sufficient

“A green area without sufficient trees loses much of its ability to act”

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Extreme heat waves are an increasingly intense and long-lasting structural challenge and, faced with some cities turned into asphalt traps With a distinct lack of trees, the “urban climate shelter” concept has gained traction as emergency infrastructure. However, not just any green space acts as a heat shield, since recent research led by the University of Granada evidence that the design, morphology and, above all, the type of trees are critical factors, since a green area without dense coverage loses almost all of its effectiveness in reducing temperature. Size is not everything. The first results of the ACTERCA project, led by researcher David Hidalgo from the UGR, show the thermal behavior of green areas in the eight Andalusian capitals. To carry it out, they used a combination of satellites, climate modeling, artificial intelligence and thermal cameras, and the research concludes that the cooling capacity depends critically on large trees with dense canopies. These specific trees are the ones that really manage to reduce the environmental temperature between 3 and 5 ºC compared to areas dominated by impermeable pavements or the classic albero. That is why the key is not to create “green-looking” climate shelters, but to specifically design them to offer good shade and evapotranspiration with the most suitable trees. It is explained as follows by the UGR: These processes reduce the ambient temperature and significantly improve the thermal comfort of those who use these spaces. On the contrary, green areas with little tree cover lose much of their capacity to buffer heat, which shows that increasing the green area, by itself, does not guarantee effective protection against heat waves. It’s personalized. The study also highlights that urban design does not admit universal recipes, since in cities like Seville and Malaga, the main problem lies in the albedo and in Córdoba, the threat is building density and soil waterproofing. But if we go to Granada, the geometry of the historic neighborhoods, with narrow streets, offers greater thermal resilience than that of the new urban developments. Beyond temperature. Although lowering the thermometer is the most visible objective, science warns that the concept of “urban climate refuge” is still in its infancy and its definition lacks consensus. According to a systematic reviewcurrent urban planning is focusing almost exclusively on thermal comfort, leaving the potential of these spaces to promote urban biodiversity or long-term climate mitigation unexplored. In fact, it is pointed out that climate shelters must be conceived as multi-scalar solutions, since an isolated square is not enough, but an interconnected network is necessary. Along these lines, science proposes specific methodologies (tested in Seville and Malaga) to design shelter networks that classify spaces according to their use: places of temporary relief, areas for daily activity or areas of critical assistance during disasters. The real challenge. The biggest obstacle facing climate refuges is not thermodynamic, but social. And I know that an excellently air-conditioned park is of no use if those who suffer the most from the heat cannot access it or do not feel integrated. For example, an analysis at the IERMB on the Barcelona shelter network showed that there are deep intersectional vulnerabilitiessince factors such as economic income, gender and cultural origin determine who actually uses these spaces. This geographical and income inequality is also denounced by Greenpeace Spain, whose reporte warns of a serious lack of protection against heat waves in the most vulnerable sectors of the population, addressing access to thermal comfort as a fundamental right. We are behind. We know what works and how to implement it, but management is still one step behind. A review at European level which analyzed 97 initiatives in 88 cities revealed a notable institutional disconnection, since national climate adaptation strategies are rarely vertically integrated with local practices. Plans written on paper take too long to become trees planted on the asphalt. And the message we have on the table is that, to combat the extreme heat of the coming decades, cities do not simply need more square meters painted green on a map, but rather densely treed, intelligently distributed and, above all, socially fair urban ecosystems. Images | Andy Lee In Xataka | Climate change has a lethal side effect that we are only just discovering: it locks us in the house and prevents us from moving

“A structured resistance routine with appropriate series and weights is sufficient”

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When you enter the world gym it is quite likely that two great mantras: “You have to change exercises constantly so that the muscle does not get used to it” and “The more sets and weight we load, the more the muscle will grow.” However, the latest scientific evidence is dismantling these popular beliefs piece by piece to make way for much more efficient training. A new study published in April in the journal Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport forces us to rethink how we create our routines, especially if we are looking to have a much larger arm. To do this, the researchers set out to resolve a fundamental question: is it really necessary to increase the number of sets or vary the exercises constantly to continue gaining muscle? To figure it out, they recruited 32 young adults with no prior strength training experience and subjected them to a 14 week protocol. The first six weeks were standard conditioning, where all participants gained a remarkable 4.0% of lean mass in their upper limbs, measured with extremely high precision using scanners. DEXA. The real test came over the next eight weeks, where they divided the subjects into four groups. Here one group kept the same basic routine, while the second group increased the number of sets they did of an exercise and the third also changed the type of exercise. And to bring it all together, the fourth group of young people increased both the number of series and the type of exercise. The result. There was no statistically significant difference between these four groups, since the group that limited itself to doing the basic routine with sufficient effort gained 3.1% of lean mass, even surpassing the group that had much more weight in its exercises and technically tying with those who varied exercises. The conclusion that can be drawn here is good news for beginners, since overcomplication offers no magical advantages over a solid and consistent routine. A bad idea. The conception we have that the muscle gets used to exercise and needs a “surprise” for it to start growing as we want, the truth is that it is a myth, as we are seeing. And in case there was any doubt, another article published in 2022 analyzed more than 240 participants to see if varying exercises had any type of advantage. Here it was seen that varying systematically can help regional hypertrophy, but changing too quickly or without any strategy behind it can compromise muscle gains. And if you change your routine every week, the nervous system spends time learning the coordination of the new movement, instead of effectively recruiting muscle fibers to make them grow. How much do you have to train? If constantly changing isn’t the key, is living in the gym? Here a large review crossed data from 4,784 people to determine what is recommended It is a minimum of 10 weekly series per muscle group to optimize hypertrophy. When it comes to frequency, the reality is that training a muscle once a week or three times gives very similar results as long as the total weekly weight is the same. This means that, if you do 12 sets of biceps a week, it doesn’t matter if you do 12 on Monday, or 6 on Monday and 6 on Thursday. Don’t change for the sake of changing. Instead of randomly varying exercises, science suggests choosing the most biomechanically effective movements and progressing through them. Here, a study done in 2023 compared triceps training with the arms above the head versus neutral positions and the result was clear: the overhead position generated 28.5% hypertrophy in the long head of the triceps, compared to 19.6% in the neutral position. They did not grow more because they were “confusing the muscle,” but because the elongated position generated greater mechanical tension. With all this, we must keep in mind that the change of exercises must be done according to biomechanics and with a sense behind it. In Xataka | Walking does not count as “exercising”: for the 10,000 steps a day to be effective, the x3 rule must be applied

The most self -sufficient countries on the planet at the food level, gathered in a surprising graphic

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Humanity has eaten what it played For thousands of years. With globalizationhe has started eating what he wants and that, together with the population increase, It has consequences. Not being able to meet the demand of some foods, Import is a necessity. But it turns out that there is a unique country in the world, a completely self -sufficient one if we talk about food. Guyana The All-Star of Self-sufficiency. In the upper graph, prepared by Visual Capitalistwe can see the 50 most self -sufficient countries in the world at the food level. It reflects seven food groups: Fruit. Vegetables. Legumes. Starchy foods such as flours or rice. Meat. Fish. Dairy. And the only country that not only complies, but exceeds the production of what its population of each of these groups needs is Guyana. It is a small country of about 815,000 inhabitants located in northern South America that has shot your GDP These last years. Partly, thanks to discovery Of great oil reserves in 2015, but before that boom, their agricultural and mining industry were the ones that pulled the car. Closing the podium. So much that it is, as we say, the only one that produces its own food in all groups, highlighting in one that does not usually highlight: starchy foods. Closing the podium, we must look at Asia. Vietnam and China are two other countries that meet in six of the seven groups. The common strong point is the production of meat and fish (Meritory in the case of China, but At the expense of half -world folders). The weak is that of dairy products. It is common in Asia, with cases as dramatic as Indonesia, Thailand, Tonga, Laos or Philippines, which satisfy 0% of their dairy consumption with the national product. To the tail … On the other side of the balance we have Armenia, Thailand and Greece. The three countries are in the group of those that meet in the production of four categories (where the vast majority of countries are found), but with low percentages in general in almost all groups and a total dependence on dairy and vegetables in the case of Thailand, starchy and, curiously, fish in the case of Greece and legumes and fish in the case of Armenia. Europe and the fruits that come through those who come out. Taking an eye on the panorama of the member countries of the European Union (Greece is an example), we see that some falter, others stand out. And vice versa. The north, for example, does not get along with the Fruit culturesomething that does stand out in the countries of the South. The key in this case is the Single market Agricultural that allows food products to circulate freely between member countries, without regulatory tariffs or barriers. More than 70% of EU’s food products is carried out between member countries, being something that ensures balance and supply even in cases of local productive problems. In Xataka | The size of the submerged economy of all countries in the world, exposed in this developer map

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