Sunseekers on the beach at La Barceloneta.
Photograph: Paola de Grenet for the Guardian
One of the coolest destinations in Europe just two decades ago,
Barcelona is now so overcrowded it has become a tourist theme park – and
is losing the character that made it so popular
by Stephen Burgen. Photography: Paola de Grenet
Sunseekers on the beach at La Barceloneta.
Photograph: Paola de Grenet for the Guardian
One of the coolest destinations in Europe just two decades ago,
Barcelona is now so overcrowded it has become a tourist theme park – and
is losing the character that made it so popular
by Stephen Burgen. Photography: Paola de Grenet
It’s
9am on a hot August morning and timed tickets to visit Barcelona’s
emblematic Sagrada Família basilica have already sold out. Only a few
years ago you could turn up and queue for maybe half an hour to get in
but with the soaring numbers of visitors to the city (around 30 million
last year) anyone who arrives on spec is likely to be disappointed.
Those who have tickets amuse themselves in the queue by taking
selfies in front of the temple’s ornate nativity facade. Groups of
tourists trail behind their lollipop-waving guides. Street vendors
spread out their wares on the pavement – pirated designer sunglasses and
tacky memorabilia - until a heavily-armed police patrol moves them on.
At the stalls around the square you can buy soft toys, Gaudí ashtrays
and Barça scarves.
Antoni Gaudí’s masterpiece was begun in 1882 and is due for
completion in 2026. The work was intended to be funded by penitent
sinners – but there are more tourists than repenters around these days
(it is the city’s most popular destination, with 4.5 million visitors in
2016), so tourists are footing the bill.
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona’s most popular destination
Even tourists who book tickets for popular sights such as the Sagrada Família (left) Casa Batlló (right) are in for a long wait
At Casa Batlló, Gaudí’s apartment building in the busy Passeig de
Gràcia, the queue snakes around the corner, and this is the queue for
people who have bought advance tickets at €28.50. They wait behind a
sign that says “Skip the Line”. The woman at the door says the wait for
people with tickets is around 20 minutes. After a pause she shrugs: “OK,
perhaps more like 40.”
Barcelona remains a beautiful city, one of the most attractive in
Europe, huddled between the mountains and the sea, with a wonderful
climate and wealth of architecture and history.
It remains a beautiful city but there is now tat for sale at every turn
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It
used to pride itself on the quality of its design and was dubbed the
capital of cool in the late 20th century. It is far from cool now
though, and a day traipsing around the tourist hotspots reveals how it
has become the home of tat, with the magic word “Barcelona” printed on
any old junk, from straw hats and teddy bears to beach towels and coffee
mugs. Not to mention all manner of ceramic creatures made in Gaudí’s trencadís style of broken tiles.
La Rambla … Barcelona’s most famous street is now its epicentre of overtourism
La Rambla is Barcelona’s most famous street but for residents it
became its least-loved long ago, so crowded as to be virtually
impassable for nine months of the year.
From the moment it was created in the 18th century La Rambla became a
place where the wealthy could flaunt their finery and the poor could
hustle and everyone could breathe, outside the walls of the crowded
mediaeval city. It was never chic, indeed, it was always slightly edgy
and marginal – but now there is nothing but souvenir shops, interspersed
by McDonald’s and shabby restaurants serving kebabs and paella a
startling shade of chrome yellow.
Shuffling room only on La Rambla
At all hours, young men invite you sotto voce to a “coffee shop” à la
Amsterdam. This is something new. At night there are prostitutes, which
isn’t new, except now most of the women have been trafficked.
Last year a consortium was appointed to come up with a plan to
attract residents back to La Rambla. They have consulted widely and
details of the plan are expected to be published soon, but they have
their work cut out.
“La Rambla is above all a business,” says Fermín Villar, president of
the Friends of La Rambla, which represents the street’s residential and
commercial interests. “Every year more than 100 million people walk
along this street. Imagine, if each person spends only one euro.”
Itziar González, the architect who heads the symposium, says the
first task is to convince people that La Rambla can be saved. “It’s not
just about changing things,” she says, “it’s about changing minds.”
Feeding the pigeons on Plaza Catalunya
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It’s
doubtful, however, whether the Boqueria food market on La Rambla can be
saved. Once a mecca for cooks and foodies where you could buy
everything from truffles to edible insects, the stallholders are one by
one caving in to the force majeure of tourism, with fresh fish, meat and
vegetables giving way to juice bars and assorted takeaways. The very
reason for visiting la Boqueria – even as a tourist – will soon cease to
exist.
Once one of the finest food markets in Europe, the Boqueria market is now a tourist trap
Barcelona is one of Europe’s most densely populated cities, with few
open spaces. So when the seafront at Barceloneta was opened up in time
for the 1992 Olympic Games it gave the city breathing space, just as La
Rambla had two centuries earlier. It became the new place to pasear, the evening or Sunday stroll that is such a part of Spanish life.
But Barceloneta has become another no-go zone for residents as it has
degenerated into a sort of urban Lloret de Mar. Lie on the crowded
beach and every few minutes a vendor will offer you beer or water or a
mojito, a massage, a henna tattoo and sometimes weed. Rickshaws ply the
waterfront while shirtless young men whizz by on electric scooters.
The beach district of Barceloneta has become a virtual no-go zone for local residents
The saddest thing about all this is the city is rapidly losing its
identity and becoming like everywhere else. A new word has been coined
to describe this apparently unstoppable process: parquetematización – the act of becoming a theme park. Barcelona has become an imitation of itself. Looking for a holiday with a difference? Browse Guardian Holidays to find a range of fantastic trips
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El dia del "sobregir" s'ha avançat.
Ha estat més aviat que mai. El 1970 era el desembre, però cada vegada
s'avança més. El 1992 va ser el 13 d'octubre i el 2000, l'u de novembre.
Però entre el 2009 (25 de setembre) i el 2010 (21 d'agost) es va
accelerar. I, enguany, s'ha avançat un dia: s'esperava el dos d'agost.
Som set mil cinc-cents milions de persones al món, només per això ja generem una enorme pressió sobre el planeta
i sobre els altres animals amb qui el compartim. Amb la nostra
presència i les nostres activitats, el planeta necessita més d'un any i
mig per regenerar el que consumim en un any.
Hem exhaurit els recursos naturals que la Terra pot regenerar durant un any.
Per suportar el nostre nivell de consum com actuem avui, necessitaríem
1,7 terres –segons dades de la Xarxa Global per la Petjada Ecològica
(Global Footprint Network).
La Petjada Ecològica és un indicador que avalua l'impacte de la demanda de les nostres accions sobre la biosfera.
Es mesura en "hectàrees globals". En dades de 2014, els tres primers
llocs els ocupen la Xina (5.200 milions d'hectàrees globals i 1.400
milions d'habitants), Estats Units (2.670 milions d'hectàrees globals i
319 milions d'habitants) i l'Índia (1.450 milions d'hectàrees globals i
1.247 milions d'habitants). Espanya ocupa el lloc vint-i-u (176 milions
d'hectàrees globals i 46,6 milions d'habitants).
L'empremta ecològica també es pot calcular per persona.
El 2014, els habitants de Qatar van necessitar 15,7 hectàrees globals
per càpita. A Espanya hem consumit 3,8 hectàrees globals (l'any anterior
van ser 3,9, i el 2007 –abans de la crisi– gairebé 6!); és a dir,
necessitem tres països com el nostre per a produir el que consumim i
absorbir el que rebutgem. Les hectàrees globals requerides per habitant
en els països mencionats abans són els Estats Units (9,9), La Xina (3,7)
i l'Índia (1,1).
Només tenim un planeta, però consumim com si tinguéssim l'equivalent a més d'un i mig.
Fem servir més recursos ecològics dels que la natura pot regenerar i
emetent més diòxid de carboni a l'atmosfera que els ecosistemes poden
absorbir. Cal reconsiderar la sobrepesca, la sobreexplotació dels
boscos; si seguim així, el 2050 consumirem com si tinguéssim dos
planetes i mig.
El punto de no retorno para llegar a un apocalipsis abrasador en la Tierra está cada vez más cerca. Eso es, al menos, lo que opina un grupo de científicos que se plantea un futuro en el que el cambio climático ha transformado nuestro planeta y ha hecho casi imposible la vida.
Lo llaman la "Tierra invernadero", un lugar en el que las temperaturas globales habrían aumentado en torno a los 4 ó 5 grados centígrados respecto a la era preindustrial y en el que el nivel de los océanos sería de entre 10 y 60 metros más alto que hoy en día, tal y como detallan en su artículo titulado Las 9 principales maneras del fin de la Tierra, publicado en la revista Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
En ese escenario, que sitúan alrededor del año 2300, la climatología del planeta se habría vuelto más extrema, con huracanes capaces de arrancar rascacielos del suelo, y en el que las sequías y los incendios forestales durarían años enteros. De hecho, paradójicamente, el último refugio del ser humano serían los polos que hoy se derriten sin remisión.
Si la temperatura global aumenta dos grados podría significar un punto de no retorno
Aunque suene algo apocalíptico, lo cierto es que los efectos de un aumento global de las temperaturas son tan impredecibles como temibles.
Por eso, la Unión Europea al completo y 179 países en total firmaron en 2016 el Acuerdo de París, a través del cual se comprometieron a luchar contra el cambio climático y, en concreto, a impedir que la temperatura global suba por encima de los 2 grados centígrados respecto a los niveles preindustriales.
Una referencia de temperatura (2 grados centígrados) que para los científicos que firman el artículo puede significar un punto de no retorno en la Tierra hacia un futuro en el que el ecosistema natural del planeta sea incapaz de autorregularse y termine por convertir nuestra casa en un horno insoportable.
El problema es que, con la salida en 2017 de EE.UU. del tratado, el incumplimiento del mismo por parte de China en determinados aspectos y que de momento no hay evidencias de grandes avances en la disminución de las emisión de carbono, parece que la raza humana está condenada a presenciar los efectos de su participación en el cambio climático.
La evidencia de la acción humana en el cambio climático
Por increíble que parezca, hasta hace relativamente poco no se ha producido un consenso científico respecto a la implicación del ser humano en la aceleración del cambio climático.
Se
debe, principalmente, a que la época en la que vivimos ─llamada
Holoceno─ representa un período natural de desglaciación en la Tierra.
Esto significa que desde hace 12.000 años aproximadamente nuestro
planeta ha iniciado un ciclo cálido que ha sucedido a la anterior
glaciación, conocida comúnmente como edad de hielo.
Estos
ciclos se llevan produciendo desde los inicios de los tiempos de forma
natural, independientemente de la acción humana. Sin embargo, las evidencias científicas respecto al aumento de las temperaturas globales en los últimos 150 años, el aumento del nivel del mar y la desaparición de especies animales y vegetales, han terminado por constatar los efectos de la acción humana en ese cambio climático natural.
Las emisiones de carbono, las de gases de efecto invernadero, la destrucción de la capa de ozono ─que, a pesar de su reciente mejoría, sigue suponiendo un peligro, especialmente en el Antártico─ o la contaminación de los océanos son algunas de esas acciones que están transformando la Tierra, tal y como denuncia Greenpeace.
Por eso, algunos efectos ya visibles como la rápida deforestación de algunos países tradicionalmente verdes, como en el caso de España, empiezan a preocupar seriamente a la comunidad científica, la cual continúa advirtiendo sobre las consecuencias catastróficas de no cambiar nuestro estilo de vida consumista. Por suerte, aún estamos a tiempo.
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