Since the 1970s, politicians, economists and scientists have known that climate is changing. The famines in the 1980s in Africa gave media visibility to what until then had been an obscure geopolitical strategy factor and brought climatology closer to society. We are now aware of the time we have lost. Let’s not waste any more.

Once a tourist attraction, Lake Togo languishes surrounded by sewage outfalls and tons of waste. The short film Trash Lagoon, finalist at the We Art Water Film Festival 5, shows the damage caused by water pollution to fishermen. It is yet another example of how the loss of biodiversity throws a society off balance and how any solution against poverty requires the achievement of universal sanitation.

The increase in torrential rains expected with climate change increases the risks of flooding almost everywhere in the world. 587 million poor people are the most defenseless and find it much more difficult to recover from a disaster. Among them, 132 million live below the extreme poverty line (USD 1.9 per day). They are the most vulnerable to a disaster caused by rainfall and poor land management.

Water is the main resilience factor to face climate change. The experts gathered in Stockholm state that urgent action is needed and establish the roadmap for the next COP 26 in Glasgow.

The lack of supply in some Tanzanian schools has forced students to bring their own water to class every day. If they don’t bring a full water drum, they must return home. The short Water is not Life, finalist at the We Art Water Film Festival 5, showcases the harsh consequences of water stress for schoolchildren in many East African schools that depend on rainwater to ensure hygiene and nutrition for their students and teachers.

The Sixth Assessment Report of the IPCC/AR 6, presented last August by the IPCC, has coincided with a whirlwind of extreme weather events that have sown the planet with disasters. Billions of people have experienced the reality of climate change and its seriousness. It is urgent to move from concern to action.

The short film Lágrimas de la Tierra (Tears of the Earth) by the Mexican David Ballesteros won the audience award at the fifth edition of the We Art Water Film Festival. It is a document on the unspeakable human damage caused by toxic discharges into the water. Governments and companies are obliged to control them and citizens must denounce them and claim their rights. The awareness of young people is the great hope, in Mexico and all around the world.  

182 billion tons of Saharan dust cross the Atlantic every year, driven by trade winds. This dust settles on the American rain forest providing nutrients that have been essential in its formation and maintenance. Airborne dust has a decisive impact on the evolution of the Earth’s vegetation cover and is an increasingly important factor in the study of climate change.