More than a century ago, we accelerated our modes of aggression towards the environment. These aggressions are in the process, with the current forest fires, of turning into war. Nature is increasingly reacting to climate change. It is unleashed to the point that we are forced to talk about trenches around cities to protect us from massive attacks from a fiery environment.
A century ago, the Germans invented trench warfare. During the First World War, the trenches mark the beginning of a new era: the war of positions. Opposing armies defend, attack and counter-attack from relatively fixed systems of holes dug in the ground. Although they are unsanitary and dangerous, the trenches protect the combatants. But the most important thing is that the threat of death forced the soldiers to be constantly on the alert. Harsh living conditions and lack of sleep undermined their health and stamina.
Isn’t the protective trench built around Chibougamau serving as a symbol or at least a premonitory figure in this environmental war? Nature attacks us because we keep bombarding it with our oil, our waste, our overconsumption. So the only choice left to us is to dig holes in the forest to protect ourselves from the flames.
Several questions arise in the face of this tragedy. Why invest in planting trees, if they are going to get burned in our boreal forests? Will our investments in prevention be commensurate with the danger that awaits us? Will we be forced to build cities with walls like in the Middle Ages to protect us against the enemy Nature?
Nature’s assaults will take on proportions that are difficult to measure, but, one thing is certain, the war will be long. Living conditions will be difficult for many of us. Our health will be undermined, as it already is. The threat of death may always put us on the alert. Will we have the endurance necessary for our survival?
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