scientists join the opposition to a “project emblematic of what should no longer be done”

Local elected officials and the government are no longer faced with local opposition on the ground against the A69 motorway project between Toulouse and Castres, but with a front, with scientists, specializing in particular in land use planning and climate change. . “It’s a bet”, says Rémi Bénos, geographer, signatory of a forum last April with half a dozen researchers to make it clear that “motorway” does not necessarily rhyme with “local development”.

>> Ecological planning: “Several projects” for motorways will be stopped, assures Clément Beaune, but not that of the A69 between Toulouse and Castres

“NOTou, what seems important to us to say is that the actors, particularly political ones, who support this project must assume that it is a bet, continues Rémi Bénos, who teaches at the national university institute Champollion in Albi. But don’t say that the arrival of the highway will automatically create the economic activity that would otherwise be lacking in the area!”

A letter signed by 1,500 scientists

Researchers are also mobilizing to warn about climate consequences. 1,500 scientists signed an open letter to the President of the Republic to ask him to abandon this project. Among them, we find figures from the IPCC, such as Christophe Cassou. “This project is emblematic of what must no longer be done”he said.

“Gaining ten to fifteen minutes, or even twenty minutes for the most optimistic calculations, when societal changes require slowing down, avoiding, replacing and improving, that makes no sense.”

Christophe Cassou

at franceinfo

The scale of this scientific mobilization is unprecedented. Supporters of the project promise to focus on compensation. At the same time, punchy actions are multiplying. Tree defender Thomas Brail is threatening to start a thirst strike on Monday, in addition to his hunger strike that began at the beginning of September.