In June 2026, we are breaking temperature records every day. What “climate change” really means becomes suddenly perceptible: degraded working conditions, even unbearable for certain professions, physiological and psychological fatigue, acute endangerment of the health of the weakest, reduction in productivity, loss of GDP, etc.
Faced with these realities, the debate or what takes its place is launched in all directions, everyone piling their priority responses, more or less cobbled together, on top of those of others. Although this reaction is understandable and necessary, it nevertheless presents a major drawback: it favors the immediate and the sectoral to the detriment of the long term and the systemic approach.
Biodiversity, eternally absent
The medium and long term consequences of these first two heatwaves and those that will follow are not emphasized enough, particularly with regard to living things. Let us first remember that periods of intense heat in the past lead us to fear a significant increase in human mortality in the weeks to come. Then, that cultivated plants like livestock also suffer from extreme heat and reduce their growth, which compromises the yields and financial balance of many agricultural operations.
And finally, biodiversity, eternally absent from comments, already battered by the extension of sealed surfaces, pollution, intensive agriculture, is heavily affected by these events. However, the more time passes, the more climate change worsens, reinforcing the collapse of animal, plant and probably micro-organism populations, leading to a simplification of ecosystems and a loss of their capacity to withstand future disturbances, climatic, health or otherwise.
However, seeing living things solely as victims of climate change would miss the essential point: climate and biodiversity influence each other. We know that vegetation and soils draw CO2 from the atmosphere to ensure their photosynthesis, but can also release it if they are poorly managed, attacked by parasites or burned. But we sometimes forget that vegetation can increase or decrease the capacity of a landscape to heat or cool depending on its color and the intensity of its transpiration, the latter contributing to precipitation on a regional scale.
A sociobiophysical system
In other words, the real world is a complex system, with many organisms, including humans, and distinct interacting phenomena, therefore unlikely to respond in a linear manner to a set of disturbances that are also interacting… A complex system therefore, biophysical and, for several millennia, sociobiophysical: its dynamics are increasingly determined by social processes to the detriment of physical and biological processes.
Two concepts, now classic, help to see this clearly: that of the Anthropocene, which notes that humanity has taken control of the Earth system, and that of planetary limits, which warns of the continued degradation of the conditions of existence of living beings. Since we have at least partial control, we can restore the habitability of our world. It is a vital objective which, if not achieved, cancels the chances of achieving other objectives, cultural, political, economic, etc.
A systematic filter
This is why a third concept is essential to find a desirable future, that of ecological transition. The term ecology derives from the Greek oïkos which designates both the house as a place of life and the human community attached to it. The goal is habitability. It’s non-negotiable. What is negotiable are the means to achieve this, the possible trajectories, necessarily diversified because there is no miracle recipe.
We will have to demonstrate imagination and collective spirit by relying on intermediary bodies, associations, unions, professional organizations, in short, betting on the responsibility and intelligence of citizens. The question of habitability must now be a systematic filter. Every political decision, every bill, every business strategy, should be evaluated on this basis: if the effect is not neutral or positive, it is imperative to do otherwise.
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