At spring time, the drought is already here. Sociologist Jean Viard observes that all societies in the world have entered into a veritable “climate war”.
Spring is coming, this Monday, March 20, but a dozen metropolitan departments are already affected by water restrictions. Guadeloupe too. And the drought is also raging in Martinique. The sociologist Jean Viard, returns with franceinfo a little behind: let us remember the heat waves and the forest fires of last summer.
franceinfo: Last summer, we all said it was the summer of awareness of the climate threat. Does it still feel like six months later?
John Viard: I think the great pandemic marked the break-up of the world and the entry into the climate war, and that all societies are going on this. Not long ago, we signed the first high seas agreement in 25 years of negotiations. We could multiply the examples: the electric car, etc. So companies have completely changed and we must not have our nose only in the short term.
People understood that climate change was deadly, and that was the main issue. When we see the rate for example of young girls who say they will not have children, young students. So I believe that we have become aware of this and that the real question, particularly in French society, is how the government behaves as a leader in this battle.
And right now there’s a feeling that’s not the case, and I would say the political worlds that took power after the pandemic, they watched the pandemic without being in power, and so they’re a lot more open. In France, what is complicated is that the same people now govern and they have managed the pandemic. So they have a lot of trouble sensing the evolution of society.
There are also the acts of each of us which can come into confrontation with the great speeches that we have been able to hold. There is inflation, organic consumption is hampered by rising prices. There are the ski resorts which, during the February holidays, recorded record attendance, while everyone seems to be aware of the drop in snow levels in the resorts. There, is there something paradoxical between words and actions?
Yes and no. I will say after the pandemic, we all want love, outings, restaurants, vacations. So not everyone can afford it. I’m very aware, but that doesn’t mean that those they don’t do don’t want to. And there is this desire for life, because we were locked up at home, we were afraid of dying. We have a desire to live like after the wars, we love each other, we make love, there is this vitality.
Look at the question of organic. The new criterion is the local. Before the pandemic, there was a big question, very ideological: we were massively for organic, we bought it. Now we prefer local. For what ? Because during the pandemic, we reorganized locally. And basically, we are more sensitive to knowing the farmer who produced the carrots, than the fact that they are organic. We attach to the interpersonal link a function that is perhaps a little higher than the question. So basically, it’s a less ideological period.
Afterwards, it’s a period of inflation, so it’s also obvious that we all pay attention to prices. And I think that fundamentally, that’s what’s at stake, it’s this new relationship to the local, and the problem is to make policies which, little by little, bring this back, in particular towards organic, towards new farming. I think that at the moment, we first want to live, to get some fresh air, let’s try to take this strength to make society evolve towards a low carbon society.
You were talking about youth and fears, especially of having children in the face of this uncertain future. There is a new militancy which, perhaps, is seen more in the media, with some rowdy events, Roland-Garros, the Cesars more recently. Are these booster shots useful?
I am a sociologist, I try to see. I don’t think that’s the main issue anymore. Societies and mentalities have understood the issue of climate war. Are the big companies, are the States going fast enough in this change? We can of course discuss it. There can be logics of fight and recall, it is the role of the social fights.
We have never made a society without confrontation. Before, it was capital / labor, and now it will be the urgency of decarbonization or those who say: we can still earn a little money by waiting a little bit. And that recreates politics: should you take a bike or should you go with electric cars, etc.? And it is this field that will reconstruct the political.