What is your job at the company Acciona?

I've been working at the control center for five years. From there, some 400 renewable energy stations are controlled, with a 14 Gigabyte energy source. In this section we work almost 80 people, and I'm on the team that's in charge of system safety. I did the cybersecurity graduate two years ago, and my specialty is to manage control systems for the industry. Problems in this area may affect the activity of a factory, an electricity plant or the operation of traffic lights. The consequences can be very serious for people. So far, fortunately, we have had no surprises.

What is that trip to Antarctica?

This is an expedition that puts an end to a year of training, within the Homeward Bound project. This initiative was born two years ago with the aim of reaching the age of ten. Each year, 80 women are chosen by the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). It is a network whose objective is that in ten years’ time 1,000 women will be well prepared in the world to hold positions of responsibility in areas where decisions on climate change are made.

This year’s edition is the second. The idea emerged in Australia. A scientist, Jessica Melbourne Thomas, and a trainer, Fabian Dattner, came together to value women's work. Data collected in several relevant studies showed that working groups with gender parity achieve results that exceed by 50% the majority groups of men. The two women realised that we are losing the fight for climate change and that it would be beneficial to implement the parity strategy.

Why do egalitarian groups work better?

These studies show that women can provide different solutions to problems through our creativity and our experience. It is very serious to waste all the talent of women. I have often wondered what has happened to all that talent that has not been exploited for centuries.

It's clear that women have other views, because we have other vital experiences. In dealing with problems, for example, we can find solutions that have not so far been common. In general, we are better at working as a team. Sometimes the best solution does not come because you have very high technical knowledge, but because in addition to that you have to take into account many other things: the value of common work, the emotions that provoke the decisions made, the consequences that it has for other people, for example. We must harness all the talents and skills of women in the struggle for climate change that we are losing. What is at stake is not the survival of women, men or penguins, but of everyone, of the whole planet.

How did you find out about this project?

Most of the women participating this year already know someone from the previous year, but I found out about it through a radio show. Raw meat is a very interesting programme, as it gives exceptional treatment to both gender and science issues. Climate change and gender have been my main fields of struggle ever and in this initiative both coincide. I thought I didn't have the profile they wanted, because most of them were scientific researchers, but nevertheless, I sent the proposal at the last moment and they accepted me.

In the presentation of the project, the promoters raised a very nice idea. In a video, they would ask girls and women what they would do if their mother were sick, and that would join Mother Earth and the ravages we're doing. It was very exciting.

In February last year, the training period began. Throughout the year we have worked in groups, in collaboration with friends and friends from different parts of the world. We have read a lot of documentation and worked on three main themes: leadership, strategy and visibility of women. It has been a very intensive job. Hard, but very nice.

What do you have to do during the expedition?

It's a four-week trip. Depart on 13 February and return on 13 March. We will take the boat in Argentina and for two days we will cross the Drake Strait. We've been told it's like traveling a thousand kilometers in the washing machine. Terrible. We've been told that we're going to have to take a medication that's much tougher than biodramine in order to be able to resist. Then we will visit the scientific stations. It's not a sports expedition, it's scientific visits. We will know the stations of Russia, the United States, Great Britain, China and Argentina. Antarctica is a kind of giant laboratory, ideal for analyzing the consequences of global warming. This is the largest water supply on the planet and there are no other factors that can cause pollution or distortions.

How has the company Acciona helped you in this project?

To participate in the initiative, $16,000 has to be paid, half of the actual cost of the initiative. Acciona Energía assumed this expense because the philosophy of the project is consistent with the objectives of the company. In addition, I had to pay the insurance, travel and material in my pocket, but in December the brand Acciona decided to create Acciona Team with the participants of the expedition. It has helped us to get the equipment and put the one that was missing to pay the other participants. Furthermore, the companies in Ternua and Lorpen have given us a great deal of material and I must thank them, of course.

What does the attitude of US President Trump, who denies climate change, look like?

There are fewer and fewer skeptics. Some colleagues say that we have to convince people, but I think that is no longer necessary. Those who want to believe believe and those who do not want to believe believe. I do not do pedagogy anymore, I do propaganda.

The consequences of change are obvious. In CO2 emissions over the past 50 years, there's a huge boom that has never existed before. Desertification, rainfall, floods, increasingly terrible droughts, the expansion of a lot of invasive species and the total destruction of many ecosystems… The consequences are irreversible and that is why now is the time to change our ways of acting so that no more can escape from our hands. Many things have been lost and we will never recover them.

For example?

Desert areas, for example. In China, over the past 50 years, the desert has grown by 25,000 square kilometers. 80% of the surface of the Iberian Peninsula is at risk of being dismantled, according to a report from the Spanish Ministry of the Environment of 2016. Recovering the old rains is very difficult, if not impossible.

What about Antarctica?

The main consequence of global warming is the melting of ice walls. Glaciers are also disappearing. If ice were to disappear, it could change the topography of the world, as some fragments of land would be submerged and others would become very warm. The rise in sea level is worrying, the currents of air and sea are different, the marine ecosystems change and we all suffer the consequences.

And here, in the Basque Country?

Here summers are longer, we have strong droughts and invasive species have multiplied. One of the invaders is Pampa or Pampa (Cortaderia selloana). This high herb, originally from South America, lives in Panpa and Patagonia, and is increasingly visible on the coast of Euskal Herria. It affects many native plants.
Why are there so few women in science and technology?

Women have always been invisible in these fields, and today we remain the same. For example, the experts appearing in the media are almost all men. There are also very few textbooks. Only 3 percent of the Nobel Prizes have been for women in science. For all these reasons, there is a tremendous lack of references that directly affect girls when choosing studies. They often make girls believe that they are worse in science and math. That is not the case. There's the results and the notes showing the opposite.

On the other hand, the career of science and technology is very tough. Publishing or dying “Publish or perish” is said to indicate that you have to be constantly reporting on your research and is not compatible with motherhood. Many women abandon professional competence and many others stop being mothers until they have a good place at work. There are a lot of women in college, especially in degrees like biology, but then they don't get to positions of responsibility.

There are big cracks, and the biggest one is the one that produces care. For women to go to Antarctica, men have to take their children to the doctor, play cards with their grandfather, go shopping and wash clothes. As long as care and housework are not shared, it is impossible for women to have the same opportunities in our professional development.

In the business world, for example, where I am, a man having a child is a good thing for the company, because that means that his personal situation will be more stable, that he doesn't go where he goes, that he will be focused on the company. On the contrary, when a woman has a child, the problem is that now they change their preferences, you can not always be free, you will be more confused, you have to leave work many times… All those gaps, and those that are on wages, until they do not disappear we have a difficult future.

Solution?

Change to all levels. Men must be aware that they must lose their privileges and businesses must take some steps to achieve real compatibility. Adequate laws at the government level are needed to promote the professional development of women. A fellow project from the United States told me that at some congresses there are services to take care of children, so that no one stays at home for that reason. And in some cases positive discrimination will have to be made in favour of women.

Would the egalitarian world be different?

I think so. It would be much quieter. Much less there will be problems of war, hatred and border. There would certainly be more cooperation and more communication.