“If certain peoples can say that they are the people of the caribou or the people of the white fish, because they live off these animals, we, the industrialized people of all kinds, we are the people of the explosives. And we’re blowing ourselves up. »
This shock sentence, written by Dalie Giroux at the start of the essay A civilization of firecould sound like a warning, if only for the fumes of campfires that cross Montreal as these lines are written, and the orange hue of a sky whose brilliance of the sun, dimmed by swirls of smoke, no longer has anything dazzling.
From the North Shore to Mauricie, via Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec is burning, prey to forest fires of unparalleled ferocity, decimating hundreds of thousands of hectares in their path. These extreme weather phenomena propelled by climate change will increase in number over the next few years.
However, the actions are slow to appear. “The climate crisis has been theorized, analyzed, explained by science, underlines Dalie Giroux. We know the solution, we know that we have to radically transform our way of life and we have a very clear idea of the direction to take. However, we do not move. It was this inaction that I wanted to investigate. »
Material and fossil identity
Through A civilization of firethe essayist explores this collective reaction of denial and powerlessness, and finds in the rise of the extreme right the anti-racist revolt and the identity tensions of the echoes of our response to the environmental crisis which unfold in the defense and the will preservation of the western way of life.
“Quebec and Western identity is above all material. Each of us is expected to own a house and a car, to feed ourselves by buying industrial foods at will at the grocery store, and to take an annual vacation by plane. Today, when we can no longer deny the climate threat — in three months in Quebec, we have experienced an episode of ice storms, floods, drought and forest fires — the CAQ’s strategy consists in preserving our way of life by positioning ourselves in the green energy conversion market. We agree to say that we will continue as before, but with electricity. »
This solution is for Dalie Giroux inseparable from the maintenance of colonialism as a model of global operation. “It means that we continue to plunder Africa, this Klondike of resources for the transformation of the world, we continue to deepen inequalities based on race. Scapegoats are designated — wokes, immigrants, black extremists, drag queens — a whole series of characters who have appeared in the collective imagination in recent years, and who form an extraordinary diversion. In short, to make a shortcut, burn gas and find that immigrants are dangerous, it goes together a bit. It is this figure that I try to bring out and understand, both within myself and in society. »
Welcome the inevitable
To understand the anger, the violence, the hatred that rumbles and grows in our societies, operating a movement from the center to the right, we must first see them as symptoms of a model in crisis, as a reaction to the vertigo that gives rise to the perspective of the identity and transnational transformation that is essential. For many, alternate realities — the great replacement theory and other conspiracy theories — are easier to grasp than the truth.
“It’s a way of seeing that the world is no longer livable and anxiety-provoking, without wanting to make concessions on its privileges. We are not ready to imagine a life outside of the fossil speed we enjoy every day. One in three children wants to become an entrepreneur. We should put our energy into feeding ourselves, taking care of ourselves, housing ourselves, educating ourselves and clothing ourselves. But we don’t know how to do anything but eat money. How else can we live in society? How can we be united? These questions are not asked, because we are overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task. »
On the contrary, the discourses of stigmatization and exclusion which are taking up more and more space in the public space rather reflect an inability to form a community, the triumph of every man for himself. The debate over the n-word is a convincing example, according to the author. “Why do we have difficulty in mourning a racist political folklore? Stopping using a dehumanizing vocabulary forces us to have a conversation about the colonial and ecocidal dimension of society, to realize what binds us to the power relations that organize the world and to assume that injustices and inequalities are maintained at our profit. If we are not able to accept our responsibility and our role in the future, we put ourselves in withdrawal mode, and we prepare ourselves for a war of all against all, with dwindling resources. »
To exist beyond destruction, it is essential, for the essayist, to think about crises together, and to find an inspiring and supportive position where one can begin to glimpse possibilities and projects, no matter how small. they. “We have to think about ourselves in an idea of continuity, reinvest what is around us, the link that unites us to other humans, to plants, to animals, to food. We must rethink a very concrete plan for the production and reproduction of life. There are fires to put out, children to educate, old people to care for. It is impossible that there is not a part of our life which is dedicated to it. You have to ask yourself how to have a fulfilling life outside of consumption, without it being a bereavement. The Earth belongs to everyone. Can we go back to that? »