relive the year 2024 in pictures

January

Barely the year began, several villages in Pas-de-Calais suffered heavy flooding. Rivers and their tributaries overflowed their banks on January 2 and 3. For the third time in less than two months.

The frequency of these heavy precipitations in the department is increasing. One of the multiple consequences of climate change. Residents who have the means are starting to desert the region. Others are doomed to stay and learn to live with it.

FEBRUARY

January and February were marked by farmer mobilizations. They denounced in particular the « environmental standards ». To appease anger, the government postponed the agricultural orientation bill and implemented « pause » the Écophyto plan, aimed at reducing the use of pesticides. A decline denounced by environmental associations. On February 24, at the Agricultural Show, farmers heckled Emmanuel Macron.

Mars

The thermometer panicked in Brazil: 62.3°C was felt in Rio de Janeiro on March 17. The actual temperature was 42°C. A situation due to the effects of global warming and the El Niño phenomenon.

Not all residents are equal in the face of extreme heat: in the favelas, the situation is increasingly difficult to bear.

Avril

Upturned fields, uprooted trees, land contaminated with white phosphorus: in Gaza, the environment is the silent victim of war.

In April, Reporterre recounted these voices rising to denounce the destruction of the environment and food production in Gaza, by the Israeli army, since October 7, 2023.

May

Clashes began in New Caledonia on May 13, due to a reform of the Constitution. Currently, only people registered before 1998 (and their descendants) can vote. The reform proposed to open this right to residents for at least ten years. The separatists from the indigenous Kanak people believed that this would reduce their electoral weight.

A state of emergency was declared by Emmanuel Macron and the army was deployed. In total, fourteen people died, the majority of them young Kanaks. The reform was finally abandoned in October.

June

On June 9, the RN by Jordan Bardella emerged victorious in the European elections with 31.3 % of votes.

In the process, Macron declared the dissolution of the National Assembly, to general astonishment.

On June 13, left-wing parties created the New Popular Front.

A union which aroused the enthusiasm of very mobilized left-wing voters.

July

Against all expectations, it was the New Popular Front coalition which came out on top in the second round of the legislative elections on July 7. She obtained 192 seats in the National Assembly. The presidential bloc won 163, and the far right 140. No party or coalition obtained an absolute majority.

August

The summer was sporty ! The Olympic Games were held in France from July 26 to August 11, then the Paralympic Games took over from August 28 to September 8.

If the event took place as planned and attracted many French people, this came at the cost of forced displacement of exiled and homeless people.

Collectives have been fighting for months to denounce the widespread surveillance caused by JOand their damage to the environment.

September

In September, the situation became tense on the ZAD against the A69. The gendarmes caused the fall of three activists, all of whom fell more than 7 meters. These opponents of the A69 motorway project were entrenched in trees to prevent their felling.

A month later, on October 7, the gendarmerie expelled the last activists from the zad du Verger, the last bastion of resistance on the A69 construction site.

Meanwhile, and despite legal recourse, the construction site continues.

October

Streets transformed into torrents of mud, inhabitants « trapped » et

« scared » : in the south-east of Spain, the deadly floods which occurred on October 29 sowed chaos, putting a strain on the emergency services, called upon from all sides.

They caused the death of at least 224 people. The violence of this disaster is a reflection of climate change, and the consequence of urban sprawl which has not taken water into account.

November

Donald Trump was elected President of the United States for the second time on November 5. A dark day for the climate.

The billionaire climate skeptic is a fervent defender of fossil fuels. His return portends the worst for international agreements. In 2017, he withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement ; a decision reversed by Joe Biden. Trump, however, promises to do it again.

December

Mayotte, the poorest French department, is in ruins after the passage of Cyclone Chido on December 14. The Indian Ocean archipelago is unrecognizable. The provisional toll continues to climb.

Homes were gutted, roofs torn off, windows broken. The disaster is all the more dramatic as 77 % of the population lives below the poverty line. One in three people lived in precarious housing made of sheet metal – shanty towns now reduced to piles of twisted and distorted metal.