Hollywood on fire, entire neighborhoods of Los Angeles as if they had undergone a thermonuclear attack, more than 5,000 villas and buildings razed, an unbreathable atmosphere, a city killed, four years before the next Olympic Games… Some even compared the photo. of the historic McDonald’s establishment devastated by flames in the fire of Notre-Dame-de-Paris (No need to exaggerate…). A week before the inauguration ceremony of Donald Trump, the American climate skeptics in power were caught up with the reality of climate change, undoubtedly responsible for these dramatic fires that have already claimed 10 lives, traumatized the inhabitants of the “city of angels”, among the richest on the planet and ignited a controversy that is not about to die. Joe Biden, a few days before his departure from the White House, affirmed that these giant fires are the consequence of global warming, like those that regularly devastate Australia and the southern Mediterranean today. Donald Trump accuses the democratic governor of the State of California of not being prepared, especially in the recovery of fresh water reserves, and the mayor of LA of having cut funding for firefighters. California on fire has become a symbol of the urgency to adapt our lifestyles to climate change. The insurers have done the calculations and we have already spoken 16 to 20 billion dollars in compensation. From this point of view, the inhabitants of Pacific Palisades are much better off than the Mahorais in addition without insurance after the passage of Cyclone Chido.
Optimists will be reassured by the hope that the Los Angeles tragedy will awaken consciences and reverse the climate skepticism of the Trump administration. But nothing is less certain. Just before handing over power, President Biden just signed an executive order to prevent oil drilling off the American coast. This, without a doubt, only curbs the appetite of Donald Trump, one of his favorite words is “drilling”. His renewed interest in Greenlandland (Danish) rich in natural resourcesoil, uranium, rare earth shows this. The president of the United States has not ruled out the use of economic or even military means of coercion for America to take possession of the Arctic. To calm things down, Denmark said it was open to dialogue with the United States while excluding any transfer of this territory that has an autonomous status. Donald Trump also reaffirmed the strategic importance of sea routes by claiming the Panama Canal, ceded in the 1970s by Jimmy Carter, the former US Democratic president who died at the age of 100 in December 2024. This geopolitical pressure on the part of Donald Trump, at the dawn of his second term, sets the tone for a presidency that will lead the world into a new, more brutal era both diplomatically and economically. French companies are preparing for the increase in customs feeshoping that he will be more moderate than he announced.
Last episode so far that deserves to be worried, the rally this week of the boss of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, who in a speech astonishingly bad faith, questioned the effectiveness of the moderation of social networks and aligned himself with the practices of his competitor X, of Donald Trump. Should we be surprised to see the GAFA demonstration around the new power? Not really. The same people were Democrats under the Democrats and it is not surprising to see them become MAGAs under Donald Trump. No, what’s really worrying, though, is Europe’s lack of reaction to this attack on the principles of our law. In addition to the former European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who led the battle against the increasingly unbridled provocations of Elon Musk, the radio silence of Ursula Von der Leyen says a lot about the submission of Europe to the interests of the American Big Tech. In 1940, the French historian Marc Bloch published a book entitled “A Strange Defeat” to explain the lightning victory of Nazi Germany due to the lack of lucidity of the French political class of the end of the 3rd Republic. In view of the repeated interference of the head of , it is obvious that the social network X has crossed all the limits established by the Law of Digital Services. If Europe does not launch any procedure against Musk, as requested by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot, former digital minister, it will be an abdication and encourage Musk’s offensive to continue. To ponder, this phrase attributed to the British philosopher Bertrand Russell: “the main problem of the world is that madmen and fanatics are so sure of themselves, and that the wise are full of doubts”…
