Tag:
Articles in ‘climate change’
February 16th, 2010
Researchers from the University of Barcelona have analysed all the articles published in the La Vanguardia newspaper between 1982 and 2007 linked to natural hazards, climate change and sustainable development. Over 25 years the press devoted more headlines to forest fires and droughts, even though floods are much more frequent and cause more damage. The article’s main author Carme Llasat comments:
If the press focus more on forest fires and droughts, then people also become more aware of these events, to such an extent that they are deemed a more significant hazard in the area and more frequent occurrences than they really are”
This is a fascinating study on how the media fuels the public perception of environmental hazards.
More here
Catalonia, Climate, climate change, desertification | Tags: Carme Llasat, Floods in Catalonia, Natural disasters in Catalonia, natural hazards in Spain|
February 1st, 2010
A pair of long-legged buzzards (Buteo rufinus) have established themselves in the Tarifa area in Andalucia. Although the species is occasionally spotted as vagrant, this is the first time since records began that a pair has settled in Spain. Long-legged buzzards are an African species, present across the Straits in Morocco. It is thought that warming temperarures have brought them further north.
El Mundo
Andalucia, birds, climate change | Tags: Birds in Tarifa, Birds of prey in Andlaucia, Buteo rufinus Spain, Rare birds in Andalucia, Rare birds in Spain, Tarifa|
December 4th, 2009
ICO, the Catalan Ornithological Institute, have published a study on changes in the bird population in Catalonia. The climate of Barcelona is now similar to Castellon a hundred years ago, while Montpellier up in France is now like Barcelona used to be. This shift has meant birds such as hoopoes no longer leave Catalonia for the winter. Cetti’s warblers and Bee-eaters have been doing remarkably well, growing by 71% and 98%, respectively. Earlier springs and extended summers mean they have a longer breeding season. Butterflies, like the Monarch are now spotted as far north as the Delta del Ebro. A bird running out of cooler habitats in Catalunya is the Alpine Chough.The study also points out that birds are adapting to climate change by moving northwards and upwards, but at a slower rate than the actual changes taking place.
Adapted from Lucy’s
post on the forum and orginally from
El Periodico.
Catalonia, birds, climate change | |
December 4th, 2009
Large numbers of storks have returned to Spain several months early from the Sahel driven not by global warming but by African drought and the promise of rich pickings on Iberian rubbish tips and ricefields. Some 30,000 don’t even bother making the journey anymore.
La Crónica Verde
birds, climate change | Tags: stork migration in Spain, storks, storks and rubbish tips, Storks in the Sahel|
November 29th, 2009
The Sierra Nevada is one the most vulnerable sites in Europe to climate change thanks to its position between the Europe and Africa, between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and because of its mountainous nature, with huge changes in habitat in just a few kilometres. The Park’s Observatorio de Cambio Global (above photo) has now been selected by Unesco as one of ten sites in the world for its climate change studies. Temperatures are expected to rise by 2 degrees in the next 40 years with a fall in rainfall if 10%, reducing significantly the amount of snow with serious affects on the ski industry, irrigtation and biodiversity. El País
The Sierra Nevada is one of the most important biodiversity hotspots in Europe. All five of Spain’s bioclimatic zones are present here from Mediterranean up to crioromediterraneo, supporting up to 2,100 plant species of the total of 7,000 recorded for Spain. The fact that the whole of the British Isles only support some 1,900 plants will give you some idea of why botanists get so excited about the place. More
See also (2004)
The unique plant communities of the high Sierra Nevada appear to be under threat from rising temperatures. According to the Andalucian government, a rise of 1.2ºC has been detected in the province of Granada over the last 20 years, which although not much in itself has been enough to endanger 65 endemic plants, most of which are only to be found in the highest altitudes of the range. Like its African and Andean counterparts, the pseudo-alpine habitat, known cumbersomely as crioromediterraneo in Spanish, is extremely sensitive to changing temperatures, and gradually plants are being forced ever higher in search of cold enough conditions. More
Andalucia, Sierra Nevada, climate change | Tags: Climate change in the Sierra Nevada, crioromediterraneo|
November 7th, 2009
Summer has seemingly refused to die this year in Spain. Official figures show that October was the fourth hottest since 1971, after 1995, 19997 and 2006. In some areas, temperature were as much three degrees above average. Rainfall was slightly below normal values.
These temperatures had been predicted at the start of the month. In a similar vein, temperatures in August in Spain were “extremely hot”, being the third highest since 1970 (2003 and 2005 were hotter).
Climate, climate change | |
September 23rd, 2009
The Spanish Meteorological Agency (
AEMET) is predicting a warm autumn for 2009 with temperatures 1 to 1.5ºC above average, especially for the Mediterranean area. Precipitation figures are expected to be normal. In a similar vein, temperatures in August in Spain were “extremely hot”, being the third highest since 1970 (2003 and 2005 were hotter). The hottest temperature was recorded in Alcantarilla (Murcia) on 23 August with a scorching 45ºC.
El Mundo
Climate, climate change | Tags: Autumn in Spain, Climate of Alcantarilla, Rain in Spain in autumn, Spanish autumn, Spanish Meteorological Agency, temperatures in Alcantarilla|
March 27th, 2009
Spain is currently the world’s second-biggest tourist destination after France, with the population of 45 million being bolstered every year by as many as 60 million foreign visitors, 80% of whom flock to the coasts. Tourism contributes more than 11 per cent of Spain’s GDP and employs more than two million people. These figures are going to fall in the next few years because of the economic crisis, but the sector faces a much greater long-term threat, that of climate change. According to the Fundación Empresa y Clima “the changes are going to be far more drastic than those caused by the current economic crisis”. Impact are likely to include higher temperatures, loss of beaches due to sea level rise, loss of biodiversity and ecosystems, the reduction of water resources and the increase in forest fires. El Mundo
Meanwhile, the EU has delivered a stinging criticism of Spain’s property laws, allowing urban sprawl and corruption, voting overwhelmingly to freeze hundreds of millions of euros in Spain’s EU funding if the Spanish government does not tackle what the parliament condemned as “extensive urbanisation” practices. BBC
And again, the long-term prospects for the traditional Spanish tourist industry may not be rosy. Over-development of the country’s coasts has seen them lose their much of their appeal for tourists. Some statistics:
- In the six years between 2000 and 2006, urban development within the first two kilometers of the coast of Huelva increased by 48.1 percent.
- Urban sprawl in Valencia increased by 53.1 percent. In just six years, concrete was blighting one out of every 10 previously untouched kilometers of Valencia’s coastline.
- In Alicante and in the Andalusian province of Málaga, more than half of the first two kilometers of coast are under concrete. In Barcelona, just 32 percent of the coastline remains undeveloped. Across Spain, coastal urban sprawl has increased by 22 percent in just six years.
La Comunidad Valenciana construyó un 10% de su costa en sólo seis años (EL País)
Environment, Spanish coast, climate change | Tags: Spanish tourist industry, urban sprawl in Spain, Urban sprawl in Valencia|
February 24th, 2009
Another study has highlighted the likely disappearance of the glaciers in the Pyrenees in the next 40-50 years.
Since the first study by French geographer Franz Schrader in 1894, the Pyrenean glaciers have lost 88 percent of their 1,779-hectare surface area, according to a report by the Spanish Ministry of the Environment. Low rainfall and the rise in temperatures is leading to their rapid melting, and it is estimated that by the middle of the century, they will have vanished altogether. This has accelerated in recent years with the glaciers losing 72 hectares between 2002 and 2008. One of the most striking examples is that of La Madaleta glacier, one of the largest in the Pyrenees, whose thickness has shrunk by 180 metres since 1991 at an average rate of 11 metes a year. The absence of snowfall in summer in recent years has exacerbated this regression. Lower snowfall is also likely to spell long-ter, disaster for the skiing industry.
See also:
Aragon, Aragonese Pyrenees, Climate, Pyrenees, climate change | Tags: Franz Schrader, La Madaleta glacier|
February 6th, 2009
The inhabitants of Spain’s Atlantic and Cantabrian coastline will have to get used to more storms and giant waves as a result of global warming. Two waves of 26.13m and 24.64m hit the coast near Santender on January 22nd, the largest every recorded anywhere along the Spanish coastline. Both form part of general tendency detected of ever greater waves.
Asturias, Cantabria, On Spain, Spanish coast, Spanish seas, climate change | Tags: biggest waves in Spain. highest waves in Spain, waves and climate change|
December 9th, 2008
The top UN climate official Yvo de Boer has attacked former Spanish president and climate-change denialist Jose Maria Aznar, stating during a press conference “I’d say to him: ‘Look out of your window.’ I think that in a few years we could have the Spanish Sahara which he’ll be able to see in person’. (PS I don’t have the original words in English so I’ve re-formulated them)
El Pais
On Spain, climate change, desertification | Tags: Aznar on climate change|
October 27th, 2008
Climate change is beginning to affect vineyards in Spain. The start of the grape harvest has moved forward 11 days in the last 20 years. This is increasingly seen as a major threat to the wine industry in Spain and elsewhere. According to the experts, until now the changes to grapes caused by higher temperatures (fruitier flavours, higher acidity and higher concentrations of alcohol) have generally had a positive impact on the taste of wines. But if temperatures keep rising in Spain, wines could soon taste very different, ruining some vintages.
Climate, Farming, climate change, food | Tags: vineyards in Spain|
September 6th, 2008
Glaciar de Monteperdido in the Aragonese Pyrenees (El País)
A Spanish study published in The Holocene has concluded that the progressive rise in temperatures since 1890 will lead to the total disappearance of the Pyrenean glaciers by 2050.
Glaciers advanced during the Little Ice Age (LIA) between 1300 and 1860 in the Pyrenees, Picos de Europa and Sierra Nevada. These were most extensive in the Pyrenees (because of altitude and latitude) but today glaciers remain only in the highest peaks. There were six glaciers in the Picos de Europa Massif during the LIA, and one glacier, the southernmost of Europe, in the Sierra Nevada (Pico de Veleta). All of these glaciers have been in continuous retreat since the end of the nineteenth century, 94 have disappeared completely (Veleta in 1913), leaving 29 glaciers in the Pyrenees (10 in Spain, 11 in France), four buried icepatches in the Picos de Europa and one buried icepatch in the Sierra Nevada. The last 15 years has seen a 50-60% reduction in surface area of the largest glaciers.
The Little Ice Age was not a continuous period of cold. These Iberian glaciers expanded most rapidly between 1645 and 1710, and then shrunk between 1750 and the early 19th century but then recovered after a new cold period. Since the end of the 19th century temperatures have risen more sharply by 0.7ºC and 0.9ºC in the mountains in northern Spain in line with global warming. El País
See also
- Climate guide to Spain
- The Little Ice Age in Spain
- Glaciers in Spain (2004) Spanish glaciers melting fast Greenpeace has released a report on the state of Spain’s glaciers. The glaciers on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees are melting fast.. Total surface area has dropped from 1779 hectares in 1894 to 290 in 2000, representing a fall of 85% in of surface area. 52% of this has occurred in the last 20 years, and 30% between 1991 and 2001.
Aragon, Aragonese Pyrenees, Climate, Geography, Picos de Europa, Sierra Nevada, Uncategorized, climate change | Tags: icepatch, Little Ice Age|
July 20th, 2008
Photo by Scott Sonnenberg (wikipedia)
In recent weeks the presence of Portuguese man o’war (Sp. carabela portuguesa- Physalia phisalis) has been detected at various points on the coasts of Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country. Several people have been stung in beaches in Guipúzcoa (Ondarreta and Zarautz) and in Cantabria (Isla) although nobody has yet been seriously injured. Four years ago, the massive presence of the species forced the closure of several beaches in Asturias. Experts believe that the rise in the temperature of the Cantabrian Sea due to climate change has brought the Portuguese man o’war here with warmer waters. The cooler waters of Galicia have so far been free of the threat. El País. The purple Man-o-war is not a true jellyfish, but a colony of hydrozoan polyps. It can in extreme cases provoke a cardiac arrest and death in particularly sensitive persons.
Note the English and Spanish etymology comes from the creature’s air bladder, which looks similar to the triangular sails of the Portuguese ship (man-of-war) Caravela latina (two- or three-masted lateen-rigged ship caravel), of the 15th and 16th centuries. See Wikipedia
See also: Sharks, weaver fish, jellyfish and other dangerous animals in the seas around Spain
Asturias, Basque Country, Cantabria, Dangerous animals, Spanish seas, climate change | Tags: Physalia phisalis in Spain, Portuguese man o'war|
July 12th, 2008
Fapas have started a new campaign with the slogan Más osos menos CO2 (More bears less co2) to give local businesses an opportunity to neutralise their carbon emissions by planting fruit trees. The idea is for any interested companies to (simply) calculate their co2 emissions and Fapas then work out how many trees would need to be planted in bear habitat in the north of Spain. The companies will benefit by being presented with “green” certificates and the bears will profit by having more, for example, chestnut, apple and cherry trees from which to feed.
Asturias, Cantabria, Carbon sequestration, Castilla y León, Galicia, Mammals, bears, climate change | Tags: campaign, Fapas, more bears less co2, planting fruit trees|
Three Iberian lynxes of the captive breeding programme have died in recent weeks from a renal disease. Lynxes in the wild are thought not to suffer from this disease. 
Radio interview on Canal Ser with Carlos Sanz, perhaps the biggest expert on wolves in Spain and livestock farmer Rodrigo Peñalosa, looking at both sides of the debate around wolves in Spain. 
Interesting documentary from TVE about bears in the Cordillera Cantábrica with Guillermo Palomero, President of Fundación Oso Pardo.