French heat toll 'could top 5,000'

[Kellanved]

PARIS, France -- The death toll from France's heat wave could be as high as 5,000, according to the country's health minister.

Some leftist opposition politicians are demanding Jean-Francois Mattei to resign over the crisis, in which the government did not declare an emergency until a week into a nine-day desert-like weather pattern across France earlier this month.

"The figure of 5,000 was mentioned yesterday," Mattei said in an RTL radio interview. "It's one hypothesis. It's plausible but it's just a hypothesis."

Over the weekend, Mattei predicted between 1,600 and 3,000 deaths, but a doctors' group had estimated a toll of up to 5,000.

...
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/08/18/paris.heatwave/


----
And with the storms coming it'll get worse. During the weekend Spain was hit by them:

Rain in Spain ends heatwave

Torrential rain has brought weeks of sweltering heat in Spain to an end.
Heavy storms caused widespread damage and cars were submerged in the eastern Teruel province.

But there was some relief as the rain brought temperatures down by about 10C.
"It was tremendous, I have never seen anything like this," said a man in the town of Alcaniz.

Another resident said it was frightening to be caught in the storm.
"It was very scary. Roof tiles fell on the street right in front of you," he said.

Barcelona was also hit by storms and one area in Centelles reported damage from a small tornado.

http://www.itv.com/news/1075196.html

[cybildisobedience]

1. Wash. Post editoral writers....

...will be giddy with excitement. After last week's tasteless and ridiculous editorial commenting on the heat wave deaths with the nauseating headline, "Can't Stand the Heat?" who knows what they'll come up with to "celebrate" this news?

[otohara]

2. We Are All French

isn't that what Chirac declared after 9/11 - 3000 lives lost. Of course president* death would never shed a tear over the death of French people

[Kellanved]

3. it is not only a French problem

The heat was literally all over Europe - for example Italy is off no better.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=70024&mesg_id=70024">Italy's old suffer in heat, deaths up 20 percent

[Muddleoftheroad]

4. Horrible

The heat wave is horrible, but wouldn't it seem logical for a nation that is pro-Kyoto to acknowledge that the world is getting warmer and push to air condition as many public areas and trains as possible?

[Kellanved]

5. quite the contrary

Learning from Kyoto is using A/C only where absolutely neccessary. And in central Europe it's usually only hot for a month or so.(and Hospitals etc. have A/C)


Using more energy for A/C would only make global warming worse - even with the strict energy efficiency rules.

[NickB79]

6. But isn't France's main source of power nuclear?

Since nuclear doesn't emit CO2, its not a global warming risk. Of course, using all that extra electricity might require building more nuke reactors, with the side-effects of spent reactor rods and radiation, which is never good.

[htuttle]

7. Nuclear reactors don't do well in the heat

It is difficult to run a nuclear reactor in 90F+. The cooling 'water' doesn't do the job it needs to, and the reactor may have to be shut down temporarily. Using more air conditioning country-wide would only make it worse during peak periods.

[Kellanved]

8. it is

The French reduced their CO2 by switching to nuclear power.

It isn't zero CO2, as transport and mining of the fuel produces quite a bit of it, as do the fossil backup plants and energy taken from the European grid. Not to mention the pollution created by the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant.

As long as there isn't a way to store the waste, nuclear power isn't an responsible option IMHO. Simply look at the usual nuclear-related headlines : radioactive Pollution in the Normandy; sandgrain sized pieces of nuclear fuel on Scottish beaches; Emergency Shutdowns; possible terror-targets; salt deposit waste dumps not as durable as predicted; US nuclear waste deposit leaky; raised blood cancer-rate near plant; Reactor shut-down due to heat; reactor shut-down due to low water; Reactor shut-down due to high water; Reactor shut down due to regulation breach...

The technology is not yet under control; many plants are old and not even close to state-of-the-art and/or based on a design proven faulty.

And there is the political issue: in case of an accident the (European)Gouvernments have to pay the damage; a HUGE subsidy, as the plant-operators could never possibly pay the insurance needed otherwise.