They want to take advantage of the presidential campaign to be heard. 1,400 researchers are calling on Tuesday for the climate and environmental crisis to become a real subject of the current electoral campaign for the ballot on April 10 and 24.
In a column published on the site of franceinfo, these scientists, climatologists, geographers, sociologists, philosophers, historians, oceanographers, astrophysicists, mathematicians and economists, some of whom are members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or the High Council for Climate, deplore “the absence of democratic debate (…) on the serious upheavals in progress and to come”. They take a position, regardless of their “political opinions” and their “personal commitments”.
They contrast the fact that “the environment is a major concern of the French people” and the fear of “the complexity of the subjects”, their “anxiogenic” side, the belief of “low interest for the general public” and therefore “therefore the promise of a lower audience” to explain the relatively low media exposure of the subject. The signatories insist on the need not to be limited to binary choices and “simplifications (Who) end up creating an intellectual prison”, such as the opposition between “supporters of nuclear energy and defenders of renewable energies”. They welcome the “awareness” of the “agricultural world” and “large companies (Who) develop climate policies”. “Everyone has understood that the production and consumption models inherited from the past will be called into question. »
“If we choose inaction, we must bear the consequences”
In addition to the “reduction of greenhouse gas emissions” and the “preservation of life”, they believe that it is necessary to organize “the nature and pace of adaptation, the fair distribution of risks and efforts, solidarity between generations or between territories”. “If we choose inaction, it is necessary to expose and assume the consequences,” he asserts.
In order for the voters to make their decision, they ask that the candidates for the election be questioned on “substantive questions”. Several examples are given. “How to triple the rate of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2024, without increasing social and territorial inequalities? How can we reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, without increasing fuel poverty? How can cities adapt to reduce their vulnerability to hot, dry and humid extremes, according to a low-carbon logic? How to prepare for more frequent and intense extreme weather events? »
Faced with rapid and unprecedented changes, the signatory scientists believe that it remains possible to “mitigate the crises”. But “it is more essential than ever to be able to deliberate calmly on the alternatives, the opportunities and the constraints of the various options considered”.