Climate/ecological breakdown

Borne, 61, an engineer.
Thats a good start, unlike our useless secretaries of state who no SFA

And a self-described ‘woman of the left’ - though (obviously) a Macron supporter.

This is obvious really but needs saying again and again - state investment and regulation have to be the foundation of transition to sustainability (and public rather than private ownership is - as the example of France shows - key to both this and mitigating the cost of living crisis).

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This issue arose (as expected) at PMQs today and all de Pfeffle did was repeat his pathetic mantras :roll_eyes:

UK inflation now nearly double that here in France…
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We urgently need to diversify global food production, both geographically and in terms of crops and farming techniques. We need to break the grip of massive corporations and financial speculators. We need to create backup systems, producing food by entirely different means.

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World beating inflation, Boris will be pleased!

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Spring heat records have also been broken in France as the country enters its 38th consecutive day of above-normal temperatures, with parts of the south already exceeding 33C and some models predicting temperatures will rise locally to 37C or even 39C by the end of the week, around 17C hotter than the seasonal average.

The southern towns of Albi, Toulouse and Montélimar have all equalled or exceeded their previous records for the month of May, registering 33.7C, 33.4C and 33.8C respectively on Wednesday, while even La Hague in north-western Normandy reached 27C, breaking a record for May dating back to 1922.

In Paris, the overnight temperature from Wednesday to Thursday did not fall lower than 20C, the first time that has happened so early in the year in the century and a half since records in the capital began. At 3am, the mercury was still close to 22C.

The heatwave is expected to continue in southern France until at least Sunday and possibly Monday, Météo France said, adding: “This is an exceptional period of high temperatures in terms of how early in the year it has occurred, how long it is set to last, and how much of the country it covers.”

The state forecaster said it was now “highly likely” that this would be the hottest May on record, with average temperatures forecast at least 3C above normal across the whole month, and locally much more. In 2011, the hottest May on record so far, average temperatures were only 1.8C higher than the norm.

François Jobard, a Météo France forecaster, said France had not suffered a May heatwave “since national figures began to be compiled in 1947. The hottest day in May has always remained well below 25.3C. In fact, that temperature has never yet been reached in France before 20 June”.

Water use has already been restricted in 16 of France’s départements (regions), with 22 – mainly in the south-east and south-west – reckoned to be “very likely” to suffer serious drought by the end of the summer. Worrying ozone levels were also recorded in the Rhône valley this week, authorities said.

Météo France said such episodes of extreme heat are likely to become longer and more severe, start earlier and recur more frequently as global heating advances – although it added that there was no indication this year that the unusually hot spring heralded a record-breaking hot summer.

I’m currently in the Pyrenees at over 800m on a long weekend break. Today it was 33C at 5pm. Tomorrow it is forecasted to be 34C and on Sunday 36C. That is completely unprecedented for this time of year, especially here. It should be 20 to 22C on average. Bloody hell.

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It’s scary - not so much the extreme weather itself, but the massive crop failures it implies. The world was relying on grain exports from India to fill the gap left by Ukraine - now because of the heatwave and drought India has stopped all grain exports.

The Guardian: Australia’s greenhouse pollution from coal higher per person than any other developed country, data shows.

It’s particularly hard to understand what’s going on in the minds of Australians. It is already experiencing a lot of extreme weather events - fire, flood, etc - but refuses to take climate action. Even today - general election day - not just the incumbent but the opposition Labour Party has no adequate environmental policies.

EDIT - However, it looks now (Saturday evening) as if the Greens have massively increased their vote, and Labour might need to include them in a coalition to form a government.
Should be interesting…

Meanwhile - back in brexit-land…

Oil and gas are extremely powerful, they put out false information and downplay the issues.
It will take people power to change things but many are employed in the same industries.

Be a vegetarian its healthy
The Guardian: European fruit with traces of most toxic pesticides ‘up 53% in nine years’.

Sign of the times? The Rewilding Britain Landscape by Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt has won the Chelsea flower show top prize.

Financial institutions have $681bn of these potentially worthless assets on their balance sheets, more than the estimated $250-500bn of mispriced sub-prime housing assets that triggered the 2007-08 financial crisis.

Shell says windfall tax threatens North Sea oil and gas investment

Good!

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