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The year 2023 was the second hottest year ever recorded in France since the 20th century, with an average temperature of 14.4° C across the entire territory . Thermal anomalies are increasing, with more and more regular heat peaks which make our summer season less and less bearable. The mercury is undoubtedly rising, and the reasons are well known to everyone: the exponential increase in polluting human activities and global warming which is intensifying from year to year. Should we fear that our summers are gradually getting hotter ?
Signs of a worrying trend
The scientific consensus is clearly established today. Yes, our summers will be marked by warmer temperatures, a direct consequence of the constant increase in greenhouse gas emissions. This worrying phenomenon is not new: its origins actually date back to the 19th century. In 1824, physicist Joseph Fourier was the first to suggest that Earth's atmosphere could trap heat, giving rise to the theory of the greenhouse effect.
Several decades later, in 1896, Svante Arrhenius, a Swedish chemist, theorized that increasing levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere could warm the Earth. Very early observations, confirmed in the 1950s by the American climatologist Charles David Keeling, who made the first precise measurements of CO₂ concentrations in the atmosphere, known as the Keeling curve. For the first time, evidence showing that humans were indeed contributing to the warming of the Earth's temperature has emerged.
Since the 1970s and 1980s, indisputable evidence demonstrating the existence of global warming has accumulated. In 1979, the first climate summit was held, followed in 1988 by the creation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Group that continues to provide us with valuable insights and indisputable evidence on climate trends in its annual report.
The following decades saw the signing of several international agreements, such as the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and the Paris Agreement in 2015, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions . Despite these efforts, they continue to increase, leading to a constant rise in global temperatures and a cascade of negative effects on our beautiful planet.
The planet is suffering, and humans too
Increasingly scorching summers await us , no doubt about it. This gradual rise in temperatures is already causing disastrous consequences on natural ecosystems and it will get worse. Coral reefs, essential to the good health of the oceans, are bleaching and slowly dying due to increasing ocean temperatures. The level of these is rising, a phenomenon accelerated by the melting of glaciers and ice caps.
Biodiversity is also endangered. Animals and plants are struggling to adapt to these environmental changes, which could ultimately cause mass extinctions.
The human species, too, suffers and will suffer more. The incidence of illnesses linked to heatstroke is increasing, endangering sensitive populations: children, the elderly. A warmer atmosphere also means worsening atmospheric pollution and easier spread of tropical diseases such as dengue or malaria.
Agriculture will not be spared either. If the start of this year was marked by an excess of rain in France, endangering agricultural production, rising temperatures are also one of the worst enemies of the sector . Prolonged droughts and hot spells will threaten the yields of essential crops like wheat and corn. You have understood, the picture is very dark.
If current trends continue, the already perceptible consequences for the environment and human health are likely to worsen. Yes, our summers will be hotter and hotter, and that is unlikely to changeif we continue at the same pace. There is no shortage of levers for action to counter the phenomenon, but pressing them properly is another story altogether.
- < li>Our summers are getting much hotter from year to year and the trend does not seem to be reversing.
- The consequences for planet will be even more disastrous than they already are.
- Those affecting the human species will be just as important if nothing changes.
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