In the Vrai du Faux junior this week, students from Nicolas Flamel colleges in Pontoise in the Val d’Oise and Les Bruyères in Courbevoie in the Hauts de Seine have questions about global warming, cell phone waves and the next vacation school.
“I saw in a NASA simulation that some cities and countries may disappear due to rising sea levels due to global warming. Is this true?”, Gaetane asks
“Yes, it’s true, answered him Olivier Emond, head of science, health and environment at franceinfo. “HASat least for cities, maybe not for whole countries” . The journalist specifies that there are maps that show which coastal areas are at risk of being submerged around the world, simulation maps. “We notice, he continues, that this rise in water levels affects many countries, in particular Bangladesh, in Asia, archipelagos such as the Maldives, the great Iraqi city of Basra, in the south of the country. On the other side, in the United States, South Florida, New Orleans, certain districts of New York and, closer to us, cities on the North Sea such as Amsterdam and in France, towns in the western facade around La Rochelle or a little above in Vendée.
We are therefore talking about simulations, risk assessments. There is no certainty that this will happen, but what the report of the IPCC, the group of climate experts, says is that rising sea levels across the world are inevitable over the coming decades and centuries. and that it will depend on the degree of warming that will be achieved. “There too, says Olivier Emond, the border, this 1.5 degree border that was set during the COP21 in Paris in 2015, marks a threshold. Staying below 1.5 degrees means ten centimeters less sea level rise. So it may not seem like much, but it’s enough to prevent hundreds of millions of inhabitants from living with their feet, or even more, in the water in the future. Knowing that in one century, since the beginning of the XXᵉ century, roughly, the rise of the waters has been 20 cm in all, but that this has been accelerating for the last 50 years.“
In France as elsewhere, we anticipate this phenomenon. Last month, for example, the government published a list of 126 municipalities which will have to adapt as a priority to coastal erosion. Mayors will have to produce risk maps, with 30-year and 100-year projections, then take them into account for the new planning and construction rules – which, moreover, worries some elected officials who are asking for the means to be able to TO DO. In addition, in New York, southeast of Manhattan, work has begun to build a gigantic wall and dikes to protect against the risk of flooding.
“Is it true that Enjoy Phoenix’s anti-radiation patches are good for your health?, asks Fédeline, referring to the fact that a young woman on the social network Instagram praises the merits of a patch supposed to protect us from exposure to the waves coming from our mobile phones.
“There is no proof of this” replies Nicolas Carvalho from the True or Fake team at franceinfo who investigated the subject.
“I read on Facebook that the February holidays may be delayed due to an international ski competition, is that true?“, Yann asks.
Not only is it true, but it’s even been recorded for a year. The former Prime Minister, Jean Castex, announced on May 27, 2021, during the presentation of a support plan for mountain professionals, an adaptation “of the dates of winter school holidays by positioning zone A first in 2023 and Zone C first in 2024”.
The school holiday calendar has therefore been adapted due to the Alpine Skiing World Championships in Courchevel – Meribel from February 6 to 19. The fact that zone A – the Courchevel zone – is finally on vacation first, will allow the inhabitants of the region to attend the events more easily.