Two years before his death last month, Hubert Reeves gave his last interview about his greatest concern: that the Earth was becoming uninhabitable due to human activity. This speech, unthinkable 100 years ago, is not a catastrophic scenario. This has become a real possibility, warn the leading scientists of the moment.
“By acting as it does, human life is a threat since it could wipe out life, at least in its most complex forms, from the planet. This is the major problem of humanity,” says the famous astrophysicist in the documentary The ocean seen from the heartwhich opens Friday in around ten cinemas in Quebec.
The hour-and-a-half-long film reveals why the oceans are among the most vulnerable ecosystems on the planet. And why this should concern us Earthlings. Top experts in marine life — as well as other scientific disciplines — are showing the ravages of industrial fishing, the invasion of oceans by plastic waste and the death of corals that are suffocating under rapidly rising sea temperatures. water.
We even learn that fish lead a social life, recognize each other and have a “personality”. Some viewers will think of the film The wisdom of the octopus, which in 2020 showed an extraordinary bond between the marine animal and a diver. The octopus came to curl up in the arms of its human friend, like a cat would.
Hubert Reeves was interviewed in the fall of 2021, at the age of 89, by directors Iolande Cadrin-Rossignol and Marie-Dominique Michaud. “It’s the last gift he gave us,” says M with emotion.me Cadrin-Rossignol, who worked on four films with the great astrophysicist over twenty years.
The man of science, who had become one of the best popularizers of his time, seemed weakened at the time of the interview. For a rare time, he had seen fit to prepare himself, while he normally spoke spontaneously on any subject, thanks to his encyclopedic knowledge. But it had lost none of its relevance, assure the directors.
“Our ideal must be that the Earth does not become uninhabitable. There is a recognition by humanity today of the danger in which we are. This is the first step to saving her. […] Today we know what threatens us and we know what to do. The important thing is to want to do it,” says Hubert Reeves in the documentary.
Don’t really want to intervene
Obviously, a lot of humans “don’t want” to do anything to limit the damage. Industrial fishing destroys everything in its path, like a bulldozer: the second largest trawler in the world, the Margiris, drags nets as big as six football fields. This killing machine catches everything, including endangered species, which are simply thrown back into the water (dead), without showing up in fishing statistics.
“It’s incredibly stupid,” says one of the scientists interviewed in the film. No less than 10 million tonnes of fish are thrown into the oceans each year.
Canadian biologist Daniel Pauly, a true authority on the marine world, bluntly states that industrial fishing must be banned. For him, humans should stop eating fish unless they can catch them themselves in a river.
In French Polynesia, fish stocks were declining dramatically. About fifteen years ago, local leaders decided to protect the resource. Inspired by ancestral traditions, they prohibit fishing on portions of the marine territory. And it works: the number and size of fish have increased sixfold.
“This story was the spark for making the film,” says Marie-Dominique Michaud. The directors wanted to alert the population, but also to offer solutions. One of the lessons of the documentary is that protected areas produce results.
“It’s the Wild West”
Unfortunately, once again, the human species does not realize the urgency of acting, warns Quebec biologist Lyne Morissette, specialist in the St. Lawrence River.
“The problem is that 60% of our oceans are outside of that [la réglementation]and there it is far west. Everyone can do almost anything, unless we decide to work together to limit excessive overexploitation,” she explains.
French jurist Valérie Cabanes is convinced that States must establish rules to regulate industrial, mining and agricultural activities. “How come the destruction of the planet is not recognized as a crime? »
Ecuador created such a crime, she recalls. More than fifty trials have taken place since 2008. For example, the carcasses of 6,200 sharks, including pregnant females, were discovered on a boat in the Galapagos Islands. The ship was seized. The crew received fines and prison sentences.
The directors of L‘ocean seen from the heart remain optimistic despite the dark observation made in their film: “Action is a cure for ecoanxiety. And we feel that the public really wants to understand the issues. »
The documentary shows ways of acting, like this young woman who founded an organization that collects tons of plastic thrown into the sea every year. Sociologist Frédéric Lenoir also quotes Diderot: “It’s a duty to be happy. » And pessimism has never solved anything.
Mothers and scientists take to the front