It’s 50 degrees in Paris, the asphalt has softened, a fire broke out near the Danube metro, stopping the bus carrying children, some of whom were unwell. They are urgently evacuated to a small park equipped with shade and misters, while the other children are taken to a cooled room in the adjoining nursing home, where residents have found refuge. This fictitious scenario, projected into a not-so-distant future (the year 2032), was tested this morning on a full-scale basis by the Paris City Hall and its partners, a few months after the conclusions of the Information and Evaluation Mission. Paris at 50 degrees”, which propelled the subject to the forefront.
“What was the exception yesterday will be the rule tomorrow, and we must prepare now for extreme heatwaves, without ever turning away from our mobilization against climate change,” commented the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo , in the press kit presenting this rather exceptional exercise, observed by many capitals around the world, as evidenced by the journalists from the foreign press who came to attend in large numbers.
Pedagogy
Between 50 and 60 Parisians were invited, including children. Two locations in the capital were chosen: around Place Rungis, in the 13th arrondissement, and in the Danube district, in the 19th arrondissement, where 20 minutes was present. The opportunity to educate young people about global warming and raise awareness.
“When it’s 50 degrees, we’re no longer going to water because we’re reserving the water for humans,” explains Marie Caillier, from the Green Spaces Department, among the shrubs. “We are going to focus on Mediterranean plants which will resist better,” adds his colleague Didier Mousseux as he strolls through the paths of the park. And above all, we will work earlier and avoid all devices that amplify the heat effect”
Will trees still be effective?
What temperature will it be in this garden when the Montsouris weather station shows 50°C? Perhaps not much less, in the opinion of meteorologist and climatologist Robert Vautard, member of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Regional Group of Expertise on Climate Change (Grec Ile-de-France). “The temperatures given are temperatures taken in the shade, they are the lowest possible, in a sheltered, ventilated place, in a system painted white. it may be 50°C in the shade under a shade house and it will be even hotter under black materials, on asphalt, etc. » explains the scientist.
Robert Vautard is worried about the chain effects when a certain temperature is exceeded, while Paris is already labeled the deadliest city in Europe in the event of a heatwave: “Will large trees continue to reduce heat by effect of evapotranspiration? At a certain temperature the trees close their stomata because they want to retain their water, they sweat much less. Large trees can provide a little bit of coolness but it is not certain. There is very little data on this type of temperature, there is little scientific evidence. »
At 50°C, a hydraulic gel triggers a fire
Further on, at the intersection of two streets, the science fiction continues, with a group of workers repairing cables. Among the group of journalists and elected officials, some wonder: is this a “real” repair or a simulation? Bingo is the second option. “In our scenario, a fire broke out yesterday due to the extreme heat,” explains Ziad Touat of Crisotech, a Paris City Hall service provider specializing in crisis management. You should know that at this temperature, leaving a hydroalcoholic gel in a car is enough to start a fire. Electric cables snapped with the heat and the men you see are securing the street lamp which was threatening to fall onto the road.
But how will these women and men travel tomorrow, and will they manage to work in such a temperature? “We need to have refuge spaces so that people can move around, create fresh paths in the city,” comments Dan Lert, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of ecological transition and climate, while walking.
The role play continues
We have just arrived in front of the Hérold nursing home, which has a refreshed room, today reserved primarily for the elderly and people registered on the Reflex file, tomorrow potentially open to all. “We are going to list everything that could exist in Paris. We are thinking, for example, about the idea of careers in the capital,” comments Pénélope Komites, deputy in charge of Paris 2030 foresight and Resilience. “We could, for example, requisition churches,” adds Yann Françoise, deputy director of Ecological Transition and Climate.
In the nursing home, the role play continues, with a man on the ground feigning discomfort. A nurse rushes to help him, as well as other residents, under the eyes of Timothée, seven months old, no more frightened than that. Her mother Alizée, who works in a swimming pool in the capital, wanted after her birth “not to remain inactive” in the face of climate change. “We can no longer say that it doesn’t exist. The weekend of September 10 we welcomed nearly 4,000 people to our swimming pool! For us, global warming is concrete,” she comments.
Last stage of the exercise, the group of elected officials, journalists and other partners moves to a parking lot near the nursing home, where children from a local school have “taken refuge”. Calm and diligent, the children teach next to a tent with relief equipment, basic necessities and members of Civil Protection. “They said that if it’s 50°C we’ll come here to cool down, that reassures me. It helps me understand. I tell myself that it will go quite well if it exists,” says Mame-Mbacké, 9 years old. “I learned several things, how to save water and food, it was interesting. I’m not very scared but a little… I want to tell people not to stress like crazy, but that they have to help! » blurted, full of energy, her classmate Lia, also in CM2.
Identify the difficulties
At the end of the exercise, students complete a questionnaire before a more in-depth debrief next week. All these little people involved in this day, police headquarters, firefighters, town halls… will soon draw the conclusions of this experiment, which above all allows, according to a civil protection official, to learn how to “coordinate” well. For Pénélope Komitès, this will also make it possible to identify difficulties, in particular “obsolete” regulations that must be changed: in principle, it is prohibited to receive the public in car parks, which should be decontaminated, and in which they can there may be traffic problems to manage. “There are things that we will perceive better at the end of this exercise” also wants to believe François Dagnaud, the mayor of the 19th.
Especially since time is running out, because if scientists are instead counting on a peak of 50°C in 2078, they are not sure that this will not happen in the next two decades. To organize this exercise, Paris City Hall contacted the Ile-de-France Regional Expert Group on Climate Change (Greek), which produced a note, the introduction of which sounds like an alarm: “The probability is low that temperatures as high as strong are reached for global warming of less than 2° in the next two decades. However, it cannot be ruled out, because in Western Europe, the observed increase in the intensity of the highest temperatures, until now, has exceeded that of the projections, leaving a strong uncertainty on the future evolution of the highest temperatures. »