A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #363 - Ecology - Heatwave: The Far Right Is Fussing Around Air Conditioning (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr) [machine translation]

To deal with the heatwave, the far right is unleashing an action plan 
for air conditioning. It's hardly surprising, as the far right's only 
solutions play into the hands of capitalists and the bourgeoisie. While 
air conditioning only meets individual needs, collective interests are 
once again being neglected. "A major plan for air conditioning": this is 
Marine Le Pen's plan to deal with the heatwave, launched in the middle 
of June. Despite its seductive appearance (yes, we all dream of a little 
coolness, and yes, there is a great injustice between residents of 
thermal sieves in apartment buildings and the wealthiest who enjoy a 
garden and a swimming pool), the idea is nevertheless representative of 
the far right's approach to environmental issues.

First of all, let's remember that air conditioning contributes to the 
problem it's supposed to solve. While it provides thermal comfort 
indoors, it also releases heat outdoors, contributing to the urban heat 
island phenomenon. Air conditioners also still operate with 
refrigerants, which are powerful greenhouse gases, even though they're 
not supposed to be released into the atmosphere. Above all, their use 
during heat spikes puts strain on the electricity grid, leading to the 
deployment of gas-fired power plants, which emit high levels of emissions.

Individual Responses for Capitalist Interests
Furthermore, "air conditioning everywhere" is an individual solution 
that isn't accessible to everyone. Adapting to climate change requires 
not only collective improvements, such as green spaces to lower 
temperatures in urban centers, but also measures that are covered for 
the poorest (housing insulation).

Furthermore, it only concerns people who work indoors and is in no way a 
solution for construction workers, agricultural workers, or those who 
perform work—often physically demanding—outdoors. These are the people 
who are most exposed, sometimes fatally. For example, at the beginning 
of summer, two construction workers, aged 35 and 51, died after 
suffering heat-related illnesses on their construction site or on their 
way home.

Finally, climate policy only addresses the ecological disaster from the 
perspective of adapting to climate change—and not mitigating it—and only 
in the face of the increasing number of heat waves in summer. However, 
the problem is much broader: rising sea levels, droughts, storms, crop 
failures leading to food shortages, areas rendered uninhabitable, 
ecosystem disruption, and species extinctions... Air conditioners will 
be of no help in addressing them.

But that doesn't matter, since the National Rally's goal isn't to tackle 
the issue of climate change head-on, which would require challenging 
capitalist interests. For the far right, which can no longer deny the 
reality of the phenomenon, it's now a matter of downplaying the issue 
and making it a problem easily solved with a few technical and 
electrical tools. A world where the rich live under air conditioning 
while the poor burn outside or in thermal colanders—that's the National 
Rally's vision for 2050.

Agrippine (UCL Nantes)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Canicule-L-extreme-droite-brasse-de-l-air-avec-la-clim
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