“We must declare war on climate change and reorganize institutions, territory, social dialogue, objectives and means to win it”, interview with Jaume Terradas, recognized at the Guadalajara International Book Fair

The Centro Universitario de la Costa Sur of the University of Guadalajara (Mexico) awards the "Reconocimiento Naturaleza, Sociedad y Territorio 2025" award to Jaume Terradas Serra, for his career in scientific research and contribution to academic training. The award will be presented by the university's rector, Mtra. Karla Alejandrina Planter Pérez, during the International Colloquium on Biodiversity, Natural Resources and Society Ramon Margalef: La ecología en tiempos de crisis, which will be held on December 6 as part of the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL). The organization has highlighted the contributions of the founder of CREAF, who is today an honorary professor of ecology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, to the generation and application of knowledge in the field of ecology and environmental education.

Yes, I will be participating as a speaker in this colloquium that this year will feature internationally recognized figures in ecology with whom I am very excited to meet. José Sarukhán Kermez , a Mexican ecologist of world prestige, recognized for his contributions to the ecology of populations and tropical forests, founder of the Instituto de Ecología de la UNAM and CONABIO, and promoter of generations of researchers in environmental conservation and management. Also present will be Exequiel Ezcurra , an Argentine ecologist noted for his research in plant ecology, land-sea interactions and environmental policies, former director of the Instituto Nacional de Ecología and currently director of research at the San Diego Museum of Natural History.

Every year this international recognition is named after a personality from the region, country or city that is the guest of honor at the FIL. This year, the guest of honor is Barcelona and it is for this reason that the colloquium is named after my teacher, the ecologist Ramón Margalef, who I know is also a great inspiration for ecology students in Mexico.

In my first book, Ecology Today (1971), I already reflected the fear of scholars that CO2 emissions into the atmosphere would cause changes in the climate. In fact, in 1972 the Meadows report The Limits to Growth was published, promoted by the Club of Rome, which analyzed various economic and ecological scenarios, of which the subsequent evolution of emissions has followed the worst to the letter, in a trajectory that the 30 COP meetings and others have not altered in the slightest.

Exactly. The only small decreases in the rates of increase in emissions have occurred in 2008, with the financial crisis, and the COVID years. Since 1975, the concentration of CO2 has gone from 2.8 to 4.25 ppm . Throughout this half century, many of us have been warning of the risks that this entails and of the need for a transition that abandons fossil fuels and accelerates the use of renewable energies.

Although renewables have made a significant leap forward in Spain, in Catalonia we have fallen far behind. For this reason, a few years ago the Renovem-nos Association was formed, which I joined with many other renowned scientific voices. Our goal is to try to push the country towards a much more determined effort in mitigating emissions and, even more, in adapting to the effects of global warming, which in the Mediterranean will be well above the world average.

Yes. Before the current government of the Generalitat was formed, we made a manifesto called “The legislature of no return”, addressed to the future president of the Government, who ended up being Salvador Illa. The signatories were numerous scientists and many academic, scientific institutions and other entities. Today, we can say that solid contact has been established with the Government.

This approach to the Government allows us to offer it support with multidisciplinary scientific knowledge, which should allow us to do things well and overcome the obstacles of denialism and backwardness that big interests promote to maintain the consumption of fossil fuels. It is a support that the current Government seems willing to use. The jury of the Landscape, Society, Territory Ramon Margalef Recognition has taken into account, among other things, my tasks of promoting structures and education at all levels to increase the impact of scientific knowledge on society and governance.

Yes, we must celebrate that the Parliament of Catalonia has recently approved the reform of the renewable energy regulations which, we hope, will unblock many projects that have been waiting for years and allow new ones to be generated, to stimulate the adaptation of the electrical grid, the availability of adequate batteries and the installations of solar panels and wind turbines, while protecting natural spaces and irrigated agriculture.

The world is still not sufficiently aware of what the climate emergency entails. We have yet to realize that we are facing challenges that modern, urban and industrialized societies have never had to withstand, and that in entire countries, in the global south, people are already between hunger and forced migration. We must become aware that the climate influences practically everything , from food production and people's health, to land use (loss of arable areas, coastal spaces such as beaches or deltas due to rising sea levels), the risks of catastrophes (long and intense droughts, sixth-generation fires, floods due to more violent and frequent hurricanes, sea storms, etc.), self-accelerating processes (melting of ice and reduction of terrestrial albedo, changes in sea currents, etc.). It also influences economies and therefore jobs and financial systems, with the risk of insurance failures, etc.

We need good mitigation and adaptation policies, and at the same time pedagogy, based on scientific knowledge , to overcome the obstructionist tactics of economic interests that only see the short term and that constantly throw out messages with supposed easy but false solutions.

Correct. In the course of my eighty years of life, the world's population has multiplied by more than three, and has settled mainly in cities. An explosive phenomenon, but which makes us more vulnerable since cities depend on importing water, food and energy in enormous quantities, and these supplies can fail due to the direct or indirect effects of climate change. Another factor of vulnerability is epidemics, especially viral zoonoses of which COVID gave us a sample.

The effects of climate change will not be the same all over the world . The temperature is rising faster in some geographical regions, and one of the most affected is the Mediterranean region. We must abandon fossil fuels, but we cannot decide whether the rest of the world will also abandon them. Thus, we will have to prepare for the effects that the climate crisis already has and will have on the Mediterranean basin. We will have to think and take adaptation measures that increase our resilience, measures that no one can take for us. Adaptation is a key word for policies from now on and indefinitely. And to make this possible, we must build consensus, remodel the agro-forestry-livestock sector, convince the environmental opposition with actions that must be well done and in well-chosen places, but which are indispensable and which may involve some sacrifice, not only economic, explaining that global warming, and the droughts and fires that it entails, impoverish biodiversity much more than sustainable energy installations. Ultimately, our society must declare war on climate change and reorganize institutions, territory, social dialogue, objectives and means to win it. The future of the country is at stake.

I have always considered myself a public servant. When I found myself the only ecologist in a new university, and without any terrestrial ecology team in Catalonia, I understood that what was expected of me was to do my best to increase ecological knowledge through research and education. I dedicated my first years to developing environmental education for schools and initiating research on forest ecosystems. Later, I saw that society needed scientific criteria in issues such as conservation or forest fires and more experts in environmental issues, so I promoted the creation of CREAF to increase research potential and I had the opportunity to be in Madrid on a commission that opened a door to the creation of interdisciplinary higher studies on the environment, a door that I explained to a group of professors from the UAB, who began the process of launching a new degree, the first in environmental sciences in Spain.

Yes, I felt the need to promote urban ecology because I believed that cities are the ecosystems that produce 80% of pollution , with populations disconnected from nature, and are growing all over the world. Thus, with the Barcelona City Council I directed the MAB-UNESCO11-Barcelona project, which resulted in several publications and an exhibition that was visited by 130,000 people. Naturally, I had the opportunity to be on countless committees, working groups and boards related to environmental issues, from education to conservation and land management.

I am especially grateful for the recognition from the Mexican University of Guadalajara, first of all because it comes from a distant country, with which I have had a specific relationship for many years, but a country that is also close to me because it welcomed many Catalans who settled there after our Civil War, a country that was very present in my childhood through cinema and songs. And secondly, because this year this recognition bears the name of the great master of Catalan ecology (and one of the greatest in world ecology) Ramon Margalef. I could add that I am also very pleased with the list of people who have preceded me in receiving the same distinction, with names that I have known for many years for their work, such as Gonzalo Halffter, or Arturo Gómez-Pompa, Rodolf Dirzo, Exequiel Ezcurra or my previous direct contact José Sarukhán, or the activist Vandana Shiva among others. In fact, it gives me special gratitude because the Recognition is not just for work that is measured in the number of publications in high-impact journals, as is usually the case, but because they have considered, I believe, all these tasks of service to the country.

Jaume Terradas Serra, born in Barcelona in 1943, is considered one of the most prominent ecologists in Catalonia. His scientific career covers fields such as plant ecophysiology, forest ecology, fire ecology, the effects of climate change and molecular ecology. Awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi in 2022, he has written several books that explore the relationship between society and its natural environment, including Biografia del món (2006) and El carro de fenc (2025), in addition to nearly 200 articles focused on environmental education.

Terradas was a pioneer in the creation of the first research team dedicated to terrestrial ecosystems in Catalonia and played a key role in the birth of CREAF, of which he was director for a decade. He is an honorary professor of Ecology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and served as the first president of the Spanish Association of Terrestrial Ecology (AEET). He has also been vice-president of the Catalan Institute of Natural History (ICHN) and has directed the departments of Ecology and Animal Biology, Plant Biology and Ecology (BABVE) at the same university. He also actively participates in committees, boards and boards of trustees linked to research, conservation, education and environmental management.

This award is aimed at people who have made great contributions to the practice of biodiversity conservation, natural resources and environmental management, not only for their track record in scientific research, but also for their contribution to academic training within these fields and to the development of alternative social institutions and strategies oriented towards sustainability.