Autumn, you’ve been missed?

At the beginning of this month we were all still showing up to school in shorts and tank tops, living in some sort of surreal prolonged summer that felt both like a blessing and a concerningly stark reminder of the ever present and ominous climate crisis. Then suddenly that autumn we’d all been dreading (or longing for) came sweeping in with what felt like an ocean’s worth of rain and a small hurricane. If any of you experienced it as a sudden shift, that’s probably because it was. The temperature dropped ten degrees in two days, now I’m about as uneducated as you can get regarding weather phenomena but ten degrees sounds rather significant. Which raises the question, how are the students of SciencesPo Le Havre coping? Was this influx of autumn weather a welcome shift of pace amongst midterm stress or was having to suddenly figure out how your heating works the precise thing you didn’t need right now?

I have to admit that I was expecting most of you to be of the latter opinion, that autumn crashing down over Le Havre, albeit not necessarily unexpectedly but definitely suddenly, offered nothing but inconveniences. However after having surveyed 40 SciencesPo Le Havre students, that didn’t quite seem to be the case. Only 15 of you answered that you wanted summer to keep going, whilst 25 said that autumn came either right on time or even should have started a few weeks ago. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m in complete agreement with the majority here. I’m a winter lover through and through and I truly believe that the best part about October and November is that they’re all stormy and cozy. So it was about time October stopped pretending to be august.

That said, I was slightly surprised, especially since the survey was sent out after a certain sailing competition had forced many of us to lengthen our commute to school, prolonging the time we had to spend fighting the elements every day. And there were definitely those of you who voiced certain disgruntlement with the weather. Especially in regards to wind and its terrifying strength. However even with the difficulties of the wind threatening to blow half of us into the ocean on the way to school, you guys seem generally positive. Some even mentioning that the wind makes it sort of an accomplishment when you actually get places. So where is this positivity coming from? Or is it not positivity at all but rather a sign of climate anxiousness, where any further prolongment to summer would serve no other function than being further evidence of the (climate wise) dire future to come?

Because I mean, heat waves in October in the northern hemisphere? It’s an anomaly. One that most scientists conclude to be an effect of human-induced climate change. Now there’s no doubt that the prolonged summer of 2023 is a mild example of climate change consequences compared to the fierce storms, floods and droughts that the world’s being hit with. But perhaps your responses can prove that mild or not, the weather’s helping us all stay reminded about the sometimes far-too-easy-to-forget global warming. Or maybe I’m reading far too much into this and all your responses really indicate that you’re as excited as I am about sweater weather, hot cups of tea and cuddling up under a blanket to watch a movie on a rainy day.

Lina EXERMAN 1AS spoke to us about the weather in Le Havre and her concerns about climate change.