Environment: midnight has struck | The duty

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It has been said for 30 years that it is “five minutes to midnight” on the environmental clock. Judging from the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), midnight has struck. We waited too long. Not only are certain climate changes now irreversible (melting glaciers, rising sea levels, the disappearance of arable land, etc.), but the next 20 or 30 years will be, it is official, even more suffocating. .

Even if we decide today to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 30% below 2005 levels, as we committed to six years ago, it is too late to save ourselves. forest fires, floods, deadly heat waves, all these now familiar catastrophes. At least, in the foreseeable future, that of our children in particular. By 2050, the temperature will rise at least 1.5 degrees more than in the pre-industrial era, regardless of whether or not we regain consciousness.

What’s up, you will tell me. The report, signed by 195 countries and based on 14,000 studies, takes up things often heard, it is true. But, recalling the imminent emergency that awaits us, the IPCC underlines by the band the unspeakable phlegmatism of our governments for 20 years. Recall that the top 10 responsible for global warming are China, the United States, the European Union, India, Russia, Japan, Indonesia, Iran and, in case you didn’t know, Canada. However, in the current pandemic context, government inaction is literally leaping by the throat. If we compare everything that has been done to counter the coronavirus with the little bit that has been put in place to counter climate change, it is day and night.

How to explain that with much less to lose from a public health point of view, as well as with much less irrefutable scientific data at hand, the fight against COVID-19 has been waged with full force, in war as in war, through press conferences and restrictive measures – sometimes highly questionable, including the recent vaccination passport -, while the fight against climate change, for 50 years that we have been talking about and the cataclysms that we a rosary, still lagging behind?

Two possible explanations. The concern for immediacy, first of all. Although the fires in British Columbia, the floods in Germany or the heatwave in Greece are not that far from us, environmental disturbances often seem distant. There is always a way not to feel directly concerned by what is happening. All this remains a little theoretical – the scientific discourse contributing to this opacity. As the coronavirus fell on us like an army of Visigoths, a sudden, massive invasion and all the more threatening because it was largely unknown. The information came to us this time directly from the mouths of politicians visibly shaken, even overwhelmed, trying to mobilize each of us in a collective effort. It was, they said, “a question of life and death.” Ours, for once. There was danger in the house and no one could be indifferent to it.

It was only later that we understood – when we began to count the deaths by the hundreds in CHSLDs – that, despite the obvious concern to save lives, the concern to preserve the hospital system had counted. ultimately more. Protecting the system, the hard link, sometimes to the detriment of the weak links has been a constant during this pandemic. We see it again with the imposition of the vaccine passport. This measure is not there first to save lives, it is there to keep the economy going, to make sure that business enterprises can function normally. We agree, of course, but we still have to see what the consequences of such a measure are for the most vulnerable, for the intrusion into privacy and democratic life in general. It is not by chance that the chambers of commerce hastened to applaud the new measure, while the associations for the defense of rights and freedoms have all expressed reservations.

Protect the economy, normal life, the state is also at the heart of the fight to save the planet, but now it is an obstacle this time. Preserving the lifestyle we love – based since the industrial revolution on the massive use of non-renewable energies – is the main reason behind government inaction on climate change. While the same reflex pushes us to action in the case of COVID, it paralyzes us in the case of the environment.

During this pandemic, we have shown ourselves ready to make all the sacrifices: isolation, loss of jobs and activities, the disappearance of loved ones without the possibility of saying goodbye to them … We have shown that we are capable of changing many things, of enduring. Has the time come to do the same for the environment? Hurry up.

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