I live in France, where last Friday was the hottest day ever recorded. In Gallargues-le-Montueux in the south, the temperature hit 45.9C. In Paris, where it was only 37C, people around me with asthma and eye allergies suffered terribly. My doctor told me the heat was aggravating his older patients’ cardiovascular problems. But, he added, it was dangerous for them to come and see him because his waiting room was boiling. He plans to install air-conditioning. That will worsen the climate further.
Days like this offer a glimpse of the future. Heatwaves will be twice as common by 2050, predicts the French weather agency Météo-France. It’s becoming clear that the world won’t act in time to cut emissions. Dangerous climate change will happen. Then we’ll need a new political class that makes climate its top priority.
All evidence suggests that global temperatures will rise by at least 1.5C to 2C — the limits targeted by the Paris climate accords. “Limiting global warming to 1.5C would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society,” said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last year. Those changes aren’t happening.