The waves of extreme heat, the record thaw on the planet and the temperature of seas and oceans without precedents This is what we see of the climate emergency. Behind, in the shadow, is the road to extinction.

Experts are already talking about climate chaos: there are 700 documented extinctions of vertebrate species and some 600 of plants (in 500 years). The risk of extinction will be 10 times higher with an increase of three degrees and 50ºC will be common at the end of this century.

All this influences the crops. Specifically, the productivity of corn, wheat and rice has already been reduced by 5% worldwide, and in Spain we could lose traditional crops such as the vine.

Eloisa Molina, from World Vision, affirms that “45 million people in 43 countries suffer from hunger”, and “without a doubt, climate change is one of the main causes in this type of context”.

The increasingly high concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere also affect the nutritional quality of our food. Fernando Valladares, from the CSIC, assures that “it makes many foods have a higher amount of carbohydrates than protein so its nutritional value is decreasing.” “The vegetables, the meat that we are eating does not have much to do with that of previous generations,” he asserted.

In addition, many of the crops that worked well under Mediterranean conditions, such as wine or oil in the case of Spain, are now beginning to have difficulties and are forced to migrate. “The olive tree will be able to be cultivated more and more to the north, but in the southern zone some crops are beginning to fail“, the expert has warned.

Something similar occurs in the oceans, where for years we have been witnessing the massive death of some protected species. The heat is getting more and more stifling and long in time, which forces the usual specials to migrate to colder areas, towards the poles.

Ricardo Aguilar, OCEANA’s Head of Expeditions, has insisted that “species such as anchovy or mackerel migrate further north, and other species such as cod that cannot go further north are already having trouble reproducing“.

But the worst, experts say, is yet to come: the system of great marine currents could also be modified, like the warm Gulf Stream, a marine retaining wall that protects Europe from the frigid waters of the Arctic. “If it disappears, that cold current could reach much further down, to us. It could take us almost to a new ice age in Europe.”says Aguilar.