In Bordeaux, elected officials are fighting to maintain the air link to Paris, despite the presence of the TGV. In Toulouse, the president of the region Carole Delga wants freeways to be free this summer. And in China, oil consumption is even higher than a year ago. We have to believe that the next world will be the one before.
Will the "next world" be even more carbonated? In China, oil consumption has started again. In France, local elected officials want to revive air and motorway traffic as quickly as possible.
There are the big words, the lyric flights and then, there is the pressing reality. It's not the same thing. In aviation, for example, the government is asking Air France to cut domestic flights when there is a TGV in less than two and a half hours (the equivalent of a Paris-Bordeaux). Why maintain the plane?
Except that the local elected officials, but also the Gironde Chamber of Commerce, demand the absolute maintenance of this air link to Orly. This is, they explain, the attractiveness of the region, its jobs, its factories. Without a plane, there is no business.
A little further east, in Toulouse, Carole Delga, the President of the Region, for her part, requests free motorways. The idea is to allow everyone to go on vacation this summer. And, it is true that since gasoline is not expensive, we all want to push the engine. Forward as before.
You don't believe in a "greener" recovery, in a new carbon-free economy?
If we look at the Chinese, who are two months ahead of us. What's going on in China? Oil consumption started again as in 40. It is even even stronger than last year at the same time. Like a desire to enjoy it even more, after months of deprivation. So, yes, it is to be feared that this historic fall in C02 emissions is only a parenthesis.
However, if there is one thing that this epidemic has shown us, it is that nature is stronger than us, that it can destroy our economy, our way of life. Besides, without being an ominous bird, you have seen that temperatures are starting to rise. We're announcing more than 30 degrees next week. Imagine, this summer, a coronavirus - heat wave alliance. It would be horror, because a new confinement, with scorching temperatures, would be even harder to bear.