“We are not born ecologist, we become one,” writes French journalist Lucas Scaltritti in We were lied to about ecology (Michel Lafon, 2024, 224 pages). The formula appeals to me because it matches my experience and that, I am convinced, of many of you.
The overly intense environmentalists, those who are ready to sacrifice humanity to save the planet, get on my nerves. However, I do not appreciate any more the brutes who believe it is possible to indulge in narcissistic hedonism with impunity with disregard for the health of nature. In environmental matters, as in everything else, the doctrinaires horrify me.
I am not ecoanxious and I prefer optimistic voluntarism to catastrophism, but I try to remain lucid. I am then forced to note that global warming and attacks on biodiversity, as well as their sad consequences, are undeniable facts.
In France, which Scaltritti mainly speaks about, but also in Quebec and elsewhere, agricultural production is being undermined, forests are burning at an unprecedented intensity, heatwaves are increasing, ski resorts are having to close due to lack of snow and, around the world, the number of climate refugees is exploding. In 2008, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there were around 21.5 million. The World Bank predicts that there will be 1.2 billion in 2050.
“Global warming,” writes Scaltritti, “will affect our pleasures – such as skiing, swimming – as well as our vital needs – notably access to drinking water and food security. » It may be difficult to imagine how a small increase of a few degrees Celsius can have such dramatic consequences. To help us, Scaltritti offers an analogy with the human body. Our normal body temperature is around 37 degrees Celsius. If it rises one degree, fever sets in. At three degrees higher, death threatens. “For the planet,” writes the journalist, “it’s the same, and 2022 is the proof. »
The good news, if we can say so, is that this unbridled warming is not inevitable, but the result of our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a reality that it is up to us to modify. Not, says Scaltritti, to save the planet, which will survive with or without us, but in order “to preserve habitable living conditions on Earth for humanity”.
Are you individualistic, even selfish, as we all are to some extent? “Become green,” says the journalist. You don’t want your chalet on the edge of the woods to burn down, you want to continue skiing, eating and drinking without rationing? Go green.
Concretely, this means that we should limit our GHG emissions to around two tonnes per person per year. Currently, in Quebec, the average is eleven tonnes. The challenge is therefore significant and involves both individual actions and those of public authorities.
Some, obviously, especially the richest, will have to make more effort than others. To get an idea of the duties that await us, we must first calculate our carbon footprint. Simplicity by temperament, therefore effortless, I clock in at 5.3 tonnes, according to the site Our climate gestures: never a plane, an average car which is 20 years old and which is not used often, old household appliances, but, and that weighs down my balance sheet, meat on the menu.
One of the lies the essay tackles is that small actions—recycling, composting, turning off the lights—could tip the scales. Individual action counts, he specifies, but it must concern “structural changes”.
Being green today means considerably reducing our use of thermal cars – and therefore having alternative solutions offered by the public authorities -, never taking a plane – a single round-trip transatlantic flight emits two tonnes of GHG per person -, reduce our consumption of red meat, lower the thermostat to 19 degrees at home, force banks and governments to stop investing in fossil fuels and, in Europe, not reject nuclear energy.
In terms of biodiversity, it is important to counter the destruction of natural habitats by fighting against deforestation and the artificialization of land, a consequence of urban sprawl and industrial development like Northvolt.
In his film Super Size Me (2004), the American Morgan Spurlock ate only McDonald’s for a month to illustrate the effects of junk food. In his podcast Super Green Meat the origin of this essay, Scaltritti recounts his ecological conversion in the era of global warming, to convince us that it is feasible and that it is necessary.
Columnist (Presence Info, Game)essayist and poet, Louis Cornellier teaches literature at college.