When the first pages fall to the 2024 calendar, if we look at the climate emergency, one of the main vertices of our ecological problems, we can't say that the year we just finished was a hopeful year. Full of records, it is no longer easy to highlight a single indicator, as almost everyone is in capital letters. Beyond the climate, in six of the planet's nine ecological borders we exceed the carrying capacity of the planet, jumping daily from eco-anxiety to eco-indifference.

For many years, scientists have warned us that natural and socio-economic systems can have collapse, unbearable heat, extreme weather events, food and freshwater shortages, rising sea levels, more new diseases and social unrest, and worsening geopolitical conflicts.

But this year the drafters of the annual report The State of the Climate 2023 (The State of the Climate 2023), which includes works by 15,000 scientists, have taken a step further and noted: “Time is over. As scientists, more and more people are being asked to tell the truth in simple and direct terms about the crises we face. We're actually in a state of shock with the size of the extreme weather phenomena of 2023. We fear the unknown dimension we have introduced.”

Scientists fear the unknown dimension we have introduced. And us? Where do we place the Basques on a subject that affects the living conditions of us and future generations? After looking at the latest surveys and reports, I will recall two facts. It appears that about 40 per cent of the population believes that within ten years the climate emergency is among the three main problems. It can be said that Basque society is concerned about the future ecological crisis, but if you ask about the problems of today that concern falls to the thirteenth position. In other words, we know that ten years from now it will be the main problem, but today we are giving priority to eleven others.

And so, emergencies do not allow us to anticipate the major problems of the future, we always leave the solutions for tomorrow. Of course we can accuse the nature of society, but I end by recalling two small terms. The lobby of environmental abuses will not emerge in ten years' time, because it is already emerging. On the other hand, we need a joint and sustained effort of at least ten years to ensure that the toughest scenarios are not implemented within ten years. No fear?