Turiel: the collapse prophet who never arrives

Turiel: the collapse prophet who never arrives

Antonio Turiel has a date with collapse every October. And every October, the date is cancelled. The physicist and science communicator, known for his apocalyptic predictions about the end of oil and the collapse of the system, has accumulated so many false alarms that his name has become synonymous with "doom-monger" among skeptics. Born in 1970, Turiel still collects his salary on time while announcing an October that never quite arrives.

The Niño Becerra of collapsism

The comparison with the famous economist Juan Antonio Becerra is recurrent. Both share the same pattern: catastrophic predictions that fail time and again but maintain a base of loyal trinc. "We're going to die hundreds and hundreds of times," critics joke, recalling that even a broken clock is right twice a day.

From energy analysis to political platform

A recent television program on climate change, described as "very scientific and coherent," ended with a direct call to vote left and a warning about the rise of the far right. The mix of science and political activism has not gone down well with those who demand separating data from agenda. Turiel, who took part in that program, has thus become a symbol of the politicization of collapsism.

October will probably pass by once again, but the echo of his discourse has already jumped from energy analysis to the political platform. Meanwhile, his aged appearance—"he looks like an eighty-year-old grandfather," according to critics—fuels the legend that collapse ages even those who announce it.