- Report: The oceans, way of becoming a nightmare for man
- Environment: The UN warns that the diet must be changed to stop climate change
The average level of sea level rise on the planet will be between 0.8 and 1.1 meters in 2100, according to the recent UN report. Andalusia, with about 900 kilometers of coastline, almost 40% of its population in it, and with its second industry - tourism - located on the beaches, will suffer this slow tsunami , which still perceives from indifference.
The long-awaited IPCC study (a UN entity that brings together research and analyzes the consequences of climate change) on sea level rise has worsened forecasts. The 104 world scientists believe that the best scenario, counting on the temperature not rising more than 2 degrees on average, is critical: 0.8 meters in 2100, together with the increase in storms, entail a serious cost for the economies local.
In March 2018, the Andalusian coast suffered a late and strong storm. In Cádiz alone , the Government spent 20 million euros to arrange the beaches ready for Easter. A spectacular figure, because in six years, between 2000 and 2006, it remained at 13 million. Half of the Cadiz coast undergoes a gradual erosive process , which subtracts sand from the beaches, and the other half is stable, reports Javier Benavente , an oceanographer at the University of Cádiz and one of the great experts. He warns that erosion is eaten in some areas of the Atlantic coast several meters of beach a year on average.
"There are stable beaches, such as Doñana or the south of the Bay of Cádiz, which are almost always the most natural", but there is an added problem, the "slight, but increasing, in the last 120 years of the great storms , in intensity and in frequency, "says Benavente after ten years of study.
The risk that is first contemplated is that of human lives. In Malaga , there are neighborhoods with a maximum level of danger and vulnerability due to the rise of the sea. The Alicia Report, prepared by the City Council based on a study by the 2017 European Commission (which places the sea rise at 0.75 meters), indicates the 38 exposed neighborhoods . Those with the highest risk and vulnerability are, in this order, Guadalmar, Azucarera Business Park, Baños del Carmen, El Candado, El Chanquete, Las Acacias and Pedregalejo.
"We have to worry, the coast has lost flexibility, it has cemented, and therefore the natural response is almost nil" to storms and high tides, says biologist Jesus Bellido , from the Malaga Aula del Mar. That is, dunes are missing and wetlands that mitigate the impact, buried under the promenades and restaurants that, every so often, must be repaired.
Fishing
The sea also increases its height because it expands when heated. It is another direct consequence of climate change, which Granada notes for the repetition of jellyfish invasions . From the cabin of his fishing vessel, Ignacio López , chief patron of the brotherhood of Motril, replies that they now fish more, but it is because Mediterranean Andalusia has gone from 210 to 93 vessels.
"If we follow this path we are not going to leave room for it; but if we act, nature will recover," he tells EL MUNDO from the sea, while searching for shrimp, monkfish and whiting. He supports an exemplary project. Motril's fishermen take to the port the garbage they collect, where experts from the University of Cádiz analyze it to go to the origin of the problem. "From Motril to Nerja, domestic garbage appears, such as bottles, bags ... and, towards La Rábita, plastic from greenhouses," says Ignacio López. The older skipper has hoisted a washing machine 70 kilometers offshore, and a tractor wheel.
Invasive seaweed
A no less unique capture is going to make the brand new OCETECH Horizon, a floating laboratory that will act from Tarifa, hired by the Board to fight from the investigation against an invasive and Asian species, the 'Rugulopterix okamurae'.
This seaweed collapses sea and beaches with its super abundance. Santiago Miranda , from the Ocean Cleaner company, explains that his new ship is supported by the EU through the Horizon 2020 program. They have previous experience due to their work against the proliferation of micro algae , increasingly frequent and intense due to the higher temperature. "They produce strong effects on fishing, aquaculture and populations by the sea, as they can be toxic, as in Florida," says this chemist, who will lead the attempt of Andalusia to solve the invasion of rugulopterix. Now the Strait suffers, and its expansion to the Costa del Sol is feared.
Ocean Cleaner has worked the excess of micro algae in the Canary Islands. "In Tenerife, when they saw us work, from the tourist boats, they applauded us," he says, convinced that "this awareness spreads all over the world, has penetrated."
The hope of this chemist, like that of the fisherman from Madrid, is far removed from what predicted science, but it is the only engine without agreement between governments. "For a long time we have seen the horizon and its beauty from the sea, but science comes and makes us look at the bottom, where the garbage is, " says Ignacio López , before narrating with satisfaction how, in addition to the fishermen, they approach by Motril to help school children, walkers and divers.
The cost of being wrong
The IPCC 2019 report and that of the 2017 European Commission agree that the Andalusian Mediterranean is more exposed than the Atlantic. However, the study of the University of Cádiz appreciates a progressive increase of major storms and reduction of beaches in that area.
One of the two Spanish experts of the IPCC, Javier Arístegui , believes that "flexible solutions can be adopted, such as artificial reefs, but studying each ecosystem, each beach." Altering nature always costs a lot of money, which is called unsustainable development.
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