The climate is changing but we are not…
– the sky is on the roof, this time it’s red –
There was a time when we didn’t know (though some doubted it). Indeed, most of us did not have access to adequate information, and this acts as an alibi for us and gives us a clear conscience. This is no longer the case today. Information is available to everyone, even everywhere, bordering on obsessive, in the media and social networks. This leaves us with many responsibilities. How will we continue to consume (meat or not), how do we spend our leisure time (downhill or cross-country skiing, jet skiing or boating), our vacations (nearby or at the end of the world), what work? will we do or change (tobacco, croupier or permaculture enthusiast)? Where will we choose to live (if we can, of course), in the countryside, as telework increasingly allows, in a medium-sized city, or in a metropolis? So do we choose to have a large or modest family, or not to have children (nothing else prevents us from adopting)?
In addition to this individual choice, there is a collective choice that should not be underestimated, which is more difficult to grasp. The spectacle of many players in political and economic life seems quite abstract to many of us. Current events do not encourage us to be optimistic. Totalitarian states, authoritarian states, autocracies, banana republics are proliferating as a result of turf wars, soon climate wars, and a booming arms industry… There is reason to doubt the kind of people whose great leaders prefer to absorb our wealth around the world. the conquest of space rather than solving the problem of world hunger and all that comes from it.
It must be said once again: we are at a crossroads. True, there are some encouraging signs and then small concrete gestures that confirm individual awareness. I myself have been surprised that many people follow the recycling restrictions, especially with care. But beyond that, indecency is evident (wild beds, in the city as well as in the countryside).
Undoubtedly, due to this greatness of consciousness, business leaders and governments also show volunteerism. But they are left behind by the principle of reality: the economic well-being of the society they defend is based on consumption, which appears to be unrestricted and often rational. It is not simply a question of being able to do what is necessary, but to be able to do what has long been superfluous, even useless.
In turn, scientists breed uncertainties. There are those who shy away from civilizational problems, often out of fear of losing research budgets. There are others who are sounding the alarm, but their message is having trouble getting through to the public, especially if it advocates growth and sobriety. Politicians also don’t like bad news unless they profit, while many business people only look at the balance sheet…
Neurobiologist Sebastien Bohler, in turn, recalls a human brain programmed to realize some important goals related to its short-term survival: “Eat, reproduce, gain strength, do it with minimum effort and collect maximum information about the environment. » He suggests that this genetic program has remained largely unchanged for millennia. Therefore, this would explain our impossibility, our difficulty in having a responsible behavior in the long run. Although it is not an absolute necessity to change the model, it is a real obstacle at a time when the interest seems obvious. But again, consulting the data, “Yesterday’s World” resists when not enacted. So, will the experience of Covid, which in a few months convince us of the possible existence of a world that is fairer, more reasonable in its choices, with a future, be of no use to us?
