Sn the environmental question, what unites us, what divides us? Contrary to what some people think, it is not the scientific consensus that brings us together, but the social and political bond that emerges from the conflicts carried by multiple and inventive voices in the field.
“What divides us is infinitely less important than what binds us and the peril that unites us”, proclaimed, in 1971, the Menton appeal launched by 2200 scientists from 23 countries and published, in thirteen languages, in the Unesco Courier. Presenting the planetary dangers that threatened us (environmental destruction, pollution, depletion of resources, once morest a backdrop of population growth, warlike conflicts and socio-economic inequalities), they affirmed that all hope was not lost, and that we might solve these problems if, “putting aside our petty and selfish interests, we aim to satisfy the needs of all men”.
Aren’t we still there, fifty years later? Isn’t this the meaning of the intervention of Greta Thunberg and young people for the climate: listen to science and go beyond politics? Isn’t it time to abandon the politics of interests and move on to the administration of needs?
It would be to forget that what divides us is precisely what is supposed to unite us, climate change, the ecological crisis. The ecological question is not a sectoral dimension on which it would suffice to appoint a scientific committee. It affects all aspects of our lives, it intertwines with existing conflicts and gives rise to new ones: we see this in the issue of migrants. There is no question of jumping over politics, or of reducing it to the voluntarist application of measures drawn from scientific diagnosis. There is no escaping it: it is politically that the question is elaborated and that unity can be achieved.
Searching for the good life
“Satisfying the needs of all men” is a matter of justice. When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions and how to allocate them, an American philosopher, Henry Shue, distinguished between luxury emissions and subsistence emissions: luxury emissions can be reduced, so as to rule out forcing the poorest to restrict their needs in order to cope with climate change. Climate justice is regarding knowing how to reduce emissions without worsening social inequalities. But it is not enough to be concerned with needs, it is necessary to reorganize the ways of producing, to transform practices, where they intervene and where they are destructive.
Calculating what satisfies needs cannot therefore be done globally, it assumes that everyone, alone or collectively, can determine what they need to live, what they care regarding, and reclaim their living environment. The objective is not to limit growth or decrease, it is, as Bruno Latour develops, to ensure the habitability of the Earth, in the diversity and multiplicity of living environments. We cannot do this from above, on a planetary level, but where we are. What matters then is not the management of scarcity, but the search for the good life.
It is within civil societies that the forces capable not only of pushing governments to act, but of developing initiatives that can change lives, come together. This is not done without conflict: if some of these initiatives (farmers seeking to escape productivism, solidarity economy experiments, etc.) manage to develop within the margins of freedom granted to them by the public authorities, many come up once morest repression. and require a fight. We saw it in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, we see it in Bure, as everywhere in the world, where collectives are mobilizing to defend their living environment once morest destructive companies.
Catherine Larre, philosopher, professor emeritus at the University of Paris-I, is co-author with Raphaël Larrère of The worst is not certain. Essay on catastrophic blindness », ed. First Parallel, 2020.
“Place de la République” in Lyon | A day of debates on the notion of republic and citizenship
The world organizes on Saturday January 22, 2022, at the Hôtel de ville de Lyon, a day of conferences, debates and workshops on the issues of the republic and citizenship in France.
Free admission on registration from this link
“Republic Square” | Conferences, debates, workshops
Saturday, January 22, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Lyon City Hall, 1, place de la Comédie, 69001 Lyon
lemonde.fr/placedelarepublique
This forum is produced as part of Place de la République, in partnership with the city of Lyon
