Despite the few rains of recent days in France, drought has settled over a major part of the territory. The streams are no longer fed and the levels of the rivers and rivers are dropping dangerously.
Example in Cantal, tip Release : ” Long considered the coldest city in France, Aurillac bakes under a blazing sun. Worn down by decades of showers, hail and snow, the famous cantaloupe umbrellas now serve as parasols. July was the driest month ever recorded in Cantal. The rare thunderstorms, like that of Sunday, hardly changed the situation : the flow of rivers has collapsed, with “particularly severe” low water levels, according to the prefecture, which has placed the entire department in drought crisis. »
The Rhine: a stream in places…
Another example, to be read this time in Le Figarothat of the Rhine: “ The Rhine water is evaporating every day and no precipitation is on the horizon in the river basin until tomorrow Wednesday, see the newspaper. The barges often only carry a quarter of the usual load, in order to be able to continue sailing along the increasingly exposed and cracked bed to the shores. (…) In places, the majestic river seems practically reduced to a modest stream “.
The same situation in Moselle, in the port of Épinal, is The world : ” In the middle of summer 2022, there is a lack of water everywhere and the small port of the Vosges prefecture looks gray. The waters are particularly low and the traffic zero, because circulation is no longer possible there. An exceptional situation “.
” watercourse : fishermen devastated », title for its part South West. South West who observes that ” if rain is announced this week in the Basque country, it will probably not be enough, at first, to raise the level of rivers like the Nivelle which have never been so low “.
Soaring fruit and vegetable prices
Another consequence and not the least of this drought: a ” heat stroke on fruits and vegetables “. This is the main title of Parisian. ” The fruit and vegetable stalls will undoubtedly have a pale face at the start of the school year, reads the newspaper. The exceptional drought that is raging in France is affecting orchards and vegetable gardens throughout the territory. Without water despite recent rains, and in oppressive heat, peaches, kiwis, apples, pears, carrots, cucumbers, potatoes, turnips, leeks, tomatoes and other lettuces are struggling to develop properly. Endangering the production of arborists and market gardeners. »
In short, sigh The Parisian“ there will be fewer vegetables, that’s for sure. (…) The consumer will have to show restraint. And get used to higher prices (back to school). In its Observatory of everyday consumer prices, published at the end of July, the consumer association Familles Rurales has already recorded an increase of 11 % over one year of fruit and vegetable prices “.
” What meaning would literature have if it did not unfold in the most total freedom? ? »
Also on the front page is the assassination attempt on Salman Rushdie. Many dailies return this morning to the drama of last Friday in New York: the British writer was stabbed several times by a fanatical young American of Lebanese origin, worshiper of Imam Khomeini and Hezbollah. He escaped death by a miracle.
Release wonders: ” What meaning would literature have if it did not unfold in the most total freedom? ? None, and an author like Salman Rushdie, who has never stopped writing and living as he wishes, has understood this well, despite threats. “This attack is aimed at all of us who believe in a pluralist democracy”, affirms the American author Siri Hustvedt, also evoking all those who, today in the United States, “are ready to ban books in the name of purity Christian nun”. Because fanaticism and obscurantism are first of all “the paroxysm of hatred, stupidity and ignorance”, as the Franco-Moroccan novelist Leïla Slimani puts it so well. Salman Rushdie will survive, we breathe, sigh Release, but his attack is a reminder that, all over the world, writers and journalists live under police protection and that nothing, ever, should encourage us to get used to it “.