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A campaign launched at the start of summer 2026 by the NGOs involved in the initiative L'Affaire du Siècle aims to make the effects of global warming on the French population visible.
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To reduce the risk of her breast cancer returning, Amélie Tytgat, 36, underwent hormone therapy, which triggered medical menopause. As a result, when the weather was hot, her legs would swell significantly and she felt like she was "boiling inside." In La Valette-du-Var, in the Var department of southeastern France where she lives alone, temperatures stayed extremely high throughout the summer of 2026. For weeks, it was impossible for her to leave her fourth-floor apartment in a building with no elevator. She confined herself to her living room, which had air conditioning. She even had to buy a treadmill when she started developing bruises on her legs from not walking enough.
Like more than 140,000 others, Tytgat joined the campaign organized by the NGOs of L'Affaire du Siècle, called "Climate disaster victims: counting ourselves to make a difference." She filled out an online questionnaire and declared that she "had already suffered the effects of climate change." "Because of this abrupt warming, I couldn't live for weeks," she explained. "I couldn't go out, not even in the evening to go to the beach. I almost fainted while grocery shopping. I'm a climate refugee in my own country."
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