I have often, in this column, denounced right-wing and left-wing extremism which undermines our social cohesion and plunges us into a climate of cultural war.
There, on the other hand, where this certain equivalence does not hold, it is on the fight against climate change.
In the environment, we can plead for a form of radicality.
Not to foolishly embrace all radical proposals, especially those concerning our individual freedoms or advocating civil disobedience.
But what we are beginning to experience – forest fires, floods, more vigorous and frequent ice storms, threatening our cities, our ecosystems, our infrastructures – is what the experts have been predicting for a long time. And the prelude to radical ruptures in our lives.
It may also be time for radical responses, in the etymological sense of the word: changes at the root.
2023, a turning point
In ecology, the radicalism of today is very often transformed into the normality of tomorrow. Inescapable common sense.
Do you doubt?
Take the carbon tax. Before 2015, this tax was considered an extremist thing, political suicide. Too radical, what. Today, a majority of voters adhere to it.
Take oil exploration. Not ten years ago, the idea of Quebec exploiting its oil charmed the business community, the CAQ, the PLQ and a little the PQ. Only QS, ecological radicalism, was against. In 2022, the Legault government closed the door there permanently. Nobody grumbled, a majority pleaded logic.
Take Canada, this oil entity. The Trudeau government has announced that it wants to put a cap on emissions from the oil and gas sector. Sufficient ? No. But a policy once considered radical? Yes.
Take the urban changes in our cities, take the ban on the sale of gasoline vehicles in 2035, take most of the climate policies…
All once “radical” ideas, now widely acclaimed.
To think that the climate crisis will only require technological adjustments, “small steps”, is willful blindness.
At least, in the last few days, we have literally been able to smell and taste the climate crisis.