We’re sawing off the branch we’re sitting on
Relevant, impactful. We ask for more. I’ve been teaching that in two of my classes for 13 years. Glad that the editorial of The Press deals with it. We can never talk about it enough.
The Anthropocene began with the steam engine, but our murderous action on other species around the time our ancestors left the Horn of Africa. So the beginning of the sixth extinction has certainly accelerated since Watt and company, but it dates back several tens of thousands of years. And it is accelerating each year since a large part of the GDP depends on the exploitation of natural resources.
So-called sustainable development consists of agreeing on the speed at which you saw off the branch on which you are sitting. No one talks about quitting sawing. Finally, we are very few.
Daniel R. Rousse, PhD, Eng.
deadly species
Isn’t it sad to read this. Of course, the endangered species is also homo sapiens. Who is at the end of the food chain? We. We eat fish contaminated with plastic. All this pollution is coming back to us. If we don’t realize it in time, our species could well and truly be extinct by 2100. “We have the dubious privilege of being the deadliest species in the annals of biology. We are all guilty! It is better to recognize it…”, excerpt from the excellent work Sapiens: the birth of mankindby Yuval Noah Harari.
Nathalie Potvin, Montreal
save the humans
Thank you very much Stephanie for this article! Rather than saying “save the planet”, we should say “save the humans” because that’s really what it’s all about. After all the looting we are already doing forever supposedly increasing our economy, a good chunk of humans will disappear and planet Earth will probably survive better without us… So what do we decide Now?
Rejean Malette
lead by example
I would like us to explain why 20,000 people are going to come to Montreal to explain climate change to us. [et les moyens de mettre un terme à la perte de biodiversité]. As scientists why don’t they find another way to make these COPs greener without contributing to the greenhouse effect through travel. I find it a little strange that our great world scientists still encourage this way of doing things, they are false priests who do not lead by example.
Denis Cayer
like the frog
I am sorry. I think it’s too late. Our elected officials are literally overwhelmed and unable to act… on behalf of the people. Never take my car again, ever. Not going to Florida or Cuba this winter, ever. Limit my consumption, never. Growth, growth, economy, economy… The problem is there. We have to stop growth, but our current system, our policies, our habits, our ways of doing and seeing aim for the opposite. It’s too late. The human is like the frog in his jar whose water is heated, but worse, because it is he himself who persists in heating his jar!
Rene Masson, Quebec
Believe in humanity?
In 2006, Yves Paccalet published “Humanity will disappear, good riddance”. Today, a revised and aggravated version is still just as relevant: “I believed in humanity, writes Yves Paccalet: I no longer believe in it…” Seven years after the first publication of this pamphlet which was a bestseller, the author adds a few shovelfuls of earth to our announced coffin.
“Anyone who believes that exponential growth can continue indefinitely in a finite world is either a madman or an economist. »
Kenneth Boulding
Last of class
At COP15, François Legault will have to show a lot of imagination to convince of his goodwill. Until now, he has not shown much interest in the preservation of endangered species and territories. Quebec, under the Caquiste regime, is at the bottom of the class in terms of the preservation of biodiversity, whatever the various ministers concerned and the Prime Minister himself may say. A “super” ministry for the environment would currently have its place as much, if not more than a “super” ministry for the economy and energy.
Nicole Lavoie
Ecosystems before lobbies
My humble opinion is that the governments do not take their responsibilities with regard to the ecosystems, the biodiversity and the collective well-being of the humans who occupy the territory, not to mention their climate and environmental inaction in the face of the international agreements that they have signed. Moreover, they are very reactive to economic lobbies of all kinds. We thought for a long time that they ensured the protection of our quality of life and our health, but this is false.
Natural spaces are essential for our well-being. People don’t see the links between agricultural soil loss, pollutants in ecosystems, habitats disappearing under the backhoe with the consequent degradation of planetary biogeochemical (carbon/nitrogen/oxygen) balances, because they continue to find food at the grocery store and can still access their consumer goods.
The balances between the elements which must be recycled through natural ecosystems (rich in quantity and quality) and which took millions of years to establish show serious tendencies by reaching thresholds. Climatic and biological phenomena could occur and could react in cascade by feeding each other. It is the accumulation of disturbances that will lead us to extremely problematic situations for the continuity of agricultural activities and water supply in particular.
Ecologists have often been perceived as idealistic dreamers, but it is this science that today makes it possible to establish the findings and warnings that are the most pragmatic given the observations and trends observed scientifically. It may be too late to completely avoid global changes, but there may still be time to react to save our descendants from extreme situations.
It is not individual actions that will make it possible to change the course of things, but courageous decisions by the governments of all countries.
Kim Marineau, biologist
nature does not forgive
A word from Pope Francis at the start of the pandemic in 2020: “We sometimes forgive each other, God always forgives and Nature never forgives! We destroy ourselves by deluding ourselves.
Claude Lachance, Thetford Mines