Global

In China, glaciers have become a tourist attraction. So you’re protecting them from global warming with XL blankets

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Located in the province of Sichuan, just 300 kilometers from Chengdu, the Dagu glacier offers such fabulous landscapes that every year it receives several hundred thousand tourists. They come from other parts of the country or the planet to enjoy the snow and the views from their cable car. For scientists, however, Dagu is more than just a white paradise. In his opinion it looks more like a “terminally ill”a patient they must care for to avoid (or at least delay) the fatal outcome: the slow and unstoppable loss of ice due to climate change. For this purpose, a group of Chinese researchers has had a curious idea, to say the least: ‘covering’ part of the glacier with a gigantic blanket. A threatened paradise. Dagu is more than a glacier the tibetan plateau full of landscapes instagrammable. It is also a fundamental piece in the region’s economy. The enormous mass of ice attracts more than 200,000 tourists per year, which keeps an industry that employs thousands of people, and its melting supplies the populations with drinking water and even energy thanks to hydroelectric generation. Neither one nor the other has stopped scientists from referring to Dagu as a “dying glacier” or “a terminal patient.” Thus, in such a heartbreaking way, he defined it a few months ago Wang Feiteng, glacier expert and member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Is your condition that serious? The data are certainly not encouraging. In an article published in 2025, the Chinese organization recalls that since the 1960s its ice has “fragmented into scattered remains” and the frozen surface of the glacier has been reduced more than noticeably. And the trend does not seem to ease. “During the last four years the terminal end retreated another 20 meters,” warn from the academy, which insists that if nothing stops the process the situation of the glacier will be critical and irreversible at the end of this same decade. “Without urgent intervention, the Dagu glacier will disappear by 2029.” Beyond Dagu. The Chinese academy is not the only one to warn of the degradation of the environment. In 2003 Bloomberg dedicated him a chronicle in which he already pointed out that in the last half century alone the glacier has lost more than 70% of its ice. Regarding the reason, researchers have few doubts: The retreat of the ice mass is explained by the climate and the increase in temperatures. The problem is actually much bigger. Dagu may be one of the most vulnerable, but China has many other glaciers spread across its vast geography. Many. It is estimated that about 69,000, the tenth part of the glacial mass of every planet. And only between 2008 and 2020 its frozen surface receded by about 6%. If we broaden the perspective, since the 60s it has shrunk 26%. A blanket for the sick. Dagu’s situation may be critical, but… “As a doctor, can one just walk away?” he wonders Wang Feiteng. Convinced that the answer is ‘no’, a few years ago he and his colleagues decided to apply a striking strategy on the Tibetan glacier. They are dedicated to covering part of their frozen surface with a blanket that protects it (at least in part) from the effects of global warming, slowing down the loss of ice. It may sound strange, but the key is in the physical properties of that ‘protective quilt’. What they use are “glacial blankets”layers that stand out for their reflective capacity and provide thermal insulation, minimize the absorption of shortwave radiation and improve the albedo of the glacier, that is, the proportion of reflected solar radiation. The result? Less ice loss. The technique is not exactly new. It is inspired by what they already wear decades doing the ski resorts of Austria or Switzerland to protect the snow, although the approach does change. The idea was put into practice in Dagu in 2020 with six rolls of white cloth covering a selected area of around 500 m2. And does it work? It seems so. The program has been attractive enough to attract the attention of UNESCO, which a year ago published an article by professors Kang Shichang and Du Wentao, both linked to the CAS, in which some results of the experiment are described. To begin with, experts have found that the melting rate in the area covered by the glacial blanket was reduced by 34% between 2020 and 2021. “Even a year after removing the fabric, the area melted 15% slower due to the extra ice,” clarify from the CAS. The scientists were not limited to Dagu. In an attempt to go further, they used “more advanced nanomaterials” to cover a section of the Urumqi glacierin the Tian Shan Mountains. Thanks to the use of nanofibers, the researchers claim that they have managed to reduce the melting rate up to 70% in summer. The key is in a new material that, according to a team from Nanjing University, is capable of reflecting more than 93% of sunlight and dissipates the heat to which glaciers are exposed, reducing ice loss. Not everything is advantages. The results They are hopeful, but they leave some questions raised and also have limitations, such as recognize Kang Schichang and Du Wentao: “Covering glaciers with blankets has been mostly applied to small, tourism-focused glaciers on the brink of disappearance. While it has been proven effective in slowing their retreat, it poses environmental risks, high costs, and can only be applied in small environments. Large-scale retreat of glaciers cannot be addressed using nanomaterials alone.” The Chinese Academy itself recognize that Dagu is “an atypical case”, since unlike most of the glaciers in China, which are remote and difficult to access, this one “is located in the center of an urbanized tourist destination, which has electricity and access to water all year round.” That’s important for several reasons. First, because it has generated an infrastructure that makes it easier to deploy programs such as blankets or the … Read more

At the age of 16 he created a picosatellite from his room in Madrid. Today your company is at the global forefront in IoT communications

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While the majority of 16-year-olds were thinking and doing other things, it occurred to Julián Fernández (La Línea de la Concepción, Cádiz, 22 years old) create a 250 gram picosatellite from scratch. That project and that ambition changed his life and ended up causing him to found Fossa Systems in 2018. Today, six years later, we are faced with a leading company in this market that has things very clear and a spectacular projection. From Gran Vía to space. Fernández commented in a recent interview on RTVE how Fossa is the Spanish company that has launched the most satellites into space: currently there are 24 satellites. The project of his company – based on Madrid’s Gran Vía street – is to create a constellation of 80 small satellites. They have that many licensed, and all of them are specifically designed for communications with IoT devices. This is not a Starlink. Comparisons are odious, but often useful, and it is inevitable to look at Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite network. The latest versions of its satellites weigh between 800 and 1,250 kg, while Fossa’s nanosatellites do not exceed 6 kg. Starlink’s need huge solar panels because processing their broadband communications consumes a lot of energy, while Fossa’s use batteries that can last up to ten years. Nanosatellites for IoT. The focus is also very different, because Fossa’s nanosatellites have the mission of moving small packets of data in an ultra-efficient way. They are designed so that a sensor on an oil barrel, cow collar, or cargo container sends short, informative messages such as “pressure level OK” or “location: X.” They are totally designed for those short and critical communications in the Internet of Things. Spain is beginning to truly emerge. Fossa has already raised more than 12 million euros between private and public financing, has more than 50 employees and headquarters in Madrid and Portugal—and soon in Asia. They have become an absolute benchmark in their segment. and although at the moment they are launching with SpaceX, they hope to do so soon with PLD Spacethe other jewel in the Spanish aerospace crown: “Spanish satellites on Spanish rockets.” Satellite sovereignty. Fossa’s technology is being especially used in the defense sector: more than 80% of its turnover comes from this segment. As Fernández explained in that interview, “we cannot depend on the US for a technology as critical as satellite communication and sovereign and independent systems are needed.” A notable bet. The fact that Spain is, for the first time, the fourth European country that invests the most in space. Along with Poland it is the one that has increased its contribution the mostwhich now reaches 22,000 million euros. Hello, “New Space” model. Fossa has taken advantage of a new paradigm known as “New Space” in which from large space megaprojects we move to agile developments in which miniaturization and cost reduction is enormous. Fossa Systems is capable of creating a new satellite and putting it in space in six months, but that satellite also costs hundreds of thousands of euros, not tens of millions of dollars. There is another fundamental advantage: Fossa Systems does everything except the design and manufacturing of the semiconductors and the launch of the satellites. That verticalization, that “not depending on almost anyone” is another of its strengths. The future: satellites (somewhat larger)… and licensing. From that initial picosatellite of 250 g we have moved on to the current FOSSASat FEROX of about 6 kg, but the future involves manufacturing somewhat larger satellites of about 20 kg. They hope to complete their constellation of 80 satellites before 2030, and while they do so, Fernández has another objective that he will surely have no problem completing: obtaining his degree in telecommunications engineering at the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid, where he is currently pursuing that degree. In Xataka | PLD Space has a detailed plan to become Europe’s rocket factory. And the pieces have started to fit

According to scientists, global warming will most likely lead to an Ice Age

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We usually imagine the climate change like an endless ascending line: more heat, melted glaciers and more acidic oceans. However, science has just put on the table a hypothesis that is not very intuitive: under certain extreme conditions, global warming does not end in hell, but in a real freezer. And the plankton, which seems harmless, has a lot to say in this regard. The identified. A team of researchers from the University of California, Riverside (UCR) and the University of Bremen has identified an instability in the carbon cyclea “glitch” in Earth’s climate operating system, suggesting that an ocean that is too warm and depleted of oxygen can trigger massive global cooling. The geological thermostat. To understand this finding, we must first look at how the Earth regulates its temperature in the long term. The classic mechanism is silicate weathering. Which basically means that when there is a lot of CO₂ in the atmosphere along with heat, it rains more and this rain dissolves the silicate rocks, dragging the carbon and the nutrients it stores to the sea, such as phosphorus. That’s where plankton uses that carbon to build their shells and, when they die, they sink, trapping CO₂ on the seabed. And although it may seem like good news that they store this gas that is seen as a great enemy on the seabed, the fact of reducing its concentration It means that the temperature drops. A paradigm shift. Until now, scientists saw this as a stable “thermostat”: if it is hot, the system works to cool the environment, and if it is cold it works less intensely. But now something radical arises: the thermostat has a catastrophic failure mode. According to their simulation models, when the system is coupled to the cycle of marine nutrients and biological productivity, the regulation can be unstable. And this is where the ideas of a future ice age begin. The plankton trap. For researchers, if we continue with extreme warming on our planet, erosion will increase to bring nutrients to the ocean. Something that will undoubtedly be appreciated by the phytoplankton and the algae that will accumulate it and when it dies, it will create an area in the water where there is not a hint of oxygen. In an ocean without oxygen, phosphorus once again dominates sea water which will create a vicious cycle where the algae They will consume large amounts of oxygen. The result is that the ocean floor begins to ‘suck’ CO₂ from the atmosphere at breakneck speedwhich is much faster than volcanoes or human activities can replenish it. The result is clear: a thermal collapse that can lead to a severe glaciation similar to what the Earth has experienced in the past. We had other fears. Right now on the table we had the suspicion that the collapse of the AMOCthe ocean currents that move water between various locations, will lead us to this situation. And they have a very important function: moving warm water from the tropics towards the north through the surface and cold, dense water towards the south through the depths. Something that a priori regulates global temperature. Global warming. A priori, anyone might think that continuing to emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is the solution to this. But the authors issue a warning: geological times are not human times. We are talking about a mechanism that operates on scales of hundreds of thousands of years, and that is why it will not cool the planet either in this century or the next. In fact, researchers suggest that if this mechanism were activated today, it would be an excessive correction that will occur long after we have suffered the consequences of global warming. The fragility of the system. The carbon cycle is not a simple scale that stays in balance, but is quite dynamic and complex. This is somewhat difficult, since it can easily become unbalanced. The idea that the planet can “overreact” to heat by causing extreme cold reminds us that the Earth has regulatory mechanisms that are indifferent to the survival of human civilization. Images | Javier Miranda Alberto Restifo In Xataka | The Earth is entering climate collapse with its first point of no return. Our only salvation is technology

After electrifying cars, China is targeting trucks. It is a slap in the face to global diesel consumption

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China is one of the oil monsters. Not so much in generation, where they want to start being a powerbut in consumption. It is the fuel of hundreds of millions of vehicles They hit the road every day, but things are changing. Although the Asian giant has become one of the powers in car electrification, diesel seemed to have a break thanks to trucks. Not even that anymore. Diesel down. China is second diesel consumeronly behind the United States. transportation concentrate between 70 and 80% of that final consumption, but in recent years, the market has been going down. It is estimated that, in June 2024, diesel consumption fell to 3.9 million barrels per day. It’s still stupid, but it was 11% less than during the same period the previous year. It was the biggest drop since mid-2021 (logical because of the pandemic and the world situation) and despite the industrialization of the country and the rise of both national and international trade, this consumption has remained at a “plateau” for more than a decade. That is to say: it should be much greater than 10 years ago, but that is not the case. Another fact: in August 2024, 8% of new trucks were electric, but in August 2025, the figure was 28%. electric trucks. He rise of electric cars could explain this negative trend in diesel consumption, but as we say, the boats and, above all, trucks continued to support the market. That is no longer so clear, especially with the recent involvement of the Government. In April this year, the Ministry of Transport published, with the support of other government departments, a program to encourage the majority of new truck sales to be new energy by 2035. To achieve this, there are objectives, such as that by 2027 the share of electrical energy in final transport consumption must be 10% and the proportion of new new energy vehicles must be increased each year. The heavy truck seemed to be the bastion of diesel, but now it is one of the central pieces of this decarbonization of transportation. Paradigm shift. To achieve this, in addition to direct aid for the purchase of heavy electric trucks, China has launched a specific action to eliminate and replace old diesel trucks, with subsidies for their removal and replacement with new energy units. In fact, there are advantages: freer access to restricted urban areasfewer time limitations and discounts on tolls. In a report by The Associated Press This paradigm shift is reflected: if in 2020 almost all new trucks in China were diesel, by 2025 electric trucks already represent 22% of new heavy truck sales. As our colleagues point out Motorpassionthe arrow is inverse to that of diesel consumption: in the same period of 2024, that percentage was 9.2%. And the load? It represents a paradigm shift and there are analysts who predict that, by 2026, diesel will only account for 40% of sales. The rest: electric and gas trucks. Is the charging infrastructure? Because we are seeing advances in the development of solid state batteries that will allow greater autonomy, but until they arrive, it is necessary that there be numerous charging points to support the electrification of transport. The National Energy Administration and the Ministry of Transportation have already affirmed that 98% of highway service areas already have charging points, with widespread installation of 120 kW chargers and, in some segments, 600 and 800 kW chargers. The intention is for there to be some 28 million charging points throughout the country by 2027, and one of the key pieces in that expansion is CATL. The company is one of those leads the battery sector worldwideand is currently tracing a “green corridor” that will cover the major freight hubs to facilitate loading, but also to implement its battery exchange system that speeds up the process. Green curve… and economic. This electrification of commercial transportation would add to the objectives of decarbonization of the countrybut obviously truckers and companies also see a benefit in their pockets, or so they esteem. Although electric trucks are between two and three times more expensive than diesel trucks and cost 18% more than LNGare more efficient, have less maintenance and can help save between 10% and 26% over their useful life. Horizon. This change to the electrification of trucks would already be reducing the demand for oil in the equivalent of more than a million barrels per day, and that a giant like China stops depending on crude oil for its trucks is something that can shake the market internationally. And that ambition is not going to stay within its borders. If in recent months we have seen that China has flooded Europe with his electric carswe can expect something similar for 2026, but with trucks. And, furthermore, it has torn off in Hungary the construction of a factory for electric trucks and buses. It is evident that this path started by cars will be followed by trucks, which in the end are a important source of emissions in a world with increasingly global trade. Specificallya third of all transport-related carbon emissions in 2019. Images | Volvo, Cheng Long In Xataka | China’s energy paradox: an ‘electrostate’ that continues to feed on coal

An investment of 2,350 million will make Extremadura a global supplier of diamonds for chips

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Trujillo will be a world center for the production of synthetic diamonds. A factory will be created there with a budget of 2.77 billion dollars (almost 2.4 billion euros) in which the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation will participate (SETT), with 753 million, and the American company Diamond Foundry (DF). And those diamonds will not be used for jewelry, but for especially powerful chips. The silicon problem. Current silicon chips have hit a “thermal wall.” By making them faster and more powerful, they get so hot that they lose efficiency or burn out. This slows down the progress of these chips and their application in fields such as artificial intelligence or automotive. Alternatives have been sought for a long timeand the diamond is precisely one of the most striking. The evolution of Trujillo. The Diamond Foundry factory will not make jewelry, but the synthetic diamond wafers it first produced two years ago. The diamond has a thermal conductivity much higher than that of silicon, with values ​​ranging between 1,000 to 2,200 W/mK compared to 153 W/mK for silicon. Or what is the same: it allows us to guarantee that, as they highlighted on IEE Spectrumthe chips of the future will remain “fresh.” The impact. By using diamond as the base or substrate for these chips, it is possible to run them at extreme speeds without overheating. This will position Spain as the world center of this critical technology. The North American company It already had two plants in Trujillo in which monocrystalline diamond (SCD) ingots were produced. The factories are also powered by solar energy, which is abundant in the Extremadura region. Zaragoza as a great ally. Those responsible for Diamond Foundry they explain in the official statement that the new factory is already underway with two construction shifts to accelerate the works. The ingots (the “raw” form of the material) will then go through a singling or cutting process that “slices” them into very thin sheets. These sheets, which are initially rough, are polished at a microscopic level and packaged in a sterile environment. Precisely this “post-processing” phase of production will be carried out in Zaragoza. The investment. The total budget they talk about in DF is 2,770 million dollars, about 2,392 million euros at the exchange rate. Of that amount, the SETT—which groups together previous investments such as PERTE Chip—, will contribute 753 million euros according to DF. It is expected that in the first ten years of the project the contribution to the Spanish GDP will be around 2,150 million euros, and it is expected to generate around 500 direct jobs and more than 1,600 indirect jobs. How to produce synthetic diamonds. While natural diamonds they take time to produce between 1,000 and 3,300 million years old, in Trujillo they are manufactured in approximately one month. To achieve this, DF uses 20 plasma reactors that exceed 1,000 degrees in temperature and generate conditions similar to those found in nature. The process starts with a 20.0 x 20.0 x 0.2 mm diamond “seed” that, when subjected to a combination of gases and a microwave process, grows until it reaches the optimal dimensions for use. Di Caprio, among investors. A curiosity: the San Francisco-based company was founded in 2012 by Martin Roscheisen and Jeremy Scholz, but what is surprising is its list of investors. Among them are iPod co-creator Tony Fadeel, Twitter founder Evan Williams and actor Leonardo di Caprio. The water problem. Diamond Foundry’s plants in Trujillo have faced significant problems related to their water supply. It is estimated that the plants need at least 730,000 cubic meters of water per year, which exceeds the annual drinking water consumption of the entire population of Trujillo. Various platforms such as Save El Berrocal and Ecologistas en Acción have warned of that danger, although Diamond Foundry has defended that its plan is based on the reuse of water from the Trujillo Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). The Extremadura Government gave the green light to some modifications to the original DF project and considered that the factories would not produce significant adverse effects on the environment. In Xataka | China defies geology: it manufactures in a week what the Earth takes a billion years to do

The Earth is headed for a new ice age, according to a Science study. And it is precisely because of global warming

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Science is largely in agreement when it suggests that the Earth’s temperature it increases more and moreand logic could lead us to think that the world is going to become in a real desert like the one in Almería. But to everyone’s surprise, what can happen is a great ice agethat is, everything ends up covered in ice. And although it may seem illogical, science wanted to give light about this topic. They have been new models from the University of Bremen and the University of California Riverside, published in Sciencewho have located right there one of the great unexpected dangers of terrestrial geochemistry: under certain conditions, excess heat can activate “biological accelerators” that then cool the planet beyond its original state. Even to reach an ice age. Beyond the rocks. Something that may be unknown to many is that the Earth has a temperature control system like the thermostat in our home. The most accepted was regulation by the slow wear of silicate rocks. However, geological records show episodes in which this natural “thermostat” fails: the Earth freezes from pole to pole, as during the Precambrian glaciations. What is missing from the equation? The new study points to the decisive influence of marine biology and nutrient cycles, especially phosphorus and oxygen. An unexpected loop. When CO₂ emissions and global temperatures rise, the arrival of phosphorus into the oceans also increases, fertilizing the proliferation of algae. These remove CO₂ thanks to photosynthesis in the water, and when they die, they transport that carbon to marine sediments, where it can be trapped for millions of years. As if it were a dumping ground for carbon dioxide on the seabed.. But the key to the loop is oxygen: the explosion of algal productivity consumes the oxygen in the water, meaning that almost no living being can live here. Under these conditions, phosphorus stops being buried and instead of being eliminated it is recycled from the sediment. This fuels new “super blooms” and closes a vicious cycle: ‘More nutrients → more algae → less oxygen → more nutrient recycling → extreme cooling’. The result is that the biological thermostat goes crazy, sequestering carbon at a frenetic pace that the rocks’ slow thermostat cannot compensate for. The new model. The new model integrate these quick feedbacksadding sedimentary chemistry, the phosphorus cycle and the oxygenation state to the traditional silicate weathering models. Surprisingly, when predicting the effect of the “great human experiment” of releasing CO₂, he finds that the system does not always smoothly return to the previous statebut it can overcompensate and take the planet to colder times, in deep glaciations, for tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years.​​ This only occurs when the atmosphere is less rich in oxygen, something common in Earth’s past, which may explain why ice ages coincide with intermediate periods of planetary oxygenation. Today, that same loop would make the “reward” much smoother, although there would still be the risk of long-term cooldown. If we continue burning fossils. In this way, other scientific studies already suggest that large inputs of phosphorus, whether due to massive mining or increased weathering induced by climate change, can increase the risk of anoxia and abrupt cooling events, although this scenario would take centuries or millennia to develop. This is why the acceleration of the phosphorus cycle together with the increase in CO₂ concentrations is conditioning us to the climate changes that we will see in a few million years. And although the Earth system may have the mission of stabilizing, the reality is that this system cannot always be trusted. Images | Denise Schuld In Xataka | We have just identified the oldest glaciers in the world. Where: under South Africa’s big gold mines

The first, create a global center that regulates AI. The second, be in Shanghai

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The Chinese president presented at the APEC summit your proposal to establish a World Organization for Cooperation in Artificial Intelligence. It is the first time that Xi speaks publicly about this initiative that Beijing has been working on since the beginning of the year, and the message is clear: China wants to lead the global governance of AI compared to the United States. A proposal in a regulatory vacuum. Xi Jinping defend that this international body should establish AI governance rules and encourage cooperation between countries, turning artificial intelligence into “a public good for the international community,” according to collect the Xinhua agency. The Chinese leader stressed that “artificial intelligence is of great importance for future development and should be done for the benefit of people in all countries and regions.” The United States, for its part, has rejected attempts to regulate AI through international organizations, leaving the door open for other powers to take the initiative. Shanghai as a technological epicenter. Official Chinese sources have confirmed that the organization would be based in Shanghai, the country’s financial and technological center. The election seeks to consolidate the city’s position as a global benchmark in innovation and strengthen the Chinese technological ecosystem at a time when Beijing is promoting what it calls “algorithmic sovereignty”, as they mention from Reuters. A recent example is that of DeepSeekwho launched cheaper AI models as an alternative to Western solutions dominated by advanced Nvidia chips. Additionally, China has a large presence when it comes to open source models, with companies such as Alibaba being the reference through their models qwen. Strategy. The proposal comes at a strategic moment. The APEC summit, which brings together 21 nations that represent half of world trade, approved a joint declaration and pacts on AI and the challenge of population aging. China took advantage of this scenario to position itself as a leader in multilateral cooperation, especially after Trump’s absence at the leaders’ summit held in the South Korean city of Gyeongju. The American president returned directly to Washington after his bilateral meeting with Xia meeting in which a temporary one-year agreement was promised to partially reduce the trade and technological controls that had triggered tension between the two largest economies in the world. Beyond AI: green technologies. Xi too took advantage the forum to urge APEC members to promote the “free circulation” of green technologies, a sector that ranges from batteries to solar panels and in which China largely dominates. This is a complementary strategy, as the country seeks to maintain its competitive advantage while proposing to regulate AI at a global level. Next stop: Shenzhen 2026. China will host the APEC summit in 2026 in Shenzhena city of almost 18 million inhabitants that Xi described as a former fishing village transformed into a technological power after becoming one of the country’s first special economic zones in the 1980s. Today it is a nerve center for advanced manufacturing, from robotics to the production of electric cars. It will be a new opportunity for Beijing to continue pushing its vision of technological and commercial cooperation. Cover image | aboodi vesakaran and Xataka with Mockup Studio In Xataka | Volvo and Pirelli have been in the hands of Chinese groups for years: they are just two examples of how China is buying Europe

This is how they are using oysters to stop global warming

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A few days ago we said that 55,000 oysters were about to invade the Mar Menor and, as strange as it may seem, it is good news. It is about the first step of a project of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography to recover the flat oyster in the largest lagoon in the country and, at the same time, introduce a natural biofilter that contributes to solving the dead end in which that area is. And this is just one example of something really curious: for years, oyster farming has been claimed as (perhaps) the (only) “agricultural” industry that is good for the global environment. And it’s not a ’boutade’: we have data. A few days ago, Nature magazine published a very interesting analysis of life cycle in Irish oyster farms. From there we can extract numerous data on its ability to reduce “environmental and climate pollution”: for every ton of oysters, 3.05 kilos of nitrogen, 0.35 kilos of phosphorus and about 70 kilos of carbon are fixed. All aquaculturists they know that oysters are “ecosystem engineers.” They filter water, reduce turbidity, eliminate problematic components and facilitate the robustness of habitats and boost biodiversity. That is to say, there is no doubt about the local benefits of this type of exploitation. The news is, in any case, that this contribution also goes beyond the local. And is it? Compared to terrestrial livestock farming, bivalves usually have a low carbon footprint in relation to their protein density. In fact, according to the analysis we were talking about, the footprint per ton is very manageable and a good part of it is offset by the mineralized carbon of the shells. If they manage well, of course. Because, if we look at the raw data, as a global climate solution, oysters are a modest strategy. In the end, carbon balances depend of the specific site, the management of the bivalves, the reuse of shells and, of course, the energy used throughout the production chain. Therefore, when we talk about “potential to fight climate change” we must keep two things in mind. The first is its ability to show that we can build another food industry. The second is to show that the impact of the things we do goes beyond what we are able to see directly. In the case of oysters, we have to take into account that their impact on water quality and biodiversity is not only powerful and cost-effective; but rather contributes to stopping climate change indirectly. Good news beyond the specific data. That’s the summary: if oysters can change the playing field; If they can push us, even an inch in the right direction… welcome. Image | Visual Animation In Xataka | The Mar Menor is so bad that scientists only see one solution: put 60 million oysters in there

OpenAI has turned the global economy into Russian roulette with a single bullet: AGI

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2025 is being the year in which OpenAI has ceased to be a technology company and has become a black hole that attracts capital, expectations and the destiny of companies that move billions, with a ‘b’. Sam Altman has designed a scenario where there are only two possible outcomes: AGI for them or collapse for everyone. Why it is important. OpenAI’s valuation has reached $500 billion as an unlisted company. It has moved more than a billion (also with ‘b’ and it is not a false friend of “billions”) in deals in recent weeks. Those figures only make sense if they get the AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). If not, everything explodes. The panoramic. A year ago, a round of 6.6 billion It seemed like an astronomical figure. Nine months later, 40 billion. Now we talk about 100 billion with NVIDIA. And so naughty. When we reach these magnitudes (and they are repeated) we stop talking about simple capital injections and talk about binary bets on the future of the world economy. The problem is that these figures have dragged other giants to the same precipice. The backdrop. Microsoft was the first to get hooked. Then he considered divorce and since then They are still together, but sleeping in separate beds. Furthermore, OpenAI has achieved something more dangerous: chaining Oracle, AMD and above all NVIDIA, the most valuable company on the planet on the stock market. If OpenAI clears its throat, all NVIDIA knobs jangle. And if NVIDIA falls, it drags down the S&P 500. The domino effect would reach pension funds, corporate spending and the US GDP. And from there, a chain effect for the economy of the rest of the world. behind the scenes. NVIDIA is not only funding OpenAI, it is also guaranteeing some of the debt the startup needs to build its own data centers. Is circular money: NVIDIA sends money in exchange for shares. OpenAI uses it to rent chips from NVIDIA. And those contracts allow NVIDIA to take on more debt to continue financing OpenAI. A loop that only works as long as the music continues playing. When the Titanic began to sink, the orchestra’s musicians were forced to continue playing. Yes, but. AI already works. It is already transforming sectors. Nobody doubts it. You don’t need to be AGI to have value. The problem is that OpenAI does need AGI to justify these insane valuations. They have set up a structure where any slowdown, any sign of doubt, will trigger panic. The money trail. Altman has found in Masayoshi Son to the perfect partner. The SoftBank founder has a history of big bets blowing up and miraculous saves (Alibaba, ARM). The Altman-Masa combination is a capital cannon pointing skyward. But it is also a detonator: if they fail, the explosion will be proportional to the ambition. According to Altman’s analysis, OpenAI has to beat Google before the latter’s TPUs hit the market and change the rules of the game. That’s why the rush. That’s why Atlas. That’s why the agreements with Broadcomconversations with Intel, promises to AMD. It’s not just about building the best AI, it’s about surviving until you get it. The big question. What if another macroeconomic event stops everything before superintelligence arrives? OpenAI is racing against the clock, it needs AGI before the economy trips over its own shadow. Meanwhile, the market rewards these alliances with instant increases. Oracle has multiplied its value just by announcing agreements with OpenAI. Capitalism of expectations: benefits are no longer needed, only promises of a future that does not yet exist. The same thing happens to others because OpenAI is the new King Midas. Decisive moment. This is no longer a bubble that can burst. It is a bet that can fail. And the difference matters. A bet drags down everything around it. OpenAI is already too big to fail without causing a cataclysm. Which makes it probable an Intel-type state bailout if things go wrong. Altman knows that many AI companies will disappear when the euphoria ends. Only the largest will survive. OpenAI plays at being so big that it has to be rescued. It’s already happened with the dotcoms‘. It can happen again. OpenAI has forced a binary scenario: either we achieve AGI or we face a brutal recession. AI works, transforms, improves processes. But that is no longer enough. We need trillions in value created. And if they don’t arrive in time, the collapse will be rapid. And ugly. In Xataka | AI is giving a second youth to unexpected actors: the old guard of enterprise software Featured image | OpenAI, Alexander Gray

There are more robots working in Chinese factories than in the rest of the world together. Beijing’s strategy is already a blow of global authority

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Close your eyes for a moment and imagine The country with more robots in its factories. The logical thing would be to think of Japan, and not a few would also include the United States in the quiniela. However, the most recent figures point out another destination and do it clearly: China, where robotics has ceased to be an experiment to become the daily pulse of production. It should be specified from the start: we do not talk about showcase humanoids, but of industrial welding robots, manipulation and assembly, which are transforming how it is already manufactured what speed. The last report From the International Robotics Federation offers the clearest photograph of this phenomenon. In 2024 alone, Chinese factories installed about 300,000 industrial robots, a figure higher than the rest of the combined world. In parallel, the total park exceeded two million active units, well above any competitor. In contrast, the United States added 34,000 new robots in its production and Japan lines around 44,000, confirming the magnitude of the Chinese jump. China not only competes, already dominates China’s hegemony in industrial robotics has not appeared out of nowhere. Since 2017, its factories have installed Between 145,000 and 295,000 annual robotswith a especially strong jump from 2021. Pandemia barely slowed that progression, and in 2024 the figure was again located around 300,000 units. In contrast, the United States, Japan, South Korea and Germany not only started from much more modest volumes, but also registered declines in the last statistics. The next step in the Chinese strategy was not only to install robots, but to manufacture them on a large scale. For the first time, Chinese suppliers sold more than foreigners in their own market: 57% of the 2024 facilities were of local origin. On a global scale, Japan remains the main manufacturing country (around 38% of the world supply, according to IFR). This turn reduces dependence, although it does not equals full technological autonomy Chinese industrial policy has been decisive to accelerate the transition to automation. The initiative Made in China 2025 marked the first great milestone in 2015, with the aim of REducate dependence of imports in key sectors. Six years later, in 2021, the country adopted a specific plan to multiply the deployment of industrial robots. This planning added loans at low interest from state banks and support for technological purchases abroad. The result has been a fertile terrain for the expansion of Chinese robotics. When talking about robotics, the most common image is that of humanoids as Optimus either Figure. However, the figures that place China in the lead correspond only to industrial robots: mechanical arms that weld, assemble or move materials in the production line. The report leaves humanoids out, still in an experimental phase and with very small sales. Even so, the state impulse has generated an ecosystem of humanoid -centered startups, such as UNITREEalthough its weight in the industry remains marginal. The figures that place China in the lead correspond only to industrial robots. The integration of artificial intelligence into the factory is not exclusive to China: Japan, South Korea, Germany or the United States also apply with vision systemsautomated failures and quality control algorithms. What distinguishes Beijing is the scale with which this practice has spread, until it becomes a usual component of its industrial strategy. In many plants, the AI ​​monitors real -time machines, anticipates breakdowns and adjusts processes. This broader and more coordinated deployment has multiplied the impact of automation. The technological jump also depends on the people who make it possible. China has a large number of specialized technicians, from programmers to industrial electricians, capable of installing and maintaining robots in complex environments. Even so, the demand exceeds the supply and salaries of the installers have shot, already around $ 60,000. This talent gap reflects a global bottleneck: automation does not advance with capital and machines, it needs professionals who integrate it into the factory. Chinese leadership in industrial robotics still has clear borders. Although the country already manufactures a third of world robots, it continues to depend on foreign supplies for some key components. High precision sensors and advanced semiconductorsfor example, they are still domain from Japan and Germany, with decades of technological advantage. This deficit limits China’s ability to assemble higher range robots, especially humanoids. Even with a thriving ecosystem, technological autonomy is not yet complete and marks one of Beijing’s pending challenges. Although China continues to depend on foreign suppliers, the weight of its market already conditions global dynamics. By producing and installing more robots than anyone, it achieves economies of scale that reduce automation projects and pressing international prices. Its volume also gives it the capacity to influence technical standards and equipment interoperability. In the supply chain, the center of gravity moves to Asia, forcing other countries to adapt to an ecosystem in which China marks the rhythm, even without still controlling all technology. The map of industrial robotics is no longer understood without China in the center. In the next two years, the attention will be to verify whether to reduce its dependence on key components and if it maintains the rhythm of 300,000 new annual facilities. Beijing does not hide that he wants to extend this model to emerging sectors such as humanoids and reinforce their weight in global chains. For the rest of the world, the question is not whether China will continue to lead in volumebut how to respond to a strategy that combines scale, industrial policy and technological ambition. Images | Simon Kadula | Arthur Wang In Xataka | Qualcomm believes that the 6G will be the final network for AI and has already set it: the reality is that 5G is still in diapers

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