Every day, we experience the consequences of climate change and biodiversity loss. Fires, rising waters, floods, species extinction, deforestation, oceans' acidification, and temperature records have become daily news. Almost banal. What does it take to reverse the movement that destroys our planet and seems imminent and inevitable?
It is as if we were all more or less aware of what was going on but that we had decided to give up. Facing this growing fatalism, we need to tirelessly search for and deploy solutions to stop this ominous trend.
Over the past 15 years, we have witnessed many “COP”—some with success like Paris or Glasgow. Nevertheless, acts and funds struggle to follow on a sufficient scale and speed. As if the priorities were somewhere else. Yet when an acute and imminent danger to our democracy arises - war at the gates of Europe - hundreds of billions of credits are released in a few weeks. Our pyramid of values has strange priorities. Breathing, drinking, and eating all come after feeling safe. Far be it from me to argue that our efforts to help Ukraine are not important, but we must note that the “sense of urgency” is perceived very differently for the two issues.
The arrogance of humankind, which “really” thinks it will dominate nature and find solutions to everything it has destroyed - and continues to destroy - is disturbing, to say the least. It is a fundamental question that needs to be carried out.
So, it is up to each individual to “revolt”, to question the system, reconnect to it, to nature and change consumption and buying habits. But who’s turning down the heater at home by 2 degrees to limit gas consumption? Who does without buying the latest fashion or eating meat more than once a week? The offer is – still – abundant. Why go without it?
There are still too few of us who examine our consciences as “citizens of the Earth”, who consume “sustainably”, act as “supportive” neighbours and take “social” as evidence.
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