The drought warning has been extended to all French territories in Europe this Tuesday (2) as the third heat wave in two months makes the consequences of global warming more visible.
The Paris district’s city hall has ordered surveillance for “drought” in the capital and three surrounding departments, thus joining the rest of the metropolitan areas with similar warnings.
The day before, the Météo-France meteorological institute announced that July was the second driest month since records began in 1958, with 9.7 millimeters of rain.
The previous record is from March 1961 (7.8).
For Frédéric Long, a meteorologist at Météo-France, the situation is “worrying” as multiple departments have issued drought alerts alongside “an unhelpful heatwave”.
In July, when local heat records were recorded in France, precipitation was 84% less than normal for the period 1991-2020, according to the meteorological office.
In the countryside, both phenomena, along with water restrictions, worry the agricultural sector, especially when it comes to maize, whose production is already heavily affected by the weather.
“Big” losses
Droughts, fires, temperature records, deaths from heatstroke… The summer vacation season in Western Europe is full of warnings about climate change.
According to Long, who predicts an increase in their intensity and frequency over the next few years, “We can say that we have experienced three times as many heat waves in the last 35 years (…) than in the previous 35 years”. “.
The heatwave intensifies in southern, central and eastern France on Tuesday, with five regions on “orange” alert – the second highest – but expected to peak on Wednesday with temperatures of up to 40ºC.
And all this when the government asks the French to make “small gestures” like lowering the temperature of the air conditioner to save energy in case of a disruption in the supply of Russian gas.
Drought warnings are accompanied by recommendations to reduce water consumption in ‘grey’ coded areas enough to limit water consumption to basic uses in the ‘red’ code condition.
Baptiste Cribeillet, a 32-year-old farmer from Saint-Génis-des Fontaines (south), fears the effects on his 60-hectare nectarine farm south of Perpignan if irrigation is banned.
Currently, water use is limited to 50%. “If we go to the next stage, we won’t be able to water at all and the damage to trees and subsequent crops will be enormous,” he warns.
“Necessary human adaptation”
Christophe Béchu, French Minister of Ecological Transition, on Monday argued that “reduce water consumption, save money, fight waste”, “human adaptation”, “necessary” in his view.
In September, they announced they would present “a new roadmap for ecological planning.”
The centrist President Emmanuel Macron, who was criticized for “climate inactivity” in his first term, promised to take steps in this current situation to reduce greenhouse gases.
France, like the entire European Union (EU), hopes to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, but its strategy includes the promotion of nuclear and renewable energy, not “reduction”.
The climate issue, with drought and heatwaves the most visible factors, made the front pages of many French regional newspapers on Tuesday.
Le Parisien newspaper, titled “It is possible to consume less water” on its cover, announced alternatives to reduce consumption, such as reusing shower water in the toilet or in the garden.
source: Noticias
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