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I haven’t published an energy or climate-related article on BNC for almost a week, for a good reason:
Damien Fordham, Barry Brook and Miguel Araújo enjoy the cool Spanish mountain air
Yes, I am enjoying myself (but working too!). We (me, and some colleagues from University of Adelaide: Corey Bradshaw, Damien Fordham and Salvador Herrando-Perez) are visiting a research collaborator in Spain (Miguel Araújo). Our workshop is being held at the El Bosque Hotel in Mataelpino, a village located 1,000 m up in the Madrid Sierra.
We’re investigating the shifts in the geographic ranges of over 200 bird species in the U.K. in relation to climate and land-use change, as well as developing a multi-species population viability analysis metapopulation model on the predator-prey-habitat interactions of the critically endangered Iberian lynx, rabbits, disease and climate change.
Although it’s the height of winter here, the region is currently experiencing a drought, and so conditions are very mild for this time of year. As such, the weather is incredibly beautiful, with bright blue skies and crisp dry air. Yesterday we went for a hike (at about 2,100 m elevation) in the Parque Natural de Peñalara. There was some snow about, but not a lot. This is the area where some of the scenes of one of my favourite movies was filmed. It’s just like being in Cimmeria…
Barry Brook at Peñalara Natural Park, Spain
I’ll be back in Adelaide in the middle of next week, with some new BNC posts on sustainable energy and climate.Meanwhile, feel free to use the comments list of this post as an especially open “Open Thread” — one not necessarily limited to climate or energy topics! As for me, I’ll sign off with some more photos (taken by Corey):
¡Adiós! ¡Hasta pronto!
Filed under: Open Thread, Uncategorized
Ah, I see….hmmmm….we expect SOME commentary on Spain’s energy policy and ITS effect on climate, Barry.
Well… my hotel is about 500 km north of the Gemasolar CSP facility, and very close to the Trilo and José Cabrera nuclear power plants. These are good for climate (IMHO, latter is much more effective, but nothing against the former if people are willing to pay for this). But most Spanish energy still comes from oil, gas and coal. http://ec.europa.eu/energy/energy_policy/doc/factsheets/mix/mix_es_en.pdf These make climate change worse. Okay, back to my biology.
Fab fotos!
Save that stunning cat.
I thought it was actually regarded as extinct already? Pleased to hear if that is not the case.
Lovely place and it’s good to combine business and pleasure.
Just a quick note – masterresource has a post about William Tucker’s 2008 book Terrestrial Energy: How Nuclear Energy Will Lead the Green Revolution and End America’s Energy Odyssey. masterresource isn’t generally sympathetic to nuclear energy, but this post is pretty emphatically in favor. It starts with:
The reviewer sums up this way:
I’ve reserved the book from my library. It may be old hat on BNC, but it also might be worth revisiting.
Aren’t there fewer than 100 Iberian Lynx left in the wild? Without knowing much about them, I’d assume any PVA would paint a fairly grim picture – especially if, like many species, their MVP is around 5000.
A belated congratulations, by the way, on the Global Energy Prize award and your new position at the Breaththrough Institute. Very much deserved. I’ve been away for the past 5 weeks, so I’m currently busy trying to catch up on all the articles I’ve missed on BNC – a tough job given the relentless rate they constantly appear at!
You certainly deserve this study/break Barry. Enjoy a rioja or two .
[…] many readers will know, I’ve spent the last week in the mountains north of Madrid working on a series of conservation ecology papers with host Miguel Araújo (of the Integrative Biology and Global Change Group at the Spanish […]
Don’t know if you’re still in Spain or whether you’re back Downunder having the misfortune to read this morning’s The Australian – they did a their big feature article piece knocking climate change, complete with pictures of Europe in winter (plus some IPA article in the opinion section about sea level rises, but I didn’t read that). I don’t know enough about climate change to say exactly what was wrong/misrepresented – it’s not my field – but I’d love to know where they went wrong!
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