Enfants de septembre

by | 13 Sep 2021 | Climate – Environment

Summer is coming to an end …

The sounds of the children fell silent. The hut is covered for the winter. And already the leaves of the plane tree, “Grand-Mère Feuillage” say the little ones, are starting to fall in the yard.

During this season, always a little marked by nostalgia, each year comes back to me this poem by Patrice de la Tour du Pin, learned at Primary School:

“Les bois étaient tout recouverts de brumes basses, déserts, gonflés de pluie et silencieux ; longtemps avait soufflé ce vent du Nord où passent Les Enfants Sauvages, fuyant vers d’autres cieux, par grands voiliers, le soir, et très haut dans l’espace”.

What a summer my friends!

Fires, floods, extreme temperatures: the summer of 2021 has been marked by many natural disasters directly or probably linked to global warming.

Just look at this map to be convinced.

The NOAA (US Agency for Ocean and Atmospheric Observation) announced in mid-August that July 2021 was the hottest month on Earth since surveys began in 1880 … although I agree, we did not notice much in France!

It is in this context that on August 9, the report of Working Group 1 (Physical Science Basis) was published, the first of the three contributions of the 6th assessment report of the IPCC (The Integovernmental Panel on Climate Change).

The French media unfortunately had better things to do than report it, too busy with the announcement, the next day, of the “historic” transfer of Lionel Messi to PSG… I was told that in view of the prices of Parisian real estate, the latter would have given up? But I didn’t check …

This report is the largest update on the state of scientific knowledge about climate since the creation of the IPCC (The Integovernmental Panel on Climate Change). For those who would not have the courage to stick to the 1500 pages, and would even be put off by the summary for decision-makers (39 pages), my Shifters friends have made a remarkable summary (in French, 11 pages! )

Let’s be honest: Realizing these expected global changes can be difficult at times. This is why the IPCC has this year included in its report an interactive atlas which allows for the appropriation of its projections, in particular at the regional level.

The coming weeks will of course be dominated by two major events: the fifteenth meeting of the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (the other Rio Convention), to be held in Kunming, China, from October 11 to 24; and the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP 26) to the Convention on Climate Change, in Glasgow from November 1 to 12, under British presidency, in partnership with Italy.

It is in the perspective of this conference that the European Commission adopted on July 14 a set of proposals aimed at adapting the Union’s policies in the areas of climate, energy, land use, transport and of taxation. The goal is to reduce the Union’s net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.

Note the important measures around the Emissions Trading System (ETS). In a position paper sent under the Aristotle banner to the European Commission, we underlined how much the carbon price issue was the real issue!

” … Et je me dis : je suis un enfant de Septembre, moi-même, par le cœur, la fièvre et l’esprit, et la brûlante volupté de tous mes membres, et le désir que j’ai de courir dans la nuit“.


Iconography: plum picking (personal collection)