Normally the Spring weather here in Marseille is an early announcer of the hot Summer season but, so far, the temperature remains just below 20° C or plus one degree, with the sun shining gently and a refreshing wind as a bonus, an invitation to visit three enticing areas – the rocky Calanques, the extensive coastline and the blossoming rose garden.

My walks in the mountains have switched again from afternoons to early mornings, by the time that I exit the forest a stream of day-visitors enter. As anticipated, the morning light is very different, it feels fresh and gentle although already around 10 o’clock one can sense a sharper light.

In the Guardian I read that the 11-strong independent pan-European commission on climate and health, covened by the World Health Organisation, concludes that the climate crisis is a worldwide threat to health that the WHO should declare it a public health emergency of international concern. That is a serious breakthrough in debate.

The commission of former health and climate ministers also say: Far from being a fading priority or fake news, climate change poses an immediate and long-term threat to health, economic, food, water, environmental, personal, community and national security, concerning both current and future generations. If we don’t act more quickly and comprehensively, many millions more people could die or face life-changing illness. WHO’s world health assembly starts Monday May 18.

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