Posted at 2:00 p.m.
The pressure needed
Excellent file, especially with the decisive issues that humanity is currently facing (my lucid side). But I trust that the rising global awareness and mobilization will put the pressure needed for the right policy decisions to be made. Hasn’t this been the case for the last decades? (my unwavering optimistic side)… But I am aware that the tipping point of the balance is approaching, so I combine the two and call the result hopeful.
Helene Tousignant
Luckily there are disasters
One of your best articles! For Earthlings to survive, we must suffer. I welcome rising gas prices, inflation and disasters. These are consequences that force us to adjust and be more moderate in our consumption. The other option is to consume, consume and fall into the precipice. Silly, isn’t it?
Jacques Gagnon
Forgotten externalities
There is a subject that is completely evacuated from these “optimistic” observations: these are the negative externalities, these profits from which consumerist civilization has benefited by exploiting ecosystems and humans for a long time. This “positivity” is therefore based on the “negativity” of the origin of this GDP which would allow this “progress” in question here. Our well-being, the nature of which we could discuss for a long time, is thus an enormous debt that we pass on to future generations. To identify what is going wrong in our world, and to be able to change, it does not take a “smiling man” with rose-colored glasses, it takes the sadness that comes from our sensitive gaze and our lucidity on this world.
Marc Boucher, author of The Silent Gaze Revolution (X Y Z)
Optimism without angelism
We have every reason to be optimistic, without however lapsing into otherworldliness. There is reason to be pessimistic on certain issues, including that of global warming. At best, we will adapt, the backtracking in terms of growth will not happen.
Christian Castonguay
The discussion is launched
I found your file super interesting, because I had a tendency to be pessimistic. Your article is realistic, I had forgotten what was good. I sent your article to my two children who (maybe) don’t read the paper or watch the news on TV. My daughter replied that the article was invigorating and I await my son’s response. The discussion is launched for the party of Christmas.
Monique Germain
Other sources of motivation
I think I’m optimistic while keeping myself a little embarrassed. Last November 5, I went for a very nice bike ride in Estrie at 23°C, it was magnificent, perhaps thanks to global warming or by chance, because every year since I was born there is 80 years brings very diverse climatic conditions to a country blessed with four distinct seasons. Global warming caused by untimely human productivity does exist, I believe in it, and I am also certain that it has irreparable harmful effects to which we will adapt. On the other hand, I am amazed to see that the people of my city and my country continue so cheerfully to overconsume by using polluting energy. When we ask people to stop putting GHGs into the atmosphere by telling them that the effort they make will reduce the concentration of planetary GHGs by less than 2%, this type of impact is not very motivating then that if we told them that it would improve the quality of the ambient, local air, I think that the motivation would be better. In any case, more motivating since at least the effort made would have an immediate effect close to home, especially on respiratory and vascular health. I think our governments would benefit from encouraging research on the behavioral side to try to identify what moves people besides money and comfort.
Hugues Beauregard
nature will win
We are in a no man’s land, if I may say so: it is a titanic battle between man and nature. It’s really David against Goliath and we have no chance of winning against nature, the natural mechanisms are intractable. If humanity does not bend, refuses to adapt hard and fast, our chances of survival are slim. When I see humans’ capacity for denial, I worry. When I see his capacity for resilience, I am optimistic. Either way, do we have a choice? The problem with nature and climate is that there is no modus operandi. Nature, on the other hand, does not experience difficulties, it follows its course, just like the river. The climatic disaster is for humanity, not for nature. And unfortunately, environmental science is still very uncertain and approximate: is the tipping point at our doorstep, is it still far away? We don’t know, it may already be too late, deep mechanisms that we don’t understand may have already been set in motion. In any case, we are playing with fire and humanity will have to have the intelligence to pool all its forces, which is far from won.
Michael Basque