Like many, I spent the end of May in a comatose state, the fault of this damn heat wave and these unseasonably high temperatures. The body suffered, the mind even more. And although I had automatic shutters, I lived in an atmosphere hot enough to prevent the brain from functioning normally. The nights were difficult to live through, the fatigue I felt accumulated over the days and if it wasn’t the end of the world, I was affected enough by it that I wouldn’t soon forget it.
I don’t have air conditioning and, for a variety of reasons, don’t plan on installing one anytime soon. Which does not prevent me from finding the debates about it lunar. For millions of suffering people, especially our elders, air conditioning must become a very tangible reality. When I see that even today, our hospitals, our retirement homes or our schools do not have them, my arms drop.
How is it possible that in an advanced country like France, air conditioning is not offered to populations who are by nature vulnerable? By what aberration can we allow sick people – yes, sick people confined to a hospital bed – to endure not only the suffering linked to their state of health, but also to face temperatures which are like a challenge for their body? You must never have stayed in a hospital not to realize the extraordinary difficulty of suffering both the consequences of your illness and a room bathed in heat.
The little energy the patient has left, he must use to fight against the effects of the heat; and in this state where fatigue relentlessly exerts its influence, in a mechanical way, his condition worsens. There is no valid reason to deprive hospitals of the benefits of air conditioning. No more than retirement homes. This is not only a matter of common sense, but also of morality. A society that allows its patients to suffer such devastation is a society lost to itself, so fundamentally selfish that it ends up resembling a barbaric and cruel society.
Just like facilitating access to public transportation for people with disabilities, air conditioning our healthcare facilities should be the number one priority for any government, regardless of its political stripe. The thing is just as true for our schools and colleges. Leaving entire classes without air conditioning, sometimes even without shutters, without curtains, without even a fan, exposed to temperatures exceeding thirty degrees, is an attitude not far from being criminal. Will we therefore have to wait for the death of a schoolboy or a teacher for the public authorities to become aware of the seriousness of the problem?
Global warming is a scientific truth. Heat waves are doomed to repeat themselves at increasingly high rates. There will be no pleasant surprises in this area. The climate is deteriorating and will deteriorate as we move forward in the century. In the name of what absurdity are we going to continue to ignore air conditioning when it comes to our sick, our elders, our children?
The proponents of ecology who wisely explain to you that air conditioning has the effect of warming the planet a little more are probably right. But for all that, is that a good enough reason to let people slowly die? Are we also going to ban the transfer of organs by helicopter because they further pollute the atmosphere? Ideology, even based on scientific truths, stops where endangering others begins. I am not saying that we should generalize air conditioning to everyone or use it everywhere, but install it when health and well-being issues are at stake.
No, it is not the recommended methods, the revegetation of soils, the adaptation of territories, the preservation of biodiversity, which alone will change the situation, at least not in the short or medium term.
I wonder if, in this obstinacy not to use air conditioning, there might not be a cowardly dimension, of this very French pride which refuses on principle to act like the rest of the world? In addition to the economic considerations that are otherwise very real, beyond the ecological aspects, is there not among our leaders and even in part of the population a sort of ideological resistance linked to our national character?
As if resorting to air conditioning would make us the equivalent of those big-ass Americans. After all, we are France, the sun of the universe, and if the latter tries to warm us up too much, we will oppose it with our legendary calm and confidence which have made us the queen of nations. Otherwise, how can we explain such lethargy? Should we find the explanation in the fact that our administrations and other ministries enjoy the benefits linked to air conditioning without suspecting that they are the only ones to benefit from them? Or having waited too long, the amounts to be spent are such that they discourage the slightest initiatives?
In any case, there is an emergency. We know that these heat waves will come earlier and earlier and more and more violent. And no, it is not the recommended methods, the revegetation of soils, the adaptation of territories, the preservation of biodiversity, which alone will change the situation, at least not in the short or medium term.
Large cities are not going to become, by the wave of a magic wand, green jungles where life is good. We are also not going to raze all the old buildings to install new ones capable of meeting climate challenges. All these recommendations are essential, even imperative, but are part of the long term of public policies. No country in the world will do without air conditioning. Or, it will do so to the detriment of the most vulnerable. A social choice that raises questions, right?
