“Will you dare to test life at 50°C ?”: discover the mobile cabin to test global warming

Causes et effets du réchauffement climatique sont documentés et le public informé mais le fait de “vivre dans sa chair” l'hypothèse d'un climat à 50°C permet une meilleure prise de conscience. Marine LEDOUX/AFPTV/AFP

“Will you dare to try life at 50 °C ?" It is with this intriguing message written on a truck that a unique experience begins: entering a "mobile climate chamber" containing a room heated to 50 °C.

In an alley of the Verdun Fair, a truck serving as a cold room for a restaurant. Opposite, a more astonishing truck: a "mobile climate chamber", this one warm, allows the bold to walk on a carpet, read or even have a tea… under 50 °C.

The installation, called Climate Sense, “puts people in a climate situation in several years, around 2050, 2060, when there could be climate peaks at 50 °C", Christian Clot, an explorer-researcher and director of the Human Adaptation Institute, based in Marseille, who created and financed the experiment, explains to AFP.

Its goal ? To have visitors simulate life in stifling heat for 30 minutes. It starts with 10 minutes of sport: walking on a treadmill or running, then a relaxation area for agility exercises, and finally a cognitive work session “to realize that we have more difficulty making complex decisions” and thinking, says Mr. Clot.

The project, born in his mind at the beginning of 2021, is a “world first”. A few climate chambers, allowing the temperature to vary between -20 °C and 50 °C, as well as the humidity level, exist in research centers but they have never been made mobile, allowing them to reach the general public.

Sweating, "heavy brain"

"You are going to enter the future", Christian Clot declares to a man who comes to the cabin. When he enters, the shock! After the 15°C outside, the body temperature rises quickly with the 50°C ambient, and the physical exercise required does not help. If some start by running, they quickly finish by walking gently, which is also recommended.

"We are a little used to doing sports, but we got hot doing the treadmill" running, says Clélio, a retiree who came with his wife to discover the experience, his face still red, and who did not want to give his last name.

“On the treadmill, when I had a pace of 3.5 km/h, I had the impression that I was running at 6 or 7 km/h”, adds his wife.

During the agility and reactivity games, such as pressing as quickly as possible where the light comes on, Joëlle felt “a “slight sensitivity” at the fingertips. “With heat, blood vessels narrow” which can give a tingling or electrical sensation, the teams at the Human Adaptation Institute explained to him.

After about twenty minutes, “It's harder to read, and the brain is super heavy”, notes Maëlys Lahure, a student who came to test the experiment. She “was starting to sweat a little, to be clammy” under her little blue sweater, and her face was reddening.

Greater awareness

The causes and effects of global warming are documented and the public is informed, but the fact of “living in one's flesh” the hypothesis of a 50°C climate allows for greater awareness and to ask oneself “what can we do today so that this does not happen”, underlines Mr. Clot. “The goal is not to scare people, it is first to raise awareness from the inside”.

On the way out, visitors can watch a film explaining the effects of rising temperatures on organisms. "We can still act, there is no inevitability, it is not too late", the institute reminds us.

Around fifty possible solutions, individual or collective, are also proposed, with the hope that everyone will choose one or two solutions and implement them concretely.

The mobile climatic chamber will be open to the public from September 30 to October 4 at the Batimat trade fair in Paris. And the goal will also be to include decision-makers, political leaders and business leaders.

“We could not rule out reaching 50 °C" in several regions of France "at the end of the century in the warming trajectory" climate, estimates Jean-Michel Soubeyroux, deputy scientific director of climatology and climate services at Météo-France, to AFP.

Warming is expected to reach +4 °C by 2100 in France, while it is already +1.7 °C today on average, according to the Ministry of Ecological Transition. As for the climate cabin, Mr. Soubeyroux sees it as "an educational interest" and a "collective reflection" to adapt to such temperatures.