This Monday 1is February 2021, Météo France a unveiled its climate change forecast and its expected effects for decades to come in mainland France. If the extent of these changes depends on the efforts made to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, it is very clear that the South of France will be strongly affected by longer and more intense heat waves. If nothing is done to stop this disruption, reaching 50 ° C in the summer will no longer be a record in the Mediterranean region …
We know that the effects of global warming are already particularly noticeable in large cities. The temperature differences caused by urban heat islands can be up to 8 ° C between a city and the surrounding countryside. The latter are not spared by the rise in temperatures due to such nearby urban concentrations. Building and population densities have an obvious influence, and yet urban demography continues to grow: it now represents 58% of the world’s population to date, a share that is expected to reach 70% at 2050 cellon 10. In France, it rose to 80% in 2018, and even now would rise to 95% according to the new urban area perimeter proposed by INSEE, compared to 60% in 1960.
In this context, cities around the world are adopting resilience strategies. Vegetation of urban spaces to form “oases” and “city-forests”, energy optimization of buildings or even real-time regulation of certain activities according to pollution indices. Sometimes with perhaps more anecdotal measures, such as watering public spaces and roof bleaching. These actions are very often accompanied by measures to “raise awareness” to adopting so-called eco-responsible behaviors, from the point of view of travel practices, consumption or recycling.
Climate experience survey
According to several recent surveys, three quarters of the French increasingly say they feel the effects of climate change. Very little qualitative research, on the other hand, has deepened the concrete and sensitive experience of such feelings in dense urban environments. Not to mention the inequalities generated, still little highlighted, by such coping strategies.
Providing information on these feelings was one of the objectives of a survey we conducted in July 2019 with 130 people from five cities in the south of France : according to INSEE categories, three metropolises (Marseille, Montpellier and Toulouse), one large city (Nîmes) and one medium-sized city (Narbonne).
We chose these cities for two reasons. On the one hand, because they have all experienced in recent years a demographic increase above the national average. To accommodate new populations (students, CSP +, retirees), the densification of central neighborhoods is accelerating. as well as urban sprawl and artificialization of land on the outskirts. On the other hand, the southern regions are particularly exposed to climate risks (floods, droughts, etc.), directly threatening Mediterranean cities and the people who inhabit them.
The sample selected from the respondents is close to the mother population of these cities, despite some differences linked to the period of transfer: an under-representation of retirees and an over-representation of unemployed people and some CSPs, particularly “artisans, traders, business leaders”.
Urban lifestyles affected
70% of those surveyed say they feel the effects of climate change. Alterations in the rhythm of the seasons, intensified episodes of heat and sudden changes in temperature from one day to another are the phenomena most commonly mentioned. This is the observation made by this Narbonnais: “We are sure that there is a change. When, in April, it is 30 degrees and in June, it is 12 degrees, and afterwards, 40 degrees… And we lack rains, it’s very dry, we can see the change. “ (Cité district, 45-59 years old, shopkeeper).
More generally, heatwaves are experienced by some as real “hardships”, both physical (asthma attacks, regular conjunctivitis, fatigue) and psychological (feelings of asphyxiation or suffocation). These episodes also raise many concerns about the most vulnerable people: ” My husband had syncope, he lost consciousness and it was the firefighters who picked him up […] They kept him in the hospital, he had started delirious »(Noailles district, Marseille, woman, over 74, retired).
In view of this situation, 56% of respondents say they already adapt their lifestyles in summer. Rhythms tend to slow down to adjust to vital needs. The working days are less intense and most of the activities are concentrated in the morning or evening. The rest of the time is spent in ventilated or air-conditioned interiors. Confined spaces and crowds are largely avoided: tourist streets in town centers, large leisure areas, etc.
And if 68% continue to find their city pleasant to live in during the summer, 30% would consider leaving it in the face of the deterioration of their living conditions: “Clearly, I would like to live in the countryside. Where it is cooler. Also for the pollution because we really breathe an air that is not great here ” (Figuerolles district, Montpellier, woman, 15-29 years old, student).
This result therefore directly questions urbanization policies.
Feelings of suffocation and saturation
A shared impression of degradation of living environments emerges, linked to the densification of urban centers and the concreteization, not only of interstitial spaces in the city but also of agricultural land on the outskirts. Like this inhabitant, many are sorry for the high rate of urbanization of land and landscapes: “Yes, Montpellier is changing very, very quickly, and above all, we are building a lot. We densify all the free spaces that existed ” (Ecusson district, 45-59 years old, craftswoman).
Others were able to testify to the significant mineralization of their environment: “We have the impression of being in a heat tank. The reverberating concrete ”(Bagatelle district, Toulouse, 30-44 years old, employee). Feelings of asphyxiation linked to pollution are also mentioned, exacerbated by the summer heat and the influx of populations. “Here, it’s so hot, you risk falling to the ground. It is a canyon. The air does not circulate “, tells a resident of Nîmes (30-44 years old, no professional activity).
However, if efforts to green cities are sometimes mentioned, the prevailing feeling remains that local policies very often have priorities contrary to the preservation of living environments and the sustainability of living conditions. By continuing to urbanize, the local authorities are, for example, accused of favoring the logic of attracting new populations and tourists, to the detriment of the needs of more modest inhabitants.
This is embodied not only in the criticism of major emblematic projects (such as Euroméditerranée in Marseille, Val Tolosa in the Toulouse suburbs, Carré Sud in Nîmes, etc.) but also in that of several neighborhood renovations that residents consider to be factors in the gentrification of central metropolitan districts (rehabilitation of La Plaine in Marseille, for example).
Feelings of ecological concern and injustice
More than 2/3 of respondents say they feel the consequences of climate change. This observation generates doubt, fear and anger among many, as this Marseille student shares: “It touches me a lot, it makes me angry. When you tell yourself that there is nothing you can do about it and that we are almost at an impasse, it makes me sad ” (northern districts, 15-29 years old).
Feelings that can also be explained by the growth of environmental inequalities. The concentration of green spaces in affluent neighborhoods, for example, or the energy dilapidation of real estate stocks for the most economically vulnerable populations: “We are in very old and degraded neighborhoods, with inhabitants who also encounter enormous social and health difficulties”, relates a young employee from Narbonne (Saint-Jean Saint-Pierre district, 15-29 years old). This feeling of injustice, which mainly concerns the most vulnerable (the elderly) or the poor (working classes and climatic migrants), is described by 88% of those questioned.
The future gives rise to worry and anxiety. 83% admit to having already thought about the future of the planet and of humanity, by projecting on the future an intensification of the phenomena of today: continuous disruption of the climate and major natural disasters, advance of deserts in France and migrations of populations, increase in inequalities and conflicts around resources, generalized collapse of living organisms: “Everything will increase tenfold in terms of pollution, and ecological and environmental disasters. We do not act fast enough, we are going straight into the wall ” (La Cabucelle district, Marseille, woman, 30-44 years old, employee).
The experiences of climate change are therefore very significant in the most densely urbanized environments. Faced with the failures attributed to policies, the people we met called for ecological commitments, both collective and individual, to encourage at least a self-limitation of needs and a deconsumption of practices. In short, to rediscover a certain sense of the measure and the ecological limit in the ways of inhabiting and of living.
Guillaume Faburel is co-author of this article.
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