With at least a dozen deaths in Europe, up to a million French homes deprived of electricity on November 2, and several communities flooded in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, storm Ciaran caused a lot of damage this week. Climatic episodes that make us more vulnerable.
Storm Ciaran, which crossed France and Europe this week, left at least a dozen dead, including two in France. 260,000 homes remain without electricity. Weather episodes of this magnitude worry us more and more. Sociologist Jean Viard’s view on this social issue: our vulnerability to these violent weather events.
franceinfo: We feel vulnerable during each of these weather episodes. There is something about our mortal condition that we perhaps forget the rest of the time. Do these storms remind us of our fragility?
Jean Viard: Yes, of course, as there are deaths, victims, we have to be very careful in what we say, because first we obviously have to think of them and of all the people who are worried, but then , storms remind us that we are indeed an element of the universe, that the universe is fragile.
The climate crisis which is not a crisis, I call it “climate war” because we have entered into an immense episode of war, almost like the great world wars of the previous century, where humanity is fighting against a nature which seems disordered, and which will mean that there will be more and more ups and downs, and that depending on what each of us does, and depending on what the politicians, businesses, parties, are going to wage, well, this war, we are going to win it more or less quickly, if ever.
This is a new period in human history, and I think we must say that what is original about this affair is that in this war, we are all on the front line. We are all on the front line, when we travel, when we heat ourselves, when we consume. Even if obviously, a good part of the solutions do not depend on you and me, namely if I heat myself with wood or if I lowered the temperature at home. But let’s not be passive. Let’s think of ourselves as active.
But the younger generations feel particularly sensitive, anxious about the future that awaits them. Are we talking about “solastalgia”, this discomfort felt with climate change?
Yes, but it’s sure, but you have to be careful, because there are young people who are very sensitive to that. And then, there is a part of young people who are much more sensitive to the “great replacement”, to give an image, to the loss of identity, etc. It’s true that it is young people who build the future by definition, and I think that young people undoubtedly have more anxiety.
What is very complicated is that the longer young people study, and therefore the more competent they are to analyze, including the climate crisis, the problems of ecosystems, etc., the more anxious they are, because the reality is very worrying.
But at the same time, let’s not say, there is nothing more to do, that would be false, and let’s not say: we’re doing nothing. And we can say: we must do more. And then we can also say: what did you do? And that’s why I insist on the collective adventure. It’s a new period, it’s like the French Revolution, it’s like the industrial revolution, which is an immense cultural, industrial, technological, scientific revolution that is before us.
And at the same time, an epic is beginning, a tragic epic because we have disrupted nature, it’s not good news, but at the same time, it’s a fight. And like all fights, it also has an innovative, creative side. Artists need to fight this, but not just to scare people, to say: we are going to win the climate war.
It’s going to be a gigantic fight, that of the entire century that is coming. And that’s what we need to tell young people. I often say we have won the pandemic war, it will be the same, there will be deaths, it will not be easy. This is a huge challenge. But let’s move forward, and not shrivel up under the covers.
And also seeing that we are taking action, this collective awareness, can perhaps also help us to alleviate our possible anxieties?
But of course because what alleviates anxiety is action, it is the possibility of action. This is why I insist on the fight, I think we must give words to say: everyone can act in their own way. And then, some can act more: we can also act by voting, by working in companies, by working in research laboratories. There are lots of places where the action is there.
The two words of tomorrow’s world are life and living. Whereas in the last century, the big words were production and balance of power. Here, we are in another era. The two central words of tomorrow are life and then living, to effectively reduce our climate impact.