CAMBIO CLIMÁTICO Y ENERGÍA
SUMARIO

The technological challenges of global warming
LUIS SALVADOR MARTÍNEZ

Today, there is indisputable evidence of global warming, its significant geophysical effects on glaciers and ice caps, and the radicalization of certain meteorological phenomena, as well as the parallel between the rise in the world’s mean temperature and the increase in the concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a result of the extended use of fossil fuels. However, the human race has not fully addressed the changes required to deal with the dangers that appear in all spheres of life as a consequence of a qualitatively and quantitatively irresponsible demand of primary energy, which consumes resources whose waste seems to threaten the survival of human life.
This article focuses on possible measures in the technological and economic fields aimed at slowing the warming of our planet and that might even bring about a soothing of the temperature rise due to long-term anthropogenic causes.

Climatic change: an opportunity?
JOSÉ AZUARA

The extent of the effects of climatic change depends, essentially, on the decisions and moves we make today and during the next few decades. Although on occasions it is presented as a phenomenon that has already taken place, global warming is not irreversible, but a process whose magnitude we can, within certain limits, control. According to José Azuara, today’s society faces the challenge of designing development models in which the consumption of energy does not condition to such a degree the possibility of economic development.
After a review of the international scene in this field, the article analyzes the GHC emission reduction strategy in a paradoxical scenario, the existence of real short-term alternatives, the impact of human movement and of product transportation on contamination, among other factors, to assess whether it would be convenient to change the energy model dramatically.

Electric power and climatic change: the role of technology
CRISTINA RIVERO

Today, energy and climatic change comprise an inseparable pair; so much so that the discussion regarding the technologies that should be instituted implies an important challenge that cannot be dissociated from the environmental issue. Around the world, political agendas in the fields of energy, ecology and development revolve around these unavoidable goals: access to affordable energy as a basis for development, protection of the environment, competitiveness and safety.
The need to reduce CO2 emissions –because of the global nature of their effects on the atmosphere and of its direct impact on the way of life and consumption habits in modern societies– forces us to approach the subject within a general framework that integrates climatic change into all other policies as a transversal element.
In this article, Cristina Rivero offers the foundation on which, from her point of view, this reference framework should be built.

Strategies against CO₂
ANTÓN URIARTE

What is the actual basis for the projections of the weather’s catastrophic future? What is the true dimension of current warming? Is carbon dioxide really the main and virtually only responsible for climatic evolution?
Always controversial, the geographer from San Sebastian, who has been studying the climate for over 25 years, offers in this article his peculiar point of view, marked by a critical stance regarding the benefits and possibilities of renewable energies and a distance from the alarmism of most of the scientific community and the media, and questions the extent to which climatic change might be the result of human activity.

Climatic change before the US Supreme Court. Precaution principle versus CO₂ emitting industries
MARTA TORRE-SCHAUB

The American Federal Environmental rules do not lay down restrictions of the Greenhouse gas’s emissions. The federal legislative silence in this matter is mainly due to the existence of uncertainties and to the high costs of an organized federal action. The inaction is also due to the fact that the administration does not interpret the scientific uncertainties in a proper precaution context. This decision asks the question of whether a legislative silence must be underlined by the Courts and if so how. This decision must be considered as a part of a general movement of jurisprudence aiming to find solutions to an Environmental problem in the absence of federal rules on the global warming. It proposes a new approach of the Precaution Principle. The judges, from now, could have the power to interpret in a larger and broader way the scientific uncertainties and thus make the Federal authorities take a strong action against the global warming. This will have a certain effect on the electric powers companies and motor’s industries and will obliged them to reduce their green house emissions. In a midterm, hopefully, it will help the US to find other sources of energy but the classic ones.

Energy as a social fact: the cause of and the solution to climatic change
MERCEDES PARDO BUENDÍA

Today, energy issues cannot be deemed a merely technical matter, just like climatic change does not concern only atmosphere scientists. Both energy problems —how to ensure supply, the socio-environmental impact, etc.— and those regarding the consequences of climatic change for ecosystems and its economic and social effects are a top priority for the whole of society, to the extent that they have been substantially included in national and international agendas around the globe. The origin of the problem lies in the society, and it is the society which will be affected by its consequences; ultimately, it is only the society that can offer a solution.
This article discusses the different sources of renewable energy and posits that, at present, there is a real opportunity for change —partial or complete— in the energy model in the world and, of course, in Spain.

Climatic change and employment, a challenge and an opportunity
JOAQUÍN NIETO

The policy adopted for climatic change and emission reduction will affect the economy and, therefore, the employment, and imply an unprecedented challenge. For the measures aimed at adapting to and alleviating climatic change to be effective, it is important to promote quality employment, introduce tools that establish and offer a responsible social support for the necessary economic and social changes and, of course, get workers to take part in that change. It is necessary to foresee and prepare for the effects of global warming on the productive body and the employment.
Nieto analyzes the repercussions of global warming on labor in Europe and the challenge for the employment embodied in the transition, until 2030, to an economy with less CO2 emissions in four key sectors: energy, transportation, the industry of steel and cement, and building.

The Asturian industry, the Kyoto Protocol and the fight against climatic change
JOSÉ ALBA ALONSO

The application of the Kyoto Protocol and the Trade in Emissons have meant a restriction on the potential of productivity. Although the allocation system for emission rights is aterritorial, it is necessary to study the case of the Asturian industry, where there coexist both types of activities: those that add to and those that reduce CO₂ emissions.
On the one hand, there are the emissions from the energy transformation of coal, the metallurgical production, the manufacture of cement or cellulose. On the other, the fact that the margins of flexibility set are fully exploited stimulates the manufacture of elements for the development of alternative energies and reforestation, not to mention the specific CO2 capture initiatives.
An analysis of the adjustment process that has unfolded during the last two years allows us to carry out a first evaluation.

Compendio bibliográfico sobre cambio climático y calentamiento global
FRANCISCO MACÍAS MATEO

Baudrillard. Culture, simulacra and mortality regime in The System of Objects
ADOLFO VÁSQUEZ ROCCA

Based on the revision of Jean Baudrillard’s fundamental works, this paper attempts to account for the origin of the narcissistic personality, which does not acknowledge limits between itself and the world that requires the immediate satisfaction of its desires, as well as the erosion of private life that takes place in the society of spectacle. Thus, the American way of life will be defined as the empire of seduction and of decreed obsolescence; a system that worships the fetish of merchandise and information pornography. Finally, the paper will attempt to demonstrate that consumption is not in the least the basis for progress, but rather the barrier that blocks it or, at any rate, pushes it in a direction opposite to a betterment of social relations.

Una cuestión de honor
MILTON FORNARO

24 de marzo del ’76
GRACIELA LITVAK