WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, UCL AL #363 - Ecology - Heatwave: The Far Right Is Fussing Around Air Conditioning (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr) [machine translation]

 To deal with the heatwave, the far right is unleashing an action plan

for air conditioning. It's hardly surprising, as the far right's only
solutions play into the hands of capitalists and the bourgeoisie. While
air conditioning only meets individual needs, collective interests are
once again being neglected. "A major plan for air conditioning": this is
Marine Le Pen's plan to deal with the heatwave, launched in the middle
of June. Despite its seductive appearance (yes, we all dream of a little
coolness, and yes, there is a great injustice between residents of
thermal sieves in apartment buildings and the wealthiest who enjoy a
garden and a swimming pool), the idea is nevertheless representative of
the far right's approach to environmental issues.

First of all, let's remember that air conditioning contributes to the
problem it's supposed to solve. While it provides thermal comfort
indoors, it also releases heat outdoors, contributing to the urban heat
island phenomenon. Air conditioners also still operate with
refrigerants, which are powerful greenhouse gases, even though they're
not supposed to be released into the atmosphere. Above all, their use
during heat spikes puts strain on the electricity grid, leading to the
deployment of gas-fired power plants, which emit high levels of emissions.

Individual Responses for Capitalist Interests
Furthermore, "air conditioning everywhere" is an individual solution
that isn't accessible to everyone. Adapting to climate change requires
not only collective improvements, such as green spaces to lower
temperatures in urban centers, but also measures that are covered for
the poorest (housing insulation).

Furthermore, it only concerns people who work indoors and is in no way a
solution for construction workers, agricultural workers, or those who
perform work—often physically demanding—outdoors. These are the people
who are most exposed, sometimes fatally. For example, at the beginning
of summer, two construction workers, aged 35 and 51, died after
suffering heat-related illnesses on their construction site or on their
way home.

Finally, climate policy only addresses the ecological disaster from the
perspective of adapting to climate change—and not mitigating it—and only
in the face of the increasing number of heat waves in summer. However,
the problem is much broader: rising sea levels, droughts, storms, crop
failures leading to food shortages, areas rendered uninhabitable,
ecosystem disruption, and species extinctions... Air conditioners will
be of no help in addressing them.

But that doesn't matter, since the National Rally's goal isn't to tackle
the issue of climate change head-on, which would require challenging
capitalist interests. For the far right, which can no longer deny the
reality of the phenomenon, it's now a matter of downplaying the issue
and making it a problem easily solved with a few technical and
electrical tools. A world where the rich live under air conditioning
while the poor burn outside or in thermal colanders—that's the National
Rally's vision for 2050.

Agrippine (UCL Nantes)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Canicule-L-extreme-droite-brasse-de-l-air-avec-la-clim
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