In France, debate heats up over air con : NPR

[ad_1] The politics of air con in France, because the nation basks in one more heatwave.

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In France, the most recent controversy is not about taxes, the retirement age and even cuts to treasured summer season holidays. It is about air con. Europe's summers are getting hotter, and a few say activate the AC, whereas others say, (talking French). NPR's Rebecca Rosman experiences from Paris.

REBECCA ROSMAN, BYLINE: It began on a sizzling - very popular - summer season day in late June, with a declaration that appeared benign sufficient.

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MARINE LE PEN: (Talking French).

ROSMAN: "Air-con saves lives," far-right celebration chief Marine Le Pen informed French TV channel BFM within the midst of a hundred-degree heatwave. She, subsequently, discovered it, quote, "completely absurd" that almost all of hospitals and colleges nonetheless do not have it. Eighteen-hundred colleges needed to shut in the course of the heatwave, based on the federal government. Le Pen stated, if elected in the future, she would set up AC items throughout the nation. Then got here the response from France's Ecologist Get together.

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MARINE TONDELIER: (Talking French).

ROSMAN: Chatting with France Information radio, Inexperienced Get together secretary Marine Tondelier stated she wasn't in opposition to putting in air con in colleges and hospitals, however she insisted it would not should be the one answer.

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TONDELIER: (Talking French).

ROSMAN: Tondelier stated the true downside is poor insulation, which is why her celebration is pushing for extra funding in energy-efficient buildings. A current OpinionWay ballot discovered solely about half of the French public assume all public areas ought to be air conditioned. Solely 1 / 4 of French households have AC items, in comparison with 90% within the U.S.

NICOLAS BOUZOU: I needed to sum up, I can say that the left is in opposition to air conditioners, and the precise is in favor air conditioner.

ROSMAN: That is economist Nicolas Bouzou. In a current op-ed for the French paper Le Figaro, Bouzou argued air con is not nearly consolation, it is about productiveness.

BOUZOU: It's totally troublesome to work. It's totally troublesome to review. And on the finish of the day, it is very troublesome to wrestle in opposition to the local weather disaster.

ROSMAN: And since most of France's vitality is nuclear, he says the nation can keep cool with out warming the planet.

Right here in Paris, 8 out of the ten hottest summers on document have been within the final decade. Nonetheless, on this 90-degree afternoon, Parisians stretched out alongside the Seine, seeming unbothered, like 73-year-old author Philippe Mezescase. I ask how he feels concerning the thought of extra air con in France, notably after a sequence of hundred-degree warmth waves this summer season.

PHILIPPE MEZESCASE: (Talking French).

ROSMAN: To which he says he is principally in opposition to it. AC wastes a variety of vitality, he says. Why not simply open a window? Others are straight up offended by the query.

So what do you consider air con?

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: I do not like this. I do not like. I haven't got.

ROSMAN: After which there's Peter Soderbaum, an Australian who says he is baffled the French are even debating this.

What is the dialogue on air con in Australia?

PETER SODERBAUM: There isn't any dialogue. You will have air con (laughter).

ROSMAN: Soderbaum has reluctantly tailored to France's air con phobia. He says he retains a fan in his residence and makes use of blackout curtains to maintain out daylight in the course of the day. However he additionally believes the French are delaying the inevitable.

SODERBAUM: Like, it'll come, whether or not they need it or not.

ROSMAN: France and Europe is getting hotter - maybe too sizzling to dwell with out the AC.

Rebecca Rosman, NPR Information, Paris.

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