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Dernière mis à jour : 26/03/2024
In recent years, radical environmental activists have been trying to raise awareness about global warming. Does the radicalism lie in their headline-grabbing actions or in the lack of action from leaders, asks Géraldine Poivert.
"Sincere activist soup throwers are not stupid: they know their action will not reduce the global rate of greenhouse gas emissions."
Throwing soup at Claude Monet's "Spring," attacking Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus," smearing cream on Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," glueing hands here or there, chaining oneself elsewhere… So-called "radical" environmentalists are associated with this type of action. But do these media-oriented acts address the problem "at its root"?
Yet, etymologically, radicalism comes from the Latin "radicalis," itself derived from "radix": "root." So, to take on the challenges of the economic and environmental transition at the root: does it mean gluing one's hands to the hood of the productive engine, or opening it, diving inside, emerging perplexed, imagining solutions, and implementing them?
THE TIME FOR ALERT IS OVER
To be honest, sincere activist soup throwers are not stupid: they know their action will not reduce the global rate of greenhouse gas emissions. They do it to "raise awareness." Fine. But the alarm has already been sounded for years, even decades. Successful films and TV series have done so, and that's a good thing!
It is no longer time to sound alarms, however well-intentioned. It is also no longer time to launch debates: they have already taken place. The time has also passed for questioning concepts. Sustainable development, green growth, sufficiency, it doesn't matter today!
Radicalism, true radicalism, must not consist of frightening people ("it's the end of the world, everything is doomed!") nor of making people fear disappointing tomorrows ("you can only fly four times in your life") at the risk of causing the opposite of the desired effect, or even putting citizens in the streets (red and pink caps, yellow and orange vests, angry farmers and truckers).
The "root" of the problem is known: scarce resources for a growing population, runaway growth achieved through productivity gains themselves derived from the consumption of largely fossil energy. Tackling this root, being radical, means solving this equation, not denouncing it, getting emotional about it, or jumping up and down like a goat shouting "ecology, ecology, ecology," to paraphrase Charles de Gaulle on Europe.
LET'S NOT WAIT TO ACT
So the time is for action! And nothing prevents this action, not even the "pause" declared here and there, in France as in Europe. Because if there is a pause, it comes after the main decisions have been made. The State, businesses, citizens, leaders around the world have announced much over the past twenty years. They have promised even more, from one COP to the next. As climatologist Valérie Masson-Delmotte tirelessly (and rightly) repeats, the gap between commitments and actions is widening. One might add: between the law and its application, between the "Plans" and their realization, between declarations and their implementation, between appearance and reality.
Take the Ecophyto plan, for which we had to wait for the third version to understand that it wasn't doing much good. Likewise, also, for the "green funds" of banks that turn out to be brown, of the same ill-defined color as the State's green budget. Similarly, when a large oil company swears up and down that it has grasped the scale of the challenges and continues to spend more on remunerating its shareholders than on investing in renewable energies.
Or when automakers throw themselves headlong into designing "big electric SUVs." Or when the largest bottled water producers "forget" that it must be "pure and mineral." Not to mention airlines that "make up for it" by offering passengers organic coffee in paper cups, or the world's largest cruise ships that organize selective waste sorting for their customers…
Isn't true radicalism, the one that tackles the root of the problem, simply about stoping paying lip service and acting? The stakes are known. The difficulties are just as known. The legal framework is, for the most part, in place. Many pragmatic solutions are already ready. It remains to take hold of them, to align actions with commitments. That applies to everyone: individuals, companies, states. Big capitalists, governments, and environmental activists could find common ground in that kind of radicalism. The kind that actually moves things forward.
