With heat-overwhelmed cities, a series of intense wildfires and repeated warnings of drought, France has endured a grueling summer, made worse by human-driven climate disruption. Climatologist Valérie Masson-Delmotte, former co-chair of Working Group I of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and member of France's High Council on Climate, deplores that the public and political leaders alike have been too slow to grasp the gravity of the situation.

I was struck by the number of cities recording temperatures over 40°C. The threshold is symbolic, because heat that intense affects the very conditions for life. Today, summer is no longer synonymous with carefree days, but rather a dangerous season for living beings, agriculture and outdoor work.

France has been hit by a series of heat waves, droughts, wildfires, torrential rains and floods, all of which pose serious hazards. Extreme events undermine fundamental human rights to eat, move and be healthy. The situation will keep getting worse, because every increment of global warming increases the frequency, duration and severity of extreme events. But the danger also comes from collective denial.

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