extinction

They are fires “out of extinction”

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Spain faces a crisis for which it is difficult to find precedents. The fires have always been present in our summers, but this year it could be thought that their voracity would have caught us off guard. Fire extinction teams have often had problems supplying in their work in the fight against fire. And it is not for less, the situation has been extreme and, in part, the fault is in the very nature of these fires. The magnitude of a crisis. The most recent data indicate that fires this year have already devastated plus 340,000 hectaresthe worst data in several decades. The fires They have cost life to several people, eight according to more recent databut they have also caused injuries and have forced thousands of people to move to safer areas. According to data from the emergency management system of the European Terrestrial Observation Program Copernicus (Copernicus ems), this summer the fires have devastated with a much greater area than usual in Spain, approximately 6.5 times the average of previous years. Another fact that allows us to illustrate the seriousness of the problem is that of the almost six million tons Carbon dioxide (CO2) that these fires have released the atmosphere only in Spain, a figure that almost doubles the records of previous years and multiplies the previous average several times. Sixth generation. The voracity of some of the fires we have seen responds to its nature as fires called “Sixth Generation”. In this type of fire the fire reaches an intensity so that it alters the circulation of air in its environment, it generates important convective movements and even pyrocumuli, “clouds of fire”. All this makes the displacement of fast and unpredictable fire, making it difficult to control and extinction. Not all the fires that are currently produced are of this type, but the current conditions favor the appearance of this type of fires. An extreme heat wave as lived in recent weeks, added to the presence of abundant fuel matter, is the broth of Ideal culture for appearance Fifth and sixth generation fires, the most dangerous we catalog. “After a spring as wet as this year in which the vegetation has grown a lot, now we find an extreme heat situation, strong winds and a lot of time (in some cases several months) without rain,” explained to Science Media Center Cristina Santín Nuño, Head of the Department of Biodiversity and Global Change of the Mixed Institute of Biodiversity Research (University of Oviedo-CSIC). “We have all the ingredients for the ‘Molotov cocktail’ that we are seeing right now not only in Spain.” Prevent, better than turns off. Experts agree that our resources when fighting this type of fires are very limited due to their extreme intensity. Often the tools we have to fight fire lacks utility due to the enormous accumulation of energy in these fires, which implies the need to wait and focus on preventing the situation from getting worse. “We cannot forget that, in many cases, when the fires are very large, fast and intense, they cannot be fully controlled by many means of extinction that are dedicated to them. In principle, it seems that the current heat wave will begin to refer in a couple of days, so that could give a truce,” Santín Nuño added. In A recent interview In the newspaper The worldPaco Castañares, who was the General Director of the Environment The Board of Extremadura in the early 90s, also emphasized the impossibility of fighting these events. The reason is that the fires of this magnitude “reach temperatures of 1,200 degrees Celsius in their pirocumulus.” As if this were not enough, it is “fires that have neither head or fronts because they come and go from one place to another,” he added. Not only the voracity of fires. The lack of means when facing fires has been one of the great debates during this fire cycle. The impossibility of fighting this type of fire can make us fall into a false sense of inevitability, but the truth is that the means of extinction are more necessary than ever for several reasons. The first and most obvious is that not all forest fires we are seeing get into an inextinguishable phase: the fires of lower generations are manageable and require the work of the troops destined to the fight against fire. In Spain There are still numerous active fireseach with own characteristics and intensity. Secondly, it must be remembered that sixth generation fires are not inextinguishable from beginning to end although they can be in its intermediate stages. Getting control a fire before acquiring characteristics that make it indomitable is a way to prevent the worst consequences of these events. In addition, after this peak of intensity, the fire refers facilitating its extinction. Finding this moment and taking advantage of it requires these media. Beyond the border of fire. To this is added the importance of having means beyond the limits of the fire, both in space; to protect vulnerable places before the arrival of the flames; And in time, out of the fire season. Regarding the latter case, the present fires have revealed the need to take care of the rural environment Also during winter. The key is also in how the means destined to protect people and the fire environment are distributed. According to Castañares himself explained“Above all, the media have to be inside the people protecting people, with them, it didn’t.” In Xataka | The heat wave and forest fires have another face: the agricultural sector is the one that has to lose in this crisis Image | Copernicus / Ministry for Ecological Transition

Professional CEOs are a species in extinction. Who tries it does not repeat

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“CEO is sought for a large company. Leadership capacity is valued and being able to work under pressure. Salary above the average.” If vacancies for the positions of the executive director of the large companies will be announced Like the rest of the positionsthey would probably be something similar to this. However, there are less and less “ceos to serir”, as they defined them In an article of The Wall Street Journal Two decades ago, referring to a lineage of executive directors capable of Change company Every four years, and even sector. The important thing is to direct. What does not matter so much. Ceos for everything. There was a time when the executive directors jumped from one company to another every four or five years. It was almost a mythical figure in the halls of global capitalism. These leaders, known as CEO in seriesthey were sought to lead deep transformations, implement aggressive cuts or save drifting companies. However, that figure is running out of generational relief. However, there are still some managers that fit into the classification of CEOs in series. Names like Luca de Meowho was head of Fiat and Alfa Romeo before becoming CEO of Renault, and is now emerging to lead the transformation of Kering, luxury fashion holding that markets marks such as Gucci, Balenciaga or Boucheron. Brian Niccolcurrent CEO of Starbucks, which had previously directed Chipotle and Taco Bell. Be CEO. Instead, such and as he points out he Financial Timesthe predominant model is the “One and Done”, in which many executive directors choose to occupy that position only once in their career, exhausted by pressure, extreme public exposure and wear that implies exercising the leadership of a large company today. The CEO of a British company quoted in the stock market reflected this feeling by declaring the Financial Times: “After this work, I will have finished. It is very rewarding, but it leaves you exhausted. I will never occupy the position of executive director ever again.” According to data From Russell Reynolds, in 2024 there were 220 changes in the dome of large companies in the main 13 global markets. Of these, in 187 cases (85%) were appointments of people who assumed the position of CEO for the first time. This phenomenon has accelerated since 2018 and highlights a substantial change in the criteria of choice of new CEO. As Laura Sanderson, director at Russell Reynolds, explains, “the decline of the CEO in series probably reflects the nature of the current position. It is high pressure, high risk and is very exposed. The path to a retirement with the intact reputation is complicated and, for many leaders, a single experience like CEO is sufficient.” Chiefs of the quarry. Given the shortage of profiles experienced in the direction of large companies, many companies have begun to invest in their internal talent quarries. He Ascent from other high positions of management as directors of operations, financial directors or area leaders has become a usual formula to ensure a less traumatic relief because Who ascends already knows the company. However, it is no longer enough to know the company and the sector in which it moves, but as it summarizes A study From Miltown Partners and The Chief of Staff Association, “today’s leaders have become executive directors who do everything, everywhere and at the same time.” The position now also requires other skills that the quarry managers cannot always offer: the advance of AI, the constant pressure of the shareholders, the political and cultural atmosphere. Any phrase out of place can become A reputational crisis for the company and even at a real risk for the manager, which can become target of attacks as was the case of the executive director of United Healthcare More difficult, more salary. The increase in the requirement of responsibility for executive directors has also been accompanied by A salary increase equivalent. He Average salary of the CEOs Of the large US companies reached 30.9 million dollars in 2024, which means “more than one fifth part of the average salary of 2023”, according to Indicates the study Made by Equila and Associated Press. However, neither money nor The extraordinary benefits have managed to stop the Trend to abandonment of the management positions. It is increasingly common for candidates to reject these positions if other companies have already directed before or if the conditions seem especially demanding. Power wears. Faced with this continuous stress situation suffered by the company’s first representative, a new form of early retirement is being imposed: that of the “portfolio race”. With this new modality, the Executive takes a step to the side as a visible face of the company, but remain linked to it taking advantage of its experience as an advisor or defending the interests of the company participating in the board of directors of third parties. An example would be Noel Quinn, who, after a prolific Race at the head of the Swiss Bank HSBChe decided to retire in 2024: “Now is the right time to achieve a better balance between my personal and business life,” explained after Assume the presidency of the Swiss bank Julius Baer. In Xataka | The best paid CEOs of the technology industry, gathered in a simple graphic Image | Wikimedia Commons (Alejandro Migl), Flickr (ACC District), Unspash (Pablo Varela)

Japan has found the number of children per woman to avoid demographic extinction. Two thirds of the planet are very far

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A group of researchers in Japan He started studying What number of children by women could be understood as a key to “avoid extinction”, understanding this, not as prevention before a total apocalypse of our civilization, but as the prevention of statistical extinction of the lineages or family lines over time. They found two things: that the number that was presupposed above was very low, and that a large part of the population is late. Beyond the threshold. For decades, the magic number to keep the human population “stable” It has been 2.1: It was believed that, on average, each woman should have just over two children to ensure The generational replacement and avoid population decline. However, a New study warns that this threshold is outdated and insufficient. According to Japanese researchers, the true level of fertility necessary to guarantee the long -term survival of a human population is not 2.1, but of 2.7 children per woman. The reasons? This adjustment is due to the fact that the traditional calculation does not contemplate the Stochastic variability (that is, randomness) in factors such as individual fertility, mortality, sex proportions at birth and the probability that some people simply never have offspring. By incorporating these real fluctuations into population mathematical models (through Galton-Watson Model), The authors concluded that a higher rate is needed for Avoid progressive extinction of family lineages in generations of the future, especially in societies with low sustained birth. Map of when European fertility rates fell below replacement levels Ignored warning. The finding is especially alarming because currently two thirds of the population World Cup lives in countries with fertility rates below the old 2.1 threshold, and well below the new estimated 2.7. Among the most affected, many highly developed, are South Korea (0.87), Italy (1.29), Japan (1.30), Canada (1.47), Germany (1.53), United Kingdom (1.57), France (1.79) or the United States, with a rate of just 1.6 children per woman. These levels, which have remained low for decades, mean that almost all family lines in these countries are intended, statistically, to extinguish at some point in the future. Plus: The study clarifies that A slight bias Towards female births (that is, a slightly greater proportion of girls than boys) could marginally decrease the risk of extinction, increasing the probability of reproduction in future generations. But even that factor, by itself, would not be enough to compensate for a persistently low fertility rate. Map of countries according to global fertility rate Pronatalists Interestingly, this information reinforces the alarms that have sounded from certain sectors concerned about the future demographic. One of the most visible faces of pronatalism contemporary It’s Elon Muskwho has repeatedly warned that the low birth rates “will end civilization” and whose prolific paternity (at least 11 known children) is presented as a deliberate act in this fear. For pronatalists, raising birth rate is a Existential priority. However, this position is not widely shared by the general population. United Nations Population projections by location (the vertical axis is logarithmic and represents millions of people) Social realism. Fortune told that a Population Connection survey carried out at the beginning of the year showed that most people do not consider low birth rate An urgent problem. Only 15% perceived it as one of the main global challenges, while 45% expressed more concern about excessive population growth, given the fear that children are born in poverty conditions or with exhausted natural resources. More perceptions. Another more recent survey, Made by Yahoo News and Yougov revealed that only 8% of Americans were “very concerned” about the fall in the country’s birth rate, and only 32% expressed any degree of concern about it. In the background, another reality that We have been counting: a majority of those who do not have children, or have few, do not do it for apathy towards the future of humanity, but For practical reasons: The lack of institutional support, the loss of life, the high cost of parenting or the perception that the world is not a conducive place to form large families, they are also key. In addition, it generates an increasingly acute contrast between the demographic predictions of experts and the immediate priorities of the population. So? The warning of Japanese researchers seems clear: without a change of course, demographic extinction will be slow but inevitable in many regions of the world. And although the term “extinction” may sound apocalyptic, what is at stake, according to scientists, is not the sudden disappearance of the human species, but the progressive erosion of family and cultural continuity, in a process where future generations will be more scarce, more isolated and, in many cases, non -existent. From that prism, reproducing is more conditioned than ever to social, economic and environmental factors, and the figure of 2.7 children per woman may seem more a demographic utopia than an attainable objective. It does not seem that we are going to extinguish in the short term, at least not through “fertility”, but The study It puts the focus on the population growth to which many regions point out. Image | Pexels, JOHNSONRED, Korakys In Xataka | We thought we were 8,000 million people throughout the planet. Until some researchers began to make numbers In Xataka | In Japan there is no doubt that they live worse than 30 years ago. Literally, houses are getting smaller and smaller

Digital serendipia is in danger of extinction. Internet understands us too well

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Serendipia, that valuable finding that happens while we were looking for something else, It is in the process of extinction if we talk about the Internet. The increasingly precise recommendation algorithms have locked us in bubbles of very comfortable convenience, but also sterile. We no longer lose ourselves on the Internet – from there the “navigate” -. And that is the problem. I think of my adolescence, in the first decade of this century. An any night, listening to Rock & Gol, who combined rock and football, wanted to hear comments on that glorious stage of Valencia, but suddenly something different sounded. It was not the commercial pop of melancholic latest adalescents (“I loved it so much …!”), Nor the first Reggaeton that we met. Was ‘E-Pro’, from Beck. Those four minutes changed my perception of what music could be. Today I do not seem to me from the other Thursday, but at that time it made me want to hear a type of music that until then did I know. It was an accident, a fortuitous collision with something that I had never actively looked for because I didn’t even know that it existed. He simply reached my ears without ever having reproduced anything similar. Today, with Spotify suggesting songs millimetrically refined to my tastes – declored and inferred, Grrr – I wonder Where are those transformative accidents for current adolescents. It is a paradox: the more sophisticated the technology becomes to “meet us”, the less opportunities we have to know something really new. Our algorithms have confused “relevance” with “familiarity”, offering us barely noticeable variations of what we already consume. As Antonio Ortiz said in “Internet was dopamine, AI will be oxytocin“, We have optimized platforms to maintain our attention, not to expand our horizons. Captive, not creative. When was the last time you discovered something really unexpected in your Feed? Not something tangential to your usual interests, but something totally new, discordant, something that made you rethink ideas and expand towards a new taste. The digital explorer of yesteryear, which sailed hyperlink in hyperlink to the final P2P, has been replaced by the passive consumer that slides the finger in an infinite flow of pre -healing content. In its improvement, The algorithms have eliminated friction, and with it, the generative spark of the disagreement. It is not good news. The horny is that this algorithmic refinement comes just when we need divergent thinking. The real innovation, which changes paradigms instead of optimizing the existing, arises precisely from unexpected connections, from the collision between disparate ideas. Silicon Valley was built on serendipias: Stewart Brand finding inspiration in the native Americans to create the Whole Earth CatalogSteve Jobs captivated by calligraphy which would end up deeply influencing the design and DNA of the Mac. Until the very concept of hypertext he was born from an analogy with how the human mind works: not linearly, but by unexpected associations. It is not just a matter of innovation. Also of civic health. Before, physical newspapers forced us to pass pages where we found, unintentionally, discordant opinions with ours. Now Discover is in charge of filtering. Now, ours feeds They are so Tunis that can spend months without giving ourselves with an idea that really confront our convictions. The algorithm, in its eagerness to maximize our permanence time, serves only what confirms our presuppositions. Or in the case of X, What will make us foam through our mouths. This overallization of digital consumption has created a strange phenomenon: we had never had access to so much information and yet our mental worlds are increasingly narrow. The variety has been sacrificed at the altar of personalized experience. It is still symptomatic that some of the most powerful voices after these designs They do not want to put their own creations in the hands of their children. We go to an internet where each click It is premeditated, where the following recommendation is predictably interesting. In the name of efficiency we are sacrificing that glorious digital disorder That, like garbage DNA in our genome, could contain the germ of the next great innovation or simply those findings that change the cultural consumption of the rest of our life. I wonder how many songs of Beck – not songs by the Californian musician, but the concept of music that breaks with our previous beliefs – we are missing, especially today’s teenagers, trapped in loops of algorithmically perfectly perfectly sterile content. Maybe it’s time for demand the right to digital serendipia. To ask ourselves if we want an internet that understands us too well or one that may still surprise us. In Xataka | Shy from the world, we are losing the Internet Outstanding image |

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