If you're over 30 you'll have seen the weather change a lot, too much, in recent years. If you're under 30 you'll be afraid for your future, and you'll probably know that those in power have done little to change course. The human brain works relatively, the absolute confuses us. A degree and a half doesn't seem so much. But Europe has warmed 1.5 degrees on average in the last 30 years, and as a result last summer 61,000 people died, 11,000 in Spain. The intensity and frequency of heat waves, droughts and fires will be multiplied by 2, 3, 4. Can you imagine going out on the street in a city at more than 50 degrees (30 at night), day in and day out? We do not have the capacity to imagine such a future, simply because we will not exist in it. And we are privileged in the North to talk about the future and climate change, in the South it has long been the present and the "go, migrate, here there is nothing left."
Other better futures are possible and my belief in them is so strong that that's why I exist and write. The climate crisis is social and cultural in nature, not environmental or technological. It is about the collective priorities we set (individual materialism versus social welfare) and how we organize ourselves to achieve them. The solutions are, therefore, political and have to do with what we encourage and penalize: the local economy or globalization without limits, agroecological biodiversity or agro-industrial monoculture, the concentration of wealth or real equity, the backbone railway or the fallacy of the electric car for all (those who can buy it).
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How far can environmental groups get wet in elections? "We're not going to tell people what to vote for."
Politics is much more than political parties, its minimal expression, even antithesis in our days. I have no doubt that the way out of this civilizational crisis is through a greater and better democracy, more direct, informed and representative of our diversity. I recover hope in our species by listening first-hand to participants of the Citizen Assembly for Climate in Spain, telling how the unthinkable was achieved: uniting 100 people, as different as you and me, from all corners of the country. From its womb came 172 recommendations for political action close to science and social justice. Lessons learned from this and other citizen governance experiments illuminate the Manifesto for Climate Democracy.
Let's vote on 23-J, with our hearts. And on the 24th we return to the pit, because there it begins
It is the road on the horizon. Before, however, there is a first bifurcation: the 23-J, the general elections in Spain. Yes, I know, you have lost confidence in elected representatives. You have been let down a thousand times. They don't represent you. Neither do I. But you have to vote and, the next day, push and push. Because without the pressure and leadership of civil society, parties only represent themselves and the elites in their circles. Let's vote on 23-J, and on 24 let's build the new: a political system where we all have a place, on a human scale, where people win over capital, in the territory where life is resilient and the economy sufficient. And collaborating as equals between neighbors.
Let them not decide our future, or its absence, without us.
We cannot lose four years. I have been studying climate change for 15 years, working and fighting to face it with guarantees. It can end what we love. But it's also our big chance to change everything. I am afraid and hopeful. But above all I have the privilege and the duty to act courageously. Let's vote on 23-J, with our hearts. And on the 24th we return to the pit, because that's where it all begins.
Jesús Iglesias Saugar is ambassador of the European Climate Pact in the social enterprise Nature-Based Solutions for climate resilience (SBNCLIMA).
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