Cities are key actors in the fight against climate change since they are major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while at the same time they experience the negative impact of this phenomenon. Mitigating and adapting to climate change requires fundamental changes in urbanism and city automobile traffic. Superblocks, a grid of blocks and basic roads forming a polygon, approximately 400 by 400 m, are one of the instruments for such changes. These type of city Superblocks represent a new model of mobility that restructures the typical urban road network, thereby substantially reducing automobile traffic, and accordingly GHG emissions, while increasing green space in the city and improving the health and quality of life of its inhabitants. Furthermore, the Superblocks do not require investment in hard infrastructures, nor do they involve demolishing buildings or undertaking massive development; they are in fact very low-tech urbanism. The city of Barcelona has been implementing Superblocks as one of the measures to combat climate change with very positive results. The paper analyzes the concept of the Superblock and its relation with climate change in cities. Along these lines, it analyzes the pioneer experience of Barcelona in the development and implementation of the Superblocks, as a radical plan aimed at taking back the streets from cars. The role of political power and institutional leadership has been key in societal acceptance and the achievement of tangible results. But there are also obstacles and drawbacks in the development of these types of Superblocks, such as the necessity to redesign the collective transport network so that car traffic can truly be reduced in cities, the possible negative influence on traffic going in and out of the city, the lack of visible advantages if they are not implemented in the entire city, the risk of gentrification in the areas with Superblocks, public opposition, and opposition from certain sectors of the business community.

En este artículo se identifican los diversos y diferentes aspectos del concepto político y sociológico de Justicia Climática, partiendo del clima como bien común y global, y del contexto socio-político del cambio climático como asunto que tiene que ver con una ciudadanía democrática. Se conecta con su origen en la Justicia Ambiental, así como con la agenda más amplia del desarrollo sostenible, que pasa por el abandono de los combustibles fósiles. Pasamos entonces a abordar la cuestión de la responsabilidad común pero diferenciada en la lucha contra el cambio climático, así como su naturaleza multifacética y multiescala. Todo ello concluye en la conexión de la justicia climática con un desarrollo sostenible fuerte, que dé como resultado un nuevo paradigma de Sostenibilidad Justa como propuesta más integral del desarrollo de las sociedades.

La crisis sanitaria producida por el SARS-CoV-2 se ha manejado con enfoques demasiado estrechos. Las líneas de intervención impulsadas por los gobiernos han sido guiadas por especialistas de enfermedades infecciosas y virólogos. Estas se han centrado en cortar las líneas de transmisión para controlar la propagación del virus. Se trata de medidas que se enmarcan en las pestes centenarias. Un enfoque más amplio apunta, en lugar de culpar a los murciélagos, a buscar el origen del COVID-19 en el deterioro de los ecosistemas: los patógenos buscan nuevos huéspedes generando las enfermedades zoonóticas. Consideramos que este enfoque sigue siendo demasiado limitado. En el COVID-19 interactúan el SARS-CoV-2 y una serie de enfermedades no transmisibles (ENT); por esta razón, esto no es una pandemia sino una sindemia. En ella interactúan la biología, las desigualdades sociales y el deterioro ambiental. Este enfoque nos permite analizar la crisis civilizatoria y el urgente cambio de paradigma.

The Anthropocene has created a new cartography. It moves between the rejection of scientific disciplines, overcoming dualism and a change of coordinates with which to interpret the world. The Anthropocene unites two fields of knowledge: geology and anthropology. The “Axial Age” divides daily practices (the World of life) and the objective view of nature (the World of science). The Anthropocene” by Paul J. Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer has two distinct parts; the first establishes “a period of time”, and the second establishes an “epistemic tool”. This paper is intended to illustrate the epistemological dimension of the Anthropocene. Eduard Suess, Antonio Stopani, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Vladimir Vernadsky, etc. anticipated the concept of the Anthropocene a century ago. The hypothesis of the earth as a “living organism” is inspired by the Goethean Science or Naturwissenschaft of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It reinforces the character of “rupture” that the Anthropocene has. The Gaia Hypothesis, which is built from elements of Earth science systems, sees the pressing need for a global system and to overcome the barriers between disciplines. The Anthropocene allows both ancient quarrels and the roots of philosophical thought to be reviewed. The metamorphosis linked to the Anthropocene represents the interplay between “collapse” and “awakening”. Focus on the objectivity of the “primary effects”—the “public bads”—leads to the imminent ecological apocalypse. If we focus on “secondary effects”, we observe the metamorphosis of “public bads” into “public goods”. The “good” hides behind the “evil”. We are not at the end of Civilization; we are before new beginnings, new rules, new structures. The Anthropocene could save the world thanks to the metamorphosis of our consciousness of the world.

The Anthropocene has created a new cartography where various discursive levels are intertwined. It unites two fields of knowledge: geology and anthropology. In the 19th century, Romanticism challenged the separation between natural sciences and spirit sciences. With the Anthropocene a geological era is established, but with an epistemological dimension: environmental catastrophes are not a passive "object", they become an agent of social and political change. Images of the world (Weltbild) turn nature into an animated whole that challenges the dual vision: observer and observed. There is no nature without "observer", nor geology without anthropology. The Anthropocene modifies the foundations of our view of the world where we had excluded life. This is how concepts such as symbiogenesis, homeostasis, etc., which make visible and try to explain phenomena that are otherwise inexplicable. The Naturwissenschaft by J.W. Goethe is a point of support, with all these ideas that develop in the 20th century and anticipate the Anthropocene term of the 21th century. While the concepts of "belief" and "science" continue to be sharpened, rehabilitating "old quarrels" around anthropology, cosmology, theology, etc. The dignity of man is at stake.