Perspective

As climate change continues to take effect, we are all going to have to change the way we behave in order to survive. That's the conclusion of Eric Klinenberg, a professor of social science at New York University who's written a book focusing on the extreme 1995 heatwave in Chicago. Temperatures there hit over 41°C, killing hundreds of people. Klinenberg says it's not just infrastructure that will have to change, but the whole way we interact with our families and those living around us.

As delegates from around the world take part in the world's first summit on protecting the world's oceans, our guest has written a book explaining how algae could be a major part of our future. Seaweed can be grown not just for food, but also for medicines, for replacing plastic and for decarbonising the economy. Vincent Doumeizel spoke to us from the One Ocean Summit in Brest in north-western France.

The internet is an essential resource for daily life. We use it to stay informed, for school and increasingly for work. But major inequalities in terms of access to the web persist. Africa lags behind much of the rest of the world in terms of connectivity, deepening existing inequalities. The spread of misinformation is also a major issue across the continent. For more on what's being done to address these challenges, Nnenna Nwakanma from the World Wide Web Foundation joined us for Perspective.

Our guest is Fabien Truong, a sociologist, author and associate professor at the University of Paris. A former schoolteacher, he spent a decade following the lives of around 20 of his students, charting their progress from the time they took their end of school exams to when they finished their higher education. Those 10 years took in the riots that rocked France back in 2005 to the terror attacks of January 2015. He gives us his take on the French presidential election campaign, as seen from the suburbs.

For an estimated 500 million girls and women globally, insufficient access to menstrual hygiene products makes everyday activities like going to school or work nearly impossible. The issue now commonly known as period poverty remains a taboo, which led 21-year-old British student Ella Lambert to create the Pachamama Project. The initiative brings together volunteers in several countries to distribute reusable pads to refugees in Europe and the Middle East. She joined us for Perspective to tell us more.

Since December, Russia has gradually amassed more than 100,000 troops along its border with Ukraine. Amid stalled talks between the US and Russia, French President Emmanuel Macron is embarking on a solo mission to Moscow and then Kyiv, insisting a diplomatic solution is still possible. For more on what to expect from this latest diplomatic push, we spoke to Natia Seskuria, Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. "Russia will not stop at Ukraine," she warned.

Champagne has iconic status not only in France, but globally. The sparkling wine, produced exclusively in France's Champagne region, dates back centuries. And though it's still widely associated with luxury, producers today have to strike the delicate balance between mixing the know-how of the past with innovations adapted to the future. The family-run Maison Duval-Leroy is at the forefront of that effort. Its director general Julien Duval-Leroy joined us for Perspective.

Russia is the world's fourth-largest emitter of CO2, yet many activists say officials there still don't take global warming seriously. President Vladimir Putin did not attend the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow and aside from vowing to end deforestation, the Kremlin refused to sign on to some of the conference's biggest pledges. Activist Vladimir Slivyak joined Erin Ogunkeye on Perspective to give his point of view. He recently won what's known as the alternative Nobel Prize – the Right Livelihood Award – for his grassroots work fighting the coal and nuclear industries in Russia.

The work of a photographer who places human architecture at the centre of his pictures, before pulling back to show its effect on the surrounding landscape, is currently on display here in Paris. Donovan Wylie began taking pictures as a child while growing up in Northern Ireland. His latest exhibition at the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris focuses on lighthouses and how they define the borders created by Brexit. He joined us for Perspective to tell us more about where he gets his inspiration.

The violence seen at the first campaign rally for France's far-right candidate Eric Zemmour plays into his hands, and could actually help his fight for the presidency. That's the view of Paul Smith, Associate Professor in French History and Politics at the University of Nottingham. But Smith says it's too early to know if Zemmour will fully shake up the campaign. The same can be said of Valérie Pécresse of the conservative Les Républicains party, who was chosen as its candidate at the weekend. We discuss where the presidential campaign stands, almost four months ahead of the vote.