The Filomena storm has rocked much of the Iberian Peninsula, with frost and snow throughout the territory. Euskalmet meteorologist Onintze Salazar explained the consequences of the storm in the area. Salazar says that the cold wave we are suffering must be placed in the context of climate change and global warming. The last six years have been very warm around the world, and 2020, together with 2016, have been the warmest years according to records.

Waste generated by consumerism

Professor of Physical Geography Javier Martín has written in The Conversation an article in which he talks about consumerism and the problems we generate with the resources we have today: "We are more than 7 500 million people in the world and what we consume every day is a lot of resources, generating a lot of waste."

"We leave a mark on the system of nature and as a consequence, on a global scale, it is also a thermal increase. The nature system, according to the climate system, is composed of five components: the atmosphere, the ocean, the emergent surface, the biosphere and the cryopho. It can be said that it has a sixth component characterized by the socioeconomic system, consumption, waste of resources and waste production".

In the words of Martin, the climate of the future will have a great deal to do with the sixth component and the current economic system. Martin has emphasised the energy model and that the main volume of greenhouse gas emissions comes from the use of fossil fuels (oil, coal and natural gas). "If the energy transition to a model that definitively eliminates fossil fuels does not come or continues to delay, some countries will continue to see the temperature rise of fossil fuels. And despite acting urgently, in line with the climate emergency declared by agencies and institutions, warming is assured for decades as a result of the thermal inertia of the climate system."

Filomena as a consequence of climate change

The director of the Basque Center for Climate Change, María José Sanz, in an interview with El Español, reflects on the storm Filomena, which has affected the peninsula and will affect climate change on the peninsula. "This autumn there have been many tropical storms in the Mediterranean basin, as well as a change in the anticlón and depressive system in the Atlántico.Estamos changing maritime traffic and, therefore, the energy of the land surface and the sea is being exchanged with the atmosphere. These formations, which are usually anchored in certain places and times, can vary"

Sanz says you have to be prepared to not suffer more from climate change: "We have to prepare beforehand, do not be surprised. We must adapt the infrastructure and the means of civil protection to this new situation. We'll have to learn from the most common places."