Yesterday, many citizens and town halls turned on the lights from 20:00 to 20:05 as a symbolic gesture. The blackout coincides with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) meeting [1] in Valencia.

Human activity –particularly, coal, oil and gas consumption– has made that the greenhouse gas layer that surrounds the Earth becomes “larger”. Those greenhouse gases are produced naturally and are essential for the life in the planet, since they avoid part of the solar heat to return to the space. Without them the world would be a cold and uninhabited place. However, when the volume of those gases is large and it is constantly increasing, they cause artificially raised temperatures which modify the climate.

The blackout “Against climate change: act now” has been a citizens» initiative, spearheaded by 231 organizations and entities, aiming to raise public opinion awareness about the need to take urgent measures against this serious threat, as well as its serious consequences.

Some of the municipalities that joined the blackout are: Agulo (La Gomera), Alajeró (La Gomera), Aldaia (València), Algar (Cádiz), Alicante, Almería, Antequera (Málaga), Arcos (Cádiz), Arganda del Rey (Madrid), Avilés (Asturias), Azuqueca de Henares (Guadalajara), Badajoz, Badalona, Baeza (Jáen), Barcelona, Barlovento (La Palma, Canarias), Begues (Barcelona), Bilbao Bornos (Cádiz), Cáceres, Cádiz, Calatayud (Zaragoza), Cangas del Narcea (Asturias), Carreño (Asturias), Castellar de la Frontera (Cádiz), Ceuta, Conil (Cádiz), Córdoba, Chiclana (Cádiz), Donostia-San Sebastián, El Paso (La Palma, Canarias), El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz), Elche, Escurial (Cáceres), Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona), Estella (Navarra), Fuente del Maestre (Cáceres), Gaianes (Alicante), Gijón (Asturias), Guadalajara, Hermigua (La Gomera), Jaén, Jerez (Cádiz), Lena (Asturias), León, Lleida, Manacor (Balears), Marchamalo (Guadalajara), Mérida, Mislata (València), Molina de Segura (Murcia), Muro (Alicante), Olvera (Cádiz), Palma de Mallorca (Baleares), Pamplona-Iruña, Paterna (Valencia), Plasencia, Puerto del Rosario (Fuerteventura), Puntagorda (La Palma, Canarias), Rivas Vaciamadrid (Madrid), San Fernando (Cádiz), San Fernando de Henares (Madrid), San Sebastián de La Gomera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz), Sant Boi de Llobregat (Barcelona), Santa Brígida (Gran Canaria), Santander, Sevilla, Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid), Torrent (València), Totana (Murcia), Tudela (Navarra), Valdemoro (Madrid), València, Valle Gran Rey (La Gomera), Vallehermoso (La Gomera), Vitoria-Gasteiz Zaragoza.

[1] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) brings together more than 2,500 United Nations» scientists. It has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change. Its 4th Evaluation Report will be submitted in Valencia between the 12th and the 17th of November. It gathers the researches that the working groups have presented all over the year and which reveal a worrying reality against which we have to act now.