So everybody's talking (and worrying) about the current (and future) heatwaves and what we should and shouldn't do to save the planet in an in extremis desperate effort to survive as a species after having broken all the toys.
A few days ago, I arrived from Brussels in Toulouse for a 2-day city trip with my children. I found the heat so unbearable that I almost cancelled the whole thing to go on and drive 250km further south straight to my flat by the Mediterranean sea.
Here on the coast it's bearable, even without AC. With a simple ventilator, I can even work, albeit lying almost naked in my bed, in between swims in the sea and cold showers.
In Toulouse however, the 40 degrees at 6 pm with no air, no breeze, no humidity, no nothing, felt like living and barely breathing in a scorching hell sauna.
So I'm wondering: if temperatures keep going up during summer and we are discouraged from using AC at home or in our cars, or cars for that matter, as they obviously make things worse, how the hell will we work from May till September if temperatures rise to 40, 45 or even 50 degrees Celsius?
Concretely and candidly?
How?
Last week when I was in Toulouse in my unclimatised hotel room trying to write a press release while fighting the "heat sleep" weighting on me like a truck, I thought my productivity would drop to nada if I had to live in such a hot city all year long.
So far, my solution has been to work evenings or even nights instead of days. Will this become my routine 3 to 4 months each year until the end of my career in... well never actually as I will never be able to retire?
(First-world girl with first-world problems... 🙈)
Let's be honest: we won't change the course of things just by peeing in the shower, walking or cycling to work, eating less meat and flushing the toilet once a day.
Even if we manage to slow down global warming and cap it to +1.5-2 degrees, extreme weather episodes will become frequent and we will all need to adapt the best we can.
Right now, this is my strategy: working late in front of my ventilator dressed as lightly as decently possible with all the doors and windows open... preferably by the Mediterranean sea...
What's yours?