«For many of us who were born or live in Canary Islands, the Teide “It is not only a volcano, it is also a feeling.” With these words, Nemesio Pérez, from Porto and a leading volcanologist, congratulated the new year. Father Teide watches over the entire La Orotava Valley from above, but who really watches over him?
In the facilities of the old Yeoward school, at the entrance to the Taoro, the boxes with the files, computers and all the work materials of the people who make up the team of the Environment area of the ITER (Institute of Technology and Renewable Energy) are unpacked. , with Nemesio at the helm for 26 years. Finally they return to Puerto de la Cruz, a place where they should never have left, in a third move that may not be the definitive one either.
There, in an office full of papers and under a photograph of Teide, I meet again with an old friend with whom I shared many battles, especially in the media. Nemesio is a peculiar person who is characterized by his sincerity. He doesn’t mince his words and that caused us more than one annoyance. He receives me dressed in a black polo shirt much more discreet than the famous Hawaiian shirt with which he received the kings of Spain in the days of the eruption of the La Palma volcano.
I met him when he arrived at the Cabildo thanks to Ricardo Melchior, who decided to promote volcanic surveillance that, in a territory like ours, was paradoxically third world. When Nemesio left Puerto de la Cruz to study Chemical Sciences at the Autonomous University of Madrid, he did not think about returning to the Island. He completed his Doctoral Thesis in Louisiana (United States) on the geochemistry of volcanic gases from the Rabaul caldera in Papua New Guinea . Upon completion of his doctoral thesis in 1992, he obtained a Fulbright postdoctoral scientific exchange contract to continue conducting research at that same university on geochemistry applied to the study of the hydrogeology of oceanic volcanic islands.
Once his research period in the US ended, he moved to Japan in 1995 to carry out research work on prediction of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions using geochemical methods at the Earthquake Chemistry Laboratory of the University of Tokyo thanks to a European Union contract, the purpose of which was to strengthen scientific collaboration between Japan and the European Union. During his stay at the University of Tokyo (1995-1996) he also assumed the role of scientific advisor to Ausaid (Australian Government International Cooperation Agency) to improve and optimize the volcanic monitoring program in Papua New Guinea.
Two years later, he met Ricardo Melchior at a volcanology meeting held in Japan and the latter, as vice president of the Cabildo, offered him to return to his homeland to contribute to the improvement of volcanic surveillance in the Canary Islands, joining the Institute of Technology and Energy. Renewables (ITER) as director of the Environment Area, a role he has held since then. Since 2010, he also acts as scientific coordinator of the Canary Islands Volcanological Institute (Involcan), an organization created that same year unanimously by the Tenerife Council given the negligence of the rest of the administrations that for almost twenty years have ignored decisions approved unanimously by both the Senate (2005), Parliament of the Canary Islands (2006) and Congress of Deputies (2008) for the coordination of economic efforts and technical means in the prevention and study of the volcanic reality through this organization.
When episodes like the one at Tajogaite in La Palma occur, it is when we are truly aware of the volcanic reality in which we live and that was when the Government of the Canary Islands announced his interest in assuming ownership and management of the aforementioned Institute, in whose board of directors the seven would participate. councilsbut today the situation has not changed.
In 2022, the General State Administration also publicly announces the launch of the National Volcanology Center in the Canary Islands, as an entity that would bring together all the human and technical resources allocated for the scientific management of volcanic risk, and that said center would be in the Canary Islands. . Given this announcement, Nemesio considers that the most coherent thing would perhaps be for the AGE to become part of the Canary Islands Volcanological Institute, as he himself proposes in a document that, under the title Canarian Strategy for the Reduction of Volcanic Risk, proposes a framework for action to face and respond to the challenges we face under three fundamental principles or pillars, which are scientific knowledge, citizen participation and consensus.
This report, which emerged after the eruption of the La Palma volcano to “learn from mistakes”, as Nemesio himself expressed to Presidents Sánchez and Torres, states that “The Canary Islands are the only volcanically active area of the national territory exposed to volcanic risk, with 18 eruptions during the last 600 years. «Therefore, and despite the fact that the Canary Islands are exposed to various natural risks, the volcanic risk is the flagship natural risk of this Community. The La Palma eruption, the most important to occur in Europe in the last 75 years, has revealed the exposure and vulnerability of our society to volcanic danger, which is why we must mark a before and after regarding our risk management. volcanic,” he adds.
The risk increases not because the volcanoes are currently cooking more in the subsoil of the Canary Islands, but because the socioeconomic development of our region is now greater than 50 years ago and will most likely be greater in the future. To give us an idea, Nemesio gives a clear example: «If the cost of the volcanic risk of La Palma has reached 1,000 million euros, if it occurs in Tenerife we would reach 4,000 million.
No one can dispute either Nemesio’s work capacity at the head of Involcan or his interest in bringing this reality closer to us. Aside from the field work and the study of the behavior of our volcanoes at a scientific level, I would like to highlight his efforts to convey the volcanic phenomena in the Canary Islands to the population with the aim of reducing these risks at all times. The interest that these topics arouse, especially when we are close to it, is reflected in social networks such as
This informative effort has been reflected in its continuous participation not only in the media through scientific and public awareness programs, but also through an initiative called Canary Islands: A Volcanic Window in the Atlantic, which has traveled since 2008. throughout all the municipalities of the Canary Islands with the firm purpose of informing and educating about the volcanic phenomenon and risk management among residents of the Canary Islands.
A new stage of Involcan now begins in its new headquarters in Puerto de la Cruz and Nemesio returns home with a bittersweet feeling that he dares to confess to me when I ask him if he regrets having accepted the invitation that Ricardo Melchior made him that day: « If I had seen through a small hole the years that awaited me I would not have come even drunk, but for the simple fact of the little R&D culture that there is in Spain. For a scientist, moving the wheel 360 degrees involves spending ten times more energy than if he were in the United States. On the other hand, from a professional point of view we must recognize that we have done important things that to a certain extent have made other institutions also step up in this matter. We have formed a team with great professionals and a certain international reputation despite all the adversities experienced by the system itself and the Spanish scientific community itself. On a personal level and what it means to be close to the family, it has been a satisfactory period, but there is no doubt that perhaps outside I would have had greater professional development, although I am very proud of the R&D work that this team has done. from the Canary Islands with international projection.
