Natalie Donback
Journalist
Natalie Donback is a freelance journalist and editor based in Barcelona, where she covers climate change, global health, and the impact of technology on communities. Previously, she was an editor and reporter at Devex, covering aid and the humanitarian sector.
March 07, 2025
On a sunny winter's day in the valley of Valdeflores, southwest Spain, Gonzalo Palomo filled his truck with freshly harvested green Cacereña olives.
He was hauling them to his farmhouse near the city of Cáceres to be divided into baskets before they are pressed into oil. While Palomo worked, his 6-year-old son Olmo chased after their two shepherd dogs.
November 13, 2024
At 7.36 a.m. on Oct. 29, Spain's national weather service AEMET issued a maximum alert warning of "extreme danger" from flash flooding in Valencia, a densely populated region on the country's east coast.
Due to a slow response by the local government - which is in charge of sending alerts to citizens' phones - news of the danger did not trickle down to the people most at risk.
September 29, 2023
Mussel farmer Xavier Cabrera held out a handful of dry, dead mussels from his shellfish farm on the coast of the Ebro Delta, 100 miles (160 km) south of Barcelona. "Let's hope this isn't our future," he said ruefully.
A summer heatwave in the Mediterranean region killed off about 80% of the seed mussels - the tiny young that were going to be next year's harvest - and the little that was left of this year's production.