France has had a bad summer. First came the heatwaves, followed later by the respite of the World Cup amid cooler days. Then, in the midst of the finals, France lost badly, and the heat and wildfires returned.
France's powerful national team, les Bleus, was a genuine short-list contender to win this year's Fifa World Cup. But in the semi-finals, the French fell to Spain. And in the playoffs for third place, les Bleus were vanquished by England. Thus there's been a sour mood, now only replaced by the annual battle with forest fires and a rebounding heat wave reflecting the El Niño weather cycle.
The first heatwave in June was part of a wider Europe-wide scorcher where temperatures went from the usual hot 80s and 90s to the dangerously broiling numbers of 90s to low 100s. The heatwaves, or canicules, recalled the now record swelter of summer 2003, complete with the predictable forest fires in the south and the pine barren blazes in the southeast. The canicule caused as many as 15,000 deaths, mostly of older people.
Many French hold almost religiously to the political mantra of global warming, now morphed into climate change. So if that's the thesis, why then have they done so little to mitigate these symptoms of hot summers? Naturally, there's the official green government position, which has genuinely lessened carbon emissions. France and other EU countries are tirelessly proving that they are leaders in cutting emissions, though given the usually poor air quality in Paris, that's hard to believe. There's also a less-than-subtle superiority complex mixed with predictable virtue signalling that they don't need American advice and technology.
But what about making homes, apartments and public transportation cooler for people who live in the present and not in the hypothetical climate charts of 10 and 15 years ago?
Air conditioning has been a taboo among much of the political left and many others too. The old excuse, "It never really gets that hot here", is contradicted by their beloved climate numbers and charts. Many newer buildings and homes do have AC, as do most hotels and department stores. This is normal for a prosperous country. But many schools, hospitals and civic centres still lack basic AC. And this in a modern European country?
But use the Parisian modern bus network, the extensive RATP system, and enter a world where AC or even air circulation on a crowded bus is nearly a futuristic concept that would have made Jules Verne laugh. Brand new hot buses with stuffy air remain the norm. And the historic Paris Metro seems in the dark about the subject.
RATP buses and others powered by electric, hybrid, bio-methane or natural gas are as new or newer than anything plying the equally clogged streets of New York or Washington, but here they are missing AC, although we found one city bus by chance which sported AC!
What is the human cost of this omission? Besides sweat and tears, there's the very real danger of heat-related deaths, many of which are avoidable. During June's oppressive heatwave, France recorded at least 5,700 more deaths than the public health agency conceded, sharply increasing its estimates of the feared mortality rate from record-shattering temperatures, said news site France24.
Then there's the tinderbox conditions affecting woodlands both in southern France and Spain.
Tragically, the wildfire season in the south has become worse given the combination of heat, winds and dryness. The Le Figaro daily headlined, "National Mobilization against the giant Wildfires". Blazes in the southwestern Gironde region near Bordeaux have forced 220,000 people to evacuate their homes for safety so far.
The annual scenes of water-bomber aircraft have been augmented by the new Airbus A400. To stem the spread, the Airbus military cargo aircraft has been modified for firefighting in southwest France. Flying low over arid woodlands, the aircraft sprayed a stream of a reddish colored fire retardant. Thousands of firefighters and soldiers have been battling the numerous blazes, many of which were started by cigarettes.
For France, a country which had such technological breakthroughs as the TGV high-speed trains and the supersonic Concorde jet airliner, expanding simple AC should be a no-brainer.
Given that many European countries don't rely solely on fossil fuels to produce electricity, and France especially has a powerful nuclear power production component, making efficient AC commonplace should hardly be less taboo and more simply just common sense.
John J Metzler is a UN correspondent covering diplomacy and defence. He is the author of 'Divided Dynamism: The Diplomacy of Separated Nations; Germany, Korea, China'.
