Heatwaves, floods, fires: are we doomed to move to another region?

Droughts, fires, floods... The consequences of global warming have been felt all summer long across France. Locally, some regions are more affected than others , to the point of pushing people to move. This is according to a LeBonCoin Immo study, according to which 8 out of 10 French people experience significant discomfort related to extreme heat in their homes.

And the younger they are, the harder this discomfort hits, at 51% among 18-24 year-olds, compared to 26% among those over 65. The figures don't stop there, since 25% of those surveyed say they are ready to move if the situation worsens. But not all of France is in tune with this; it is in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azut regions that people are most considering moving to cooler regions.

This Monday, August 18, Le Parisien also unveiled a ranking of cities "spared" by the risks of flooding and heatwaves. These include Fougères (Ille-et-Vilaine), Armentières (Nord), Mont-Saint-Aignan (Seine-Maritime), and Arras and Béthune (Pas-de-Calais). Far from the coast and in the north of France, therefore.

For Jean-Philippe Doux, journalist and bookseller, columnist on the Estelle Midi set this Monday, August 18, leaving the south of France, where he has lived for several years, is out of the question.

"I left the Paris region because I dreamed of sun and light, which I found when I arrived in the south. It's true that the intense heat is still being felt, even this Monday morning. But I see that solutions are possible to avoid the intense heat, even in the south of France. We can plant more vegetation," says Jean-Philippe Doux.

But his ideas don't stop there: "We can take a nap in the early afternoon, postpone our activities until later. I would like us to be able to live like the Spanish. [...] There are more discomforts living in a council block in the North or in Paris than living in a shady area in the South."

Invited this Monday, August 18, to the Estelle Midi set, Jean Jouzel, climatologist and former vice-president of the IPCC, confirms the fears: climate refugees are real. "We're already talking about at least 5,000 houses or dwellings that would have to be abandoned because they're close to the sea. These are significant figures," assures the expert. "Through droughts, heatwaves, and heavy rains, we're directly seeing global warming."

As for Périco Légasse, journalist and columnist for Estelle Midi, "slight" climate-related migratory phenomena are being observed across France. "We've traded the Côte d'Azur for Brittany," he asserts. "The process today is irreversible and nightmarish. By the time institutions make the important decisions to reverse global warming, we're heading towards a 'Californization' of Europe accompanied by tornadoes and temperature collapses."

"We expect regions of France to become difficult to inhabit. Above all, the water problem will arise in certain areas. The phenomenon is already affecting us," explains Périco Légasse.

Among RMC listeners, Jean-Marie, a bus driver in Vienne, says he's already moved three times because of the heat. "I was born in Lorraine, I lived in Caen in Normandy, and now I live in Vienne," he explains. "I've noticed that the heat has affected the entire region. This summer, near Bordeaux, we experienced days of 42°C, it was hellish."