Written on 15 August 2025.

Do temperatures exceeding 40°C in France seem unbearable to you? Imagine what life could be like at 50°C in 2050. Our journalist tested this out in a truck simulating these extreme conditions. 50°C: this temperature seems surreal for the summer of 2025. However, according to Météo-France, it could well be reached in France by 2050.

Elsewhere in the world, it is already a reality: at the end of July, Turkey joined the increasingly less exclusive club of countries where the thermometer has exceeded 50°C.

The Climate Sense truck is the somewhat sadistic invention of Christian Clot, an explorer who loves to plunge the human body into different extreme situations to better study its limits.

When the truck door closes, the air enters my mouth like a blast from a hair dryer. The whole thing feels like embracing the fate of a vegetable that is going to be candied at low temperature. At the back of the cramped space are three treadmills on which the explorer invites us to walk for ten minutes. “It's 8 a.m. on a day in 2050. You're going to work and walking in the shade. It's already 122°F...”

Within two minutes, the body automatically activates its cooling systems: vasodilation of blood vessels to dissipate heat, profuse sweating, and faster breathing. My complexion turns peony pink.

My skin becomes a sweaty membrane, my eyelashes stick together, and beads of hot sweat roll down from my forehead to my neck. I tell myself that under these conditions, I would never walk to work. In the back of my mind, a conviction takes hold: "No one will be able to keep up this pace, no children will be able to go to school, no employees will be able to work outdoors, human societies will slow down. "

But after twenty minutes at 50°C, it's like having chewing gum in your brain, thoughts slow down, sentences lose their structure. Heat impairs cognitive abilities, and the phenomenon becomes tangible.

Neuroscientists refer to a decrease in nerve conduction: messages circulate more slowly, short-term memory becomes blurred, and attention becomes fragmented. Participants describe a “mental fog” and an inability to organize their thoughts.

After thirty minutes, confusion can set in, accompanied by the risk of heatstroke: nausea, dizziness, disorientation. In a real-world environment, these symptoms can lead to loss of consciousness or even death if the body's internal temperature exceeds 40 °C  (104°F.) 

When the door opens, the outside air—though warm—feels light and breathable. You step outside with the feeling of having visited a hostile planet: our own, in 2050! Most people recover in a few minutes, but it took me three hours to regain my senses.

Written on 09 August 2025.

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Written on 11 August 2025.

Written on 08 August 2025.

Im Alter von 22 Jahren packte Tim Schramm seine Sachen und überquerte die Grenze zur Ukraine. Er begab sich nicht nur in ein Kriegsgebiet – er stellte sich einer moralischen Herausforderung.

„Ich komme aus dem rechten politischen Lager in Deutschland“, sagt er. „Wir reden viel über Werte – Freiheit, Nation, Familie. Aber in der Ukraine leben die Menschen diese Werte tatsächlich. Sie sterben sogar dafür.“

Als ehemaliger Sympathisant russischer Narrative und Mitglied der deutschen Partei Alternative für Deutschland, die oft als kremlfreundlich wahrgenommen wird, mag Schramms Entscheidung, für die Ukraine zu kämpfen, paradox erscheinen. Aber für ihn war es die einzig logische Konsequenz, nachdem er das gesehen hatte, was er als „Verkörperung von Idealen“ bezeichnet – nicht in Reden, sondern in Schützengräben. 

Schramm spricht offen über seinen Weg von ideologischer Verwirrung zu Klarheit – davon, wie er russischer Propaganda verfiel und schließlich als Mörserkanonier an der Südfront bei Hulyaipole gegen russische Truppen kämpfte.

Er spricht mit brutaler Ehrlichkeit über seine Enttäuschung von Russland, die Widersprüche innerhalb seiner eigenen Partei und warum er glaubt, dass die Unterstützung der Ukraine nicht nur eine noble Sache ist, sondern auch im deutschen nationalen Interesse liegt.