Josep Peñuelas and the spell of studying life

If we connect the essential points of the life of ecologist Josep Peñuelas, it is confirmed that the resulting form of joining vital nodes makes sense because it explains where the decisions he made, the situations he faced and those he has encountered have taken him. And what this ecologist, CREAF researcher and CSIC research professor has certainly been – and continues to be – is curious and intuitive as well as persevering, surely in equal parts. “I have always been interested in understanding how life works, it seems to me an extraordinary wonder: since I was a child, at 11 or 12 years old, I went to the library in Figueres to read books and scientific magazines, apart from playing football, which I also liked a lot,” he recalls. While he points out that then he could already understand scientific English: “it is not too difficult, it cannot be compared to watching films in the original version, for example.”

His determination kept him convinced to study Biology, overcoming the insistence of teachers and family members to enroll in Medicine, Mathematics or Engineering. “I have often remembered that advice and now I realize that the interesting thing was to dedicate myself to studying life having knowledge of mathematics, engineering and chemistry. What I did not follow was the advice to specialize in only one of these discipline”, he reflects. And, suddenly, the steps taken begin to take on meaning, because lines are drawn between the points and explanations are found: “Curious, I had never thought like that... I still remember the surprise of the teachers when I said that I wanted to study Biology... and at home they would have liked me to be a Telecommunications engineer. But I was very clear about how captivating it is to study life, it is the engineering of our bodies".

We humans have entered the field of study of this prolific researcher as one more species, as “one more component to try to interpret how life works.” And within this macro vision fits the universe, from atoms to the Big Bang, an interest that has veterans in the spotlight: “I am getting older and I am starting to make a synthesis. I am very interested in theoretical ecology to try to interpret the world. The more I delve into it, the more I marvel that it continues to work.” A surprise linked to the limits of growth, in which climate change plays a leading role.

With an unstoppable and agile discourse that constantly connects ideas, Peñuelas weaves compelling statements always with a smile. And he questions why our civilization has not collapsed, using the same friendly and frank tone with which he shows himself enchanted by the wonderful diversity and complexity of life. A complexity that is leading us to “approach the carrying capacity of many systems, beyond which we will no longer be able to grow any further and we can only hope that disturbances will set us back. We recover according to our own resistance and resilience and, if not, we collapse and disappear”, short and to the point. “Death is the great invention of life, it is the cheapest thing there is”, he says, with a phrase that seems to be taken from Steve Jobs’ speech at Stanford in June 2005. “We know how to reproduce and start over with DNA, which is very cheap, the proof is that it has not changed over so many millions of years. And not only humans, but also other organisms... I find it extraordinary”.

But our society has not collapsed, "nor have we, our organisms, our systems and communities." And he attributes this to the fact that "throughout evolution we have acquired very wide safety margins," which function as protection. He talks about this by referring to what he calls "the shock absorbers of the Earth system" and explains them as "the enormous capacity of the Earth to evolve and allow millions of different species and organisms to coexist. It is an extraordinary wonder that throughout evolution such a diversity of ways of dealing with the use of energy and matter in space has been generated. And, at the same time, all species have in common some simple and universal laws of conservation of matter, conservation of energy, occupation of space, evolution in selection and some stochastic phenomena". Day and night, the seasons of the year, plagues and hurricanes are disturbances that coexist with one as determining as climate change.

One wonders if connecting so much information is the origin of a certain vertigo, precisely because one has the dimension of what is happening and its consequences. And for the first time, Josep Peñuelas's forcefulness becomes self-criticism, with a smile on his face but self-criticism. “I don't feel dizzy, no, I would still like to have more information. But we have a lot of data, and we think little: we use Artificial Intelligence and statistics but we need to think a little more, so that it doesn't take over our day-to-day life. "I am worried about not having the necessary calm to think, to connect, to interpret. I am the first one to fail in that: I work with a huge and enriching network of colleagues and, as a consequence, I find it difficult to find calm spaces". He goes on to admit that we know  our behaviour as a society is leading us to disaster and we continue, without a medium or long-term vision.

His speech often includes a defence: "Everyone should have housing, food and education. And we should protect our fellow creatures on Earth, organisms that we do not know very well and we protect too little". And then he mentions the principle of St. Matthew, according to which the more information and resources we have, the better we use them and the better off we are in our interactions with others, who unfortunately can be left behind.

As daring as it may seem, the line that runs through the points of the life of this affable and passionate ecologist outlines the calligraphy of the word enjoyment, which resonates in his speech.