The Head of State crossed Thursday, February 13, the Mer de Glace, in the Mont Blanc massif. This glacier is the most spectacular illustration of the impact of global warming in France.

The ice is shrinking 8 to 10 meters per year, about 2 kilometers since 1850. The glacier has lost 120 meters in thickness in a century. "The glacier makes the invisible visible," says glaciologist Luc Moreau.

"I never imagined a cast so fast, it's impressive. We realize how the non-decisions made it happen," said Emmanuel Macron before the alternation of gray rocks and bright blue ice.

At the end of the morning, he gave an ardent speech in Chamonix on "the climatic emergency", "the fight of the century" according to him. He said he felt here "our own vulnerability, the fragility of this landscape that was thought to be irremovable". "We have to demonstrate that this strategy is compatible with economic progress because it is the strategy I believe in," he added.

Without new announcement, he drew up the table of actions that he linked to ecological objectives, citing the revitalization of city centers to fight against urban sprawl, the law on recycling or even creation, announced the day before, new natural parks, including to protect Mont-Blanc.

The previous evening, he had dinner for almost three hours with leading figures such as the famous climatologist Jean Jouzel or biodiversity specialist Anne Larigauderie, from IPBES, who published an alarming report on the disappearance of species.

"The announcements not up to the stakes"

With this trip, Emmanuel Macron wishes to make ecology one of the two priorities for his end of his five-year term, which is mired in pension reform. To open this chapter, he chaired an Ecological Defense Council on Wednesday at the Élysée Palace. The subject is unavoidable, including in the ballot boxes one month before the municipal elections.

Emmanuel Macron was to have lunch in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains with local elected officials who want to challenge him on the pollution in the Arve valley, caused by the passage of too many heavy goods vehicles and heating with wood.

On the spot, a demonstration against this pollution and the pension reform gathered 250 people, but it was dispersed before the arrival of Emmanuel Macron. "Come to cry in front of the Mer de Glace when the agreements of the climate conferences are not respected and that the greenhouse gas emissions increase, it is parade, it is com '", tanced in the procession Pierre Delpy, energy advisor in an association.

Laurent Wauquiez, president of the region, with the mayor of Chamonix Eric Fournier, supported by LREM, asked the president to regulate the most polluting trucks in the Mont Blanc tunnel and to develop the railway in the valley.

Arnaud Gauffier, director of programs at WWF, welcomed the trip on "warming symbols", but "regretted (that) the announcements were not up to the challenge". He deplored that "what makes glaciers disappear is global warming, if that does not go along with an ambitious policy of reducing emissions it is useless, and in this area we are not everything in the nails. "

With AFP

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