This week in the “Vrai du Faux Junior”, we answer questions about the Willow project in Alaska recently approved to everyone’s surprise by Joe Biden and questions about the Coachella festival in California, accused by some of being polluting and homophobic.
Why has the Willow project been so controversial for a year? Is the Coachella festival really polluting and homophobic as some Internet users on social networks claim? The students of the Jules-Ferry college in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois in Essonne and those of the Sophie Germain high school in Paris question us and we answer them.
Why did Joe Biden finally approve Project Willow?
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, approved the Willow project in Alaska on March 13. This oil project, piloted by the American multinational ConocoPhillips, aims to produce around 600 million barrels over thirty years. On the program, three drilling sites, about 219 extraction wells and all this in Alaska, less and less protected from these massive and highly polluting projects.
The Willow project had been approved under the Trump administration before being halted in 2021 under Joe Biden who said, at the time of the presidential election in 2020: “No more oil drilling on federal lands“. The American president explained that it would be “a disaster to do this in the Arctic”. However, three years later, he decided to approve this oil extraction project. Hence this question from Léane who wonders “why Joe Biden endorses the Willow project when he pledged to end oil drilling during his last election campaign?“
We contacted Laurence Nardon, head of the North America program at the French Institute for International Relations (Ifri). She offers several possible explanations. “The first is that if he did not accept it, there would potentially be very costly legal attacks for the federal government and he had no choice, because the companies that want to drill in Willow area filed their plans over 20 years ago and now they really want it done because they are losing money.“
Then, Laurence Nardon explains that Joe Biden can afford it now, because upstream, he has done “full of very positive things for the environment since he arrived at the White House in January 2021, such as bringing the United States back into the Paris agreements, or even last summer, in August 2022, he did pass an Inflation Reduction Act, which will shift the United States from thermal cars to electric cars.”
Finally the last possible reason for this reversal of Joe Biden, according to Laurence Nardon, “maybe it’s a trick. He accepted this Willow project, but there are already environmental NGOs who have filed appeals, so it is not because he accepted the project that it will happen. There will still be months, perhaps years, of discussions between the NGOs that are bringing the legal action.”
Why do some say the Coachella festival is homophobic?
From April 14 to 23, in the California desert, one of the biggest festivals in the world is held, bringing together some of the trendiest artists on the international scene: the Coachella festival. Sasha asks us if the Coachella festival “is polluting and homophobic as many influencers say on social networks“.
Yes, we can say that this festival is considered polluting. It generates considerable waste and a very high environmental cost, as this latest study published in 2019 shows.
It’s already very polluting to get there, the festival is in the middle of the desert, more than two hours by car from Los Angeles and visitors come from all over the world. It should be noted that two thirds of the average CO2 emissions produced in music festivals come from the travel of participants. In this case, the Coachella festival is several thousand spectators every day. There is also the noise pollution it generates and which disturbs the ecosystems on site and finally, a report which reveals several hundred tons of solid waste produced during the Coachella festival, of which only 20% is recycled.
Regarding the festival’s accusations of homophobia, they concern its owner, Philip Anschutz, a billionaire whose reputation is totally opposed to the very progressive image of the event. This close friend of Donald Trump is regularly accused of funding particularly conservative associations, anti-abortion or even hostile to the LGBT + community. In recent years the controversy has been such that a hashtag #NoCoachella has emerged on social networks.
This year, the singer Angèle performed at Coachaella and was criticized by some of her fans who accuse her of having been in a “homophobic” and “anti-abortion” festival in reference to its owner. Angèle went on stage and even sang one of his songs with a rainbow flag on his shoulders, one of the symbols of the LGBT+ community.