Adapting to a Hotter Planet – Photography by Markel Redondo
Adapting to a Hotter Planet is a visual essay commissioned by El País Semanal and photographed by Spanish documentary photographer Markel Redondo. The project explores how Spain is learning to live with the consequences of climate change, documenting the people, landscapes, and ideas shaping a more sustainable and resilient future.
From vineyards designed to slow wildfires to urban parks that absorb torrential rains, this story highlights the creative ways in which communities, scientists, and farmers are adapting to a warming world. Across diverse regions — from the sun-baked plains of Castile to the humid valleys of northern Spain — the series reveals how innovation, local knowledge, and respect for the land intertwine to safeguard ecosystems and rural livelihoods.
Redondo’s photographs focus on the human side of adaptation. His camera follows researchers studying how to restore natural balance, winemakers experimenting with drought-resistant vines, and residents redesigning their cities to endure floods and heatwaves. These efforts — sometimes modest, often remarkable — form a mosaic of resilience: a portrait of a country quietly transforming in response to the climate emergency.
Shot entirely on location, the series combines aerial and ground perspectives to show both the scale and intimacy of change. Using natural light and a documentary approach, Redondo captures subtle moments where environmental transformation intersects with daily life: a farmer walking between fire-resistant vines; children playing in a park that doubles as a rainwater reservoir; a wetland returning to life after years of degradation. The result is both analytical and poetic — a body of work that makes the invisible visible and connects global phenomena to human experience.
The project underscores a crucial truth: adaptation is no longer a distant goal, but an ongoing process. As Spain faces rising temperatures, extended droughts, and increasingly unpredictable weather, it has also become a living laboratory of environmental innovation. Across the country, small acts of resilience are redefining how people live with nature rather than against it. They remind us that the response to climate change is not only technical but cultural — built on imagination, cooperation, and empathy for the landscapes that sustain us.
Published by El País Semanal as part of its special environmental issue, with text by journalist Clemente Álvarez, the feature merges words and images to tell a story that is both urgent and hopeful. It shows a nation at a crossroads, where environmental awareness is slowly reshaping habits, policies, and perceptions of progress.
For Markel Redondo, Adapting to a Hotter Planet continues a long-standing engagement with environmental storytelling. In previous projects such as Sand Castles and The Idea of Éxito, he examined the traces of overdevelopment and the fragile balance between human ambition and the natural world. His photography, grounded in patience and observation, aims to document not only the consequences of environmental change but also the possibilities for renewal.
This online gallery presents a curated selection of photographs from the El País Semanal assignment, alongside additional images that expand the visual narrative. Together they form a reflection on how adaptation takes shape — in fields, cities, and communities — across a country learning to confront a hotter, drier, and more uncertain future.
Ultimately, Adapting to a Hotter Planet invites viewers to consider resilience as both a scientific and emotional response to change. Through quiet observation and a humanist lens, Redondo’s images remind us that the story of climate adaptation is not only about survival, but about redefining our relationship with the land in an age of transformation.
Keywords: Spain climate change photography, El País Semanal environment story, climate adaptation Spain, environmental photography, documentary photography Spain, Markel Redondo photographer, sustainability, resilience, climate innovation, climate change photo essay, Spanish landscape documentary, environmental storytelling.
