let’s imagine a leafy valley valley that
is in its day in its half furrowed by
a mighty river and this valley and these
forests are the place where an
young man who since childhood has played in
the torrents and has also been in
every tree in that forest
this young man right now works in the
River is fortunate to work where
was born and welcomed by that
universe of nature that he
comforts identifies this young man has
fundamentally an idea that can
continue in that place and that unlike
of other young people from contiguous villages
he can be working and forming a
family there that makes accompanying
adventurous tourists that come down well in
canoe or in pneumatic rafts
they go down the river to enjoy or to
have strong experiences that the city does not
it comforts them
Well in this experience it is
worried is worried because there
a threat in this valley
the government wants to build a reservoir
that would end the valley not only
would end part of the forest and with that
torrent of water that goes down the river
it would also end with those
activities that are based on that enjoyment
of the nature
well, this reality
that we are seeing who also for
he a threat has a feeling
important and is that your grandmother who has
lived like their ancestors
in that same town every afternoon or many
of the afternoons of the week approaches the
cemetery and in the cemetery sits
on the stones and tells his
husband who died
what has happened during the
day tells you that in how you are doing
behaving his granddaughter tells him also
what has happened in the world or
today that he has seen on television or that
has done in the market is accumulating
for years and years has accumulated those
sensations those emotions
That memory is accumulated in the
stones and for him that she that place and
that environment and voice that are very
gratifying you feel linked to your
passed to all the people with whom
he lived in his childhood however now
that knows the threat that knows that the
reservoir will end up flooding that
cemetery is worried and every time
that goes to the cemetery goes head down
this seems like no but it’s what it feels
more importantly this young
because he no longer only worries that he
finish your work and let it end
a part of that nature is already
feeling a very strong way that your
story that the story of his family
that the story of his mother and his
grandmother are involved in it
the territory many times we are not
aware of the role they occupy
us and only when we are missing when
we lack that reference of a landscape
is when we notice that that has a lot
importance for us
if you are always and if you do not have a
threat we usually live without
we figure out
this maybe yes to the sensation the
emotion that is more important for what
what am I going to tell
this is not just something imagined this
happens and is inspired by a real case
which is the reservoir of biscarrués is a
reservoir that takes 30 years from
of the government trying to do and that there
a very social and intellectual resistance
important so that there is not
reservoir
Well, this circumstance is what
motivated in some way the birth of
the foundation new water culture them
He explained how the
neighbors of biscarrués and went to the
university and they coincided with two
teachers that had an implication
very strong social
red pedro an economist and javier
martínez gil a hydrogeologist is for
true the creator of the of the of the sentence
new water culture that we that
it means that it’s something new but that
is a form a different perspective of
find water the river as a way
that not only conceives it as an input
economic as an element for
produce something good because these two
teachers perform one with one
van trips to the villages where they
they have asked that they count because it is not
It is necessary for that reservoir to be made and
destroy
that link between nature and the
peoples that live it as something
identity that they called the van of
the conference
before a little funny it ‘s true but it’s
the birth of a symbiosis between
social movements that need that
they have an intuition and they need
the argument the reason for that intuition
and on the other hand expert teachers or
technicians committed to society
who believe that their function does not end in
publish in impact journals or in
conduct large investigations of
international character but that
they also have to contribute something to the
society in which they live
Well, this symbiosis is what
some way he focused on these
conferences in one of them is approaching
an old man to them and I told them you do not
you know how important you are
doing so far
I knew that this was unfair but
from now on I know that I am right
this is the key
the important thing is that he is given arguments
for something that intuitively you already know
but you find it difficult to express it
in reasoning and that they do not have
scientific knowledge to be able
debate with the government that tries
perform a work that is clearly
arbitrary
this is the birth of this community
of critical knowledge because I say
community because it’s about a
network in which there are experts or professors
in economics in hydrogeology in
ecology sociology in geography
even jurists and
on the other hand it is critical because it has
a social commitment with those
movements that need that
argumentation to answer
arbitrary decisions this is a
critical knowledge community and
what is the destination
what is the purpose we intend
fundamentally society
deliberative a deliberative democracy
in which they eliminate the e
the voter does not end up casting a vote
and with that ends its legitimacy of
intervention not legitimacy has
to be continuous and it has to be
continue in a way that the government does
participate in the decisions and the
society is trained to
intervene to respond to give your
opinion and receive a different form of
decision in a participatory way
well this is a community of
critical knowledge and that is what
happens or is born in that idea but when
it ceases to be something local to become
something national something that is what
that we are all involved then when
the challenge is also national because
there is no conscience without problem
my experience or the experience that
we have in the foundation is that if not
there is a problem that moves us
neither is there a conscience a desire
to know and this is what happens with the
national plan hydrological plan
2001 National Water intended
a transfer to Barcelona and on the other
part towards murcia and almería
He even arrived in Almería with very little
amount but arrived in almería
hypothetically because actually
according to the scientific studies that
they did in this knowledge group
only every eight years something would come
almeria but also
the costs will be incredible they were
absolutely disproportionate
but all this was forming in a
very interesting way that it happened that
each one of us contributed
knowledge information but with a
challenge not only we were not giving myself
as a jurist I was not giving a
information that was exclusively
for jurists or judges or for
notaries or for any other
professional we were not giving
information that had to converge
with other geographical knowledge
ecological and that it happened that
ecology professional
I was also giving that information
so that I would understand
this made us have a job
inwards forming us between
us and then we also facilitated
with it the possibility through
conferences and through reports of
spread it in society in but not the
society in general terms that
it was obviously open but in
those movements that had a
interest in knowing what the
reasons that assisted them this is what
somehow exploded this this
movement and make the whole community
Spanish scientist had a
knowledge unanimously what is
experts on water on which the transfer
from the ebro
it was a nonsense said in a few words
it’s completely one but that was happening
because how could a
government with a project of so many thousands
of euros millions of euros
very simple the powers
Typical of the construction of the
oligarchies of irrigators of the
hydroelectric plants were impressive and
in reality those who won were those
powers and the government was captured
by those powers was a self
and of course that made the solutions
were adopted from the beginning
our debate was you have a
problem just like we have
but that problem has not seen the
Possibilities to fix it
then it happens they have not done a study
of alternatives
we did a study of
alternatives and we present it to the
European Commission European Commission
he made an international technical debate
for commission officials
so that they had certainty about what
position they had to have and we were
on the one hand scientists from all
Spain from different universities
connected via conference and by
and researchers across states
united that they defended that that was
sustainable that the debate was very
interesting because it highlighted the
insufficient foundation of the
government criteria especially in
the issue of the ecological flows of
ebro because someone has of you has
surely heard that that the
water is lost in the sea
false completely false the water when
arrives at the sea fulfills many functions
ecosystem of things we serve ourselves
for example because beaches are
erode hour more
because the waters do not drag
follow-ups and that does not feed the sand
of the beaches but there is also
other elements such as
fisheries fisheries live
fundamentally of the nutrients that
bring water
and on the other hand in places like
delta del ebro where there is a mix
between salty waters and fresh water that
they produce only very delicate system
they have the problem that the
insufficient water force depletes is
ecosystem
then how do they see the water has its
function both in the speech of all the
river like in the sea is this kind of
issues was what was the subject of that
debate and that debate got the
commission will delay because I was in
against which will be financed with the 35
percent to 7 billion euros
that work this was important because
there were many demonstrations
demonstrations and even 300 or 400
thousand people and led to a delay
important of the process and on the other hand
that political parties
at the end they consigned in their programs
if you plan to repeal ebro
there was as you know 2003 2004 the elections
and in 2004 the transfer of the
ebro out there the possibility of
continue working for the foundation of
follow that critical knowledge follow
fulfilling a social function
not because the important thing is not the
success
let’s think if success is
overrated because it is deceptive
keep in mind that even think about
the history
think in a moment what is the
Christian paradigm that we have the
crucifixion
that is a success because the same happens in
literature with kafka or in the
politics with gandín in the 30s
success is not the important thing what
important is that we are
building a knowledge network
critical and that critical knowledge
be the one that strengthens citizenship
to achieve a deliberative democracy
a democracy where they can debate
all the elements we can contrast
arguments and we can decide about it
not a paternalistic society in which
decide for us
this is the key by which we are
trying to create that society
thank you very much
[Applause]
”
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