The Anglo Saxon media continue to give a strangely muted coverage to the French Yellow Vest protests. A burning barricade by night with the cathedral of Notre Dame in the background looks impressive for five seconds on the evening news, but – violent protests in France – so what? Last Saturday a retired champion boxer … Continue reading
Tag Archives: France
Technocrate, Moi?
My reasons for bringing up the current political unrest in France on this blog in articles here and here are simple: the tectonic plates of public opinion on climate change move slowly but inexorably. Identifying where the big quake will happen is of key importance. It might be in Australia or California or Germany. Suddenly, … Continue reading
Macron’s Climate Waterloo
The French are revolting. So what? Aren’t they always? Somewhere between a half a million and a million came out on the streets to demonstrate against Macron’s last reform, and the one before that, and the one before that. But that was the unions and the left wing parties, so no-one took any notice. This … Continue reading
Monsieur Hulot’s Mid-Life Crisis
The resignation of the French Ecology Minister made waves not only in France, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/29/macron-minister-environmental-credibility-nicolas-hulot-shock-resignation and rightly so. As number two in the government, and its most popular member by far, Hulot’s resignation, announced spontaneously during a radio interview, has given Macron’s government its biggest shock since July, when the president’s most trusted adviser was filmed … Continue reading
France: Weak Link in the Climate Maginot Line?
Paul Matthews recently commented on the French government’s position on petrol-driven vehicles. They’re against. While 99.9% of French citizens are for. We’ll see how that plays out. I’ve finally updated the transcription of the French TV debate in which our French colleague climatosceptique Benoît Rittaud wiped the floor with one of France’s favourite environmentalists Yann … Continue reading
Monsieur Hulot’s Policy
I was going to write something about the new French government’s policies of banning petrol and diesel cars by 2040 and at the same time closing nuclear power stations. But these two tweets from David Rose and Chris Baker say it all. France announce this as they plan to reduce their nuclear capacity too, who … Continue reading
Philippe Verdier: talking about climate change “in a different way”
Here’s a transcript of an interview with Philippe Verdier, former weatherman on France Télévisions, which was broadcast on the BBC World Service on 16th October 2015. Continue reading
