Ah, suddenly yes then.
Suddenly politicians discover that the heat is dangerous. That cities no longer cool down at night. That the elderly collapse, children suffer, and homes turn into concrete ovens. Welcome to 2026 — finally, you show yourselves too.
While in Rennes people sit on park benches at night because their bedrooms have become unbearably hot, somewhere there is still discussion in committees about “long-term climate strategies.” Long-term. This word now sounds like a mockery.
Climate change is no longer at the door. It has already arrived in the living room, consuming the electricity of fans and stealing our sleep.
Yet many officials still act as if it were just a slightly longer weather phase. Some fountains here, a bit of mist spray there — and here is the municipal alibi. Of course, these measures help in the short term. No doubt. But by now they seem only like a bandage on an open wound.
The truth is this: for decades there has been talking, postponing, relativizing. It was always said that the economy could not be overloaded, citizens could not be destabilized, industry could not be put under pressure. Strange only that now entire cities are overwhelmed — by temperatures that were once rare exceptions.
And now? Now the parks open at night.
A humanly sensible measure. But at the same time a depressing symbol. Because if at the end of May in Brittany people have to seek refuge in parks at night, something is definitely going wrong.
Particularly absurd is the double political standard. Those same voices that for years mocked climate protection as hysterical or “too expensive” today present emergency measures for the heat as a great innovation. Well done. Really. Perhaps the next step will be to discover that trees provide shade.
Sarcasm is difficult because the situation is now dramatically serious.
The coming summers will be harsher. Cities will heat up even more, water will become scarcer, extreme bad weather more frequent. All this has been documented for years in scientific reports. No one can say they were surprised. What is surprising is the persistence with which politics still tries to downplay the obvious.
People have long noticed that something is changing. Not in some model. But at night in their own bed. Looking at the dry green areas. Feeling unable to breathe even after the sun has set.
How many more tropical nights are needed before rhetoric of concern finally turns into concrete action?
Or is it really expected that even the last air-conditioned meeting rooms become too hot?