INQUIRY EUROPE 1
New global climate strike day this Friday. Thousands of young people are going to dry up and protest in the hope of convincing leaders to fight against global warming. Until 27 September, 4,500 events are planned in 140 countries.
>> Europe 1 takes you to Phoenix, Arizona, one of the world's warmest cities, where climate change has already forced people to adapt, including living out of the sun.
Although the fall officially begins in three days, the mercury climbed to 38 degrees - in the shade - this Friday, September 20 in Phoenix. But it's almost nothing compared to the heat peaks of the months of July and August that sometimes reach ... 50 degrees! Concretely, the sun is such that it is simply impossible to stay outside in the middle of the day. As a result, locals bathe in air conditioning: whether at home, in their car, or at the office, it is everywhere. They remain cloistered until sunset, around 18:30.
This is where the city comes out of its torpor: the children go to the park, the sportsmen put on their sneakers and go running, while some ... start their day's work. "There, I have an employee who starts work, it is 22 hours and it is 31 degrees", confirms the microphone of Europe 1 Frédéric Douay, a French expatriate in Phoenix who manages construction workers for a company of interim. "Some of my employees start at 3 am, there is less than 30 degrees."
Ever longer and frequent heat waves
"These are not normal hours, but it's because of the heat," he says in front of a downtown building. And the workers are not the only ones to "have to live in another time zone", since even the zoo must open at 6 am in summer, for the comfort of visitors, but also animals.
While Phoenix has always been a hot city, most people confirm that things have gotten worse over the years with more and more frequent heat waves. To cope with this heat, the municipality has decided to make Phoenix the first city "Heat Ready" - "Parée pour la chaleur" - of the United States by appealing to researchers from the local university whose mission is to identify pockets of heat in the capital of Arizona, and propose solutions.
"It's a living laboratory here, we can test strategies," confirms Ariane Middel, who travels the rus of the fifth largest city in the country with a mini weather station. "Everything we can find here in Phoenix [to fight against heat] will be very precious to other cities around the world: our conditions are already very hot, and what we see here may become the norm elsewhere. in the future, "says the researcher. As time is running out in Phoenix, heat-related deaths have tripled in the last three years. Reborn from the ashes despite the heat, a big challenge for Phoenix.