via VRR) and supports both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Its price is 949 euros instead of 1,299 euros. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links HP OmniBook X Flip 14 If you are looking for a good laptop, El Corte Inglés right now has the HP OmniBook X Flip 14 for a price of 917.23 euros instead of 1,199 euros. It is a convertible computer that incorporates a 14-inch OLED screen, Ryzen AI 7-450 processor, 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB of internal storage. Plus, it comes with Windows 11. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links nintendo switch 2 Finally, MediaMarkt has once again launched one of its best promotions in the nintendo switch 2since it is on offer for 459 euros instead of 469.99 euros and gives you a video game to choose from four different options: ‘Kirby Air Riders’ ‘Hades 2’ ‘Metroid Prime 4 Beyond’ ‘Mario Tennis Fever’ Nintendo Switch 2 + game of your choice The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Image | MediaMarkt, El Corte Inglés and Compradicción (header), JBL, Lenovo, LG, HP, Nintendo In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs In Xataka | Best wireless over-ear headphones. Which one to buy and five recommended models

Brussels says that two thirds of what is sold in Europe has problems

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In 2022, the European Commission did a study about the most popular spices on the market. The x-ray was devastating: fraud was the order of the day. Furthermore, it was extremely common. We are talking about pepper, cumin, turmeric, saffron or paprika. That was a huge scandal and the Commission itself asked the Member States to strengthen controls. What happened next cannot surprise anyone. Let’s talk about cinnamon. In 2023, cinnamon was the fifth most imported spice in the Union. In September 2025, the Commission’s science and knowledge service (the Joint Research Center) analyzed more than a hundred samples of cinnamon marketed in a dozen countries of the European Union. The result? More than 66% of the samples analyzed They have problems. What happens to them? Well, they either violate international quality regulations or the food safety legislation of the European Union. Some show signs of fraud, others a high amount of lead and some more exceed the legal limits of coumarin (a substance that, although natural, is potentially toxic to the liver). That’s without counting fraud, of course. Up to 9% of samples labeled as Ceylon cinnamon were totally or partially replaced for Cassia cinnamon, “a cheaper and lower quality alternative, with a stronger flavor and containing coumarin naturally.” What we can do. That’s the worst. Judging by the results of the JRC, we can do little with the means we have right now. “The type of irregularities detected in cinnamon, including fraudulent practices, is diverse and cannot be addressed with a single analytical technique, which is why standardized methods are needed,” says the Commission. Taking the problem seriously would entail taking action on the matter. Above all, because the high rate of irregular cinnamon samples on the European market indicates that “all actors in the sector, from policy makers to control laboratories and manufacturers, must pay attention.” A version of this article was published in 2025 Image | Michael Collett In Xataka | It looks like honey, it smells like honey, it tastes like honey, it’s not honey: the import fraud that devastates Europe

Science confirms that movement literally ignites your creativity

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Being in front of a screen or a piece of paper and needing ideas to emerge is something that for many people is an urgent need, but the problem here is that sometimes it is completely impossible. But the reality here is that we have a wonderful way of get these ideas to come to mind through a simple walk. Science has studied it. For decades, experts have been looking for a way to unblock our brain in this situation, and here a study published in 2014 had a lot to say, since the researchers demonstrated through four experiments that walking has a positive effect on the creative thinking that is often lacking. However, his greatest contribution was the dissection of what type of creativity benefits from movement. Specifically, they saw a drastic improvement in the divergent thinkingwhich is nothing more than the ability to generate multiple new and original ideas from a stimulus, but a null or even slightly detrimental effect on the convergent thinkingwhich is the ability to arrive at a single correct or logical answer. The best. With all this we come to the conclusion that walking is an extraordinarily powerful tool for brainstorming or starting a project from scratch, but it is not the best strategy if what we need is to solve a complex mathematical equation or find the exact answer to a test. In the real world. This study laid the foundation in a controlled environment where, in fact, part of the experiments showed that the effect persisted when walking on a treadmill in front of a blank wall, ruling out that the visual stimulus in the environment was the only one responsible. But when we leave here, the logical thing we think is that everything can end up changing. And to answer this, a study published in 2024 in American Psychologist took research out of the lab thanks to sensors and real-time evaluations in 157 young adults and analyzed daily steps in an everyday context. Your results confirmed that both acute walking episodes and the regular habit of going for a walk are directly associated with greater performance in verbal creative ideation. That is, the effect was not a laboratory anomaly, but rather translated perfectly to the real world. And it is confirmed again. This same year, a systematic review published in the journal PLOS ONE analyzed 23 independent studies where 1,036 participants were grouped together. Their conclusions indicated that there is a large and statistically significant effect between walking and having better divergent thinking. But there is still no evidence regarding convergent thinking. Images | Emma Simpson In Xataka | Psychology knows that feeling pleasure in the misfortune of others is not a psychopath: it is a very “human” reaction.

Two 5,000-year-old tombs in Jabal al-Tayr reveal how Egypt learned to build the great pyramids

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The pyramids of Ancient Egypt remain a mystery thousands of years later: we are not even sure how they were made (there are theories that point to ramps and master logistics to hydraulic systems) nor how they reached such a level of knowledge and skill working with stone. Because between a pantheon carved in rock and a colossal pyramid like that of Giza there is a whole world of evolution. Well, at the site of Jabal al-Tayr (Minya) a team of archeology professionals has just found that middle ground. The discovery. The Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt has found a funerary complex that brings together two tombs from the Early Dynastic Period and burials from the Predynastic and the Late Period. The first tomb has a particular geometry: the thickness of its walls becomes thinner as it ascends. The second Mohamed Abdel Badie, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector, account for Daily News Egypt that this solution could be the engineering antechamber that made the stepped pyramid and smooth-sided pyramids possible. In short, it may be a clue to how the Egyptians began to understand how to support large masses of stone. Why is it important. Because having burials from different periods in the same space makes it easier to analyze the evolution of funerary architecture in the centuries prior to the construction of the great pyramids. These preliminary studies indicate striking similarities between the design of these newly discovered tombs and the famous tomb of King Den at Abydos. According to El-Leithy, this resemblance reinforces the archaeological importance of Jabal Al-Tayr as a necropolis, both architecturally and for the Egyptian civilization itself: it was used continuously from the Predynastic Period to the Late Period. Context. The evolution of Egyptian funerary architecture began with the mastabas of the first dynasties: a rectangular structure with a flat roof, built of adobe or stone, with a vertical well that went down to the burial chamber. From the mastabas they went to the stepped pyramids. In fact, Djoser’s tomb at Saqqara It started as a mastaba and expanded until it became a step pyramid, the first large stone structure in Egypt. The tombs of Jabal al-Tayr belong to the Early Dynastic Period, that is, to the time before Djoser, when the constructive solution that would make the pyramid possible was still being sought. In detail. Mohamed Abdel Badie explains They probably used the first tomb to extract the stone for reuse, but the preserved sections still contain important details about how it was built at the time, such as cut marks and remains of large pieces of wood that reinforced the walls. The second tomb has almost the same shape but is much better preserved because it was not looted. At the site they also found older burials where there were bodies in a fetal position wrapped in plant fiber mats and accompanied by ceramics from the Naqada II and Naqada III periods, prior to the formation of the Egyptian state. Yes, but. This finding does not clearly demonstrate that the tombs are direct ancestors of the pyramids; at the moment it is a hypothesis based on the design and its resemblance to the tomb of Pharaoh Den in Abydos. The archeology team has yet to determine the exact date of the tombs, who lies there and what relationship they have to the known sites of Abydos and Saqqara. In Xataka | If the question is how the Egyptian pyramids were made, science has an idea: hydraulic systems In Xataka | China’s first pipeline network is 4,000 years old and something revolutionary: it was built without the need for kings or nobles Cover | Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and Alex Azabache

“With increasingly frequent heat waves, more importance could be given to urban trees”

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The asphalt radiates heat, the air becomes dense and thermometers shoot up, and anyone who has walked through a big city in the middle of summer knows the abysmal difference between crossing a square concrete in full sun and take refuge under the canopy of a wooded park. The problem is that, for decades, modern urban planning has treated trees and green areas as mere “urban furniture” or a dispensable ornament to beautify the streets. A big change comes with the climate emergency that we have above our heads, and the scientific community points to the need to make a radical paradigm shift. They specifically propose that urban forests are no longer seen as something merely decorative, but rather that they must be protected and financed with the same priority as the electrical grid, sewage or telecommunications. Under investigation. A published essay At the beginning of the month in PLOS Climate has dotted the i’s after years of scientific evidence and launched a petition to governments to legislate on urban forests, considering them as essential infrastructure for climate resilience. This positioning, which functions as a roadmap, does not emerge from nowhere, but is directly aligned with the most serious warnings of recent years, including the IPCC 6th Assessment Report. In this document, the United Nations already pointed out sustainable urban planning and green infrastructure (such as parks, urban forests and vegetation covers) as key and irreplaceable adaptation and mitigation measures against global warming. Our shields. To understand why scientists urge legally shielding trees, just look at the physical data. As stated in a recent academic review on urban forests as “nature-based solutions”, the presence of forest mass In cities, it directly attacks two of the worst symptoms of climate change, which are heat waves and torrential rains. This is because trees mitigate the dreaded “urban heat island” effect through evapotranspiration and thermal shading, dramatically reducing surface temperatures. At the same time, they act like giant sponges by acting as critical structures in regulating stormwater, preventing catastrophic flooding, and acting as natural filters that improve air quality. Public health. The impact of trees goes far beyond thermodynamics, since various studies compiled in publications such as the one published in ScienceDirect have demonstrated that the lack of trees is, literally, a public health problem. For example, an article published in 2023 shelled the physiological, psychological and immunological mechanisms by which green cities transform our health, reducing chronic stress and improving our immune response. But the evidence on biodiversity and cardiovascular health is still impressive, since the evidence indicates that being exposed to diverse urban ecosystems reduces the incidence of heart disease. The experts. Daniel Jato, professor of Engineering and Environmental Management at the UIV, pointed out in statements to SMC that “in the current context, marked by increasingly frequent, intense and early heat waves, perhaps the role of urban trees could have been emphasized even more.” Images | sq lim In Xataka | César Franco, engineer: “In Spain we are not immune to the effects of climate change, we need to intensify conservation”

The Rhine is running out of water due to heat waves. And that is a logistical and energy disaster for Europe

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A new wave of extreme heat is hitting the heart of the European continent, and the consequences go far beyond the records in thermometers or the fact to see raised tram tracks. The Rhine River, Western Europe’s most important river highway, is seeing its water levels plummet and the result is that a logistical bottleneck is being generated that threatens the supply of fuel and fundamental raw materials for Europe. The worry. The alarm has begun to be raised when it has been detected that the barges that navigate the river can barely carry half of their capacity, putting the supply of an important part of Europe in check. And all because of these heat waves that we are experiencing in Europe. To understand the magnitude of the problem, you have to look at how inland navigation works, since the Rhine is not limited to water crossing Germany, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands, but is an industrial artery. Literally, coal for thermal power plants, chemicals for industrial giants, oil or automotive components are transported through this river. The drought. When the flow of the river begins to decrease, its depth also decreases, and this collides with vessels that have a critical threshold. This means that if the water drops below a certain level at key points such as the famous Kaub bottleneck in Germany, captains are forced to drastically reduce their load to avoid running aground on the river bottom. This makes load 50 or even 30% of the boat’s capacity It is not an exaggeration, but a physical necessity. This triggers a domino effect that means that, if a ship carries half the load, it takes a second to do the same work. And since there are no infinite ships, transportation prices skyrocket and goods either do not arrive on time or become very expensive. It’s not just the Rhine. Although the exact impact figures should always be taken with caution because they vary greatly depending on the stretch of the river and the type of vessel, the general diagnosis is incontestable. Here the Joint Research Center of the European Commission has studied in-depth how limitations due to low water levels impact European rivers. Its scientific framework perfectly explains the current collapse, since low levels not only reduce cargo capacity, but completely alter continental logistics flows, drastically increasing operating costs. The reasons. Here the different institutions are clear that the problem lies in the lack of rain in spring and the lower amount of snow accumulated in the Alps during the winter, which causes the river to lose its natural “reserve” for the summer. But also, the Rhine is clearly warming. This not only has clear economic effects, but also serious ecological impacts on the river’s fauna, which in turn forces additional restrictions to be imposed. The new normal. What we are seeing this year does not seem like an event that remains a simple anecdote to tell our grandchildren, but rather the different evidence indicates that seeing low flow will be increasingly frequent due to climate change. The proposed solution involves the use of AI to predict exactly when we will see these very low flows to optimize the supply chain, or simply build flat-bottomed boats with better drafts to be able to continue transporting cargo when the river is at even lower levels of flow. Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | Global warming has stepped on the accelerator at an unprecedented rate and we are getting closer to the point of no return

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