While environmental and climatic threats become a little more concrete and worrisome every day, immobility remains the rule. And when measures are finally taken, they are far from an answer to the real problems. Why this slowness? Why this lack of ambition? For astrophysicist Aurélien Barrau, there is no doubt about the answer: Society does not yet realize what is happening and, worse, is in the wrong direction.†
Guest of the show la Terre au carré (France Inter), Aurélien Barrau tried to explain why, in his view, the ecological issue suffered from so much indolence on the part of society and politicians. “We are not in a projection about the future, he said, we are in an observation about the present.” In other words, as long as the worst isn’t before our eyes, it doesn’t exist.
But the root of the problem, according to Aurélien Barrau, is that we have disconnected ourselves too much from the living and that this disconnection means that we are not acting as we should. While we should be fighting to preserve what can still be preserved, we are still thinking about how to destroy life…with clean energies. To better understand his point, here’s an excerpt from his speech in which he evokes the concept of “growth”:
Aurelien Barrau:
“Currently, what is called growth is essentially destroying a space full of life and replacing it with a parking lot for a supermarket. That is literally speaking of growth. If we do it with solar energy, with nuclear energy or with wind energy, nothing changes. In the end, we effectively destroyed a forest to build a concrete room. Ultimately, life is dead.”
“Today, political activity consists of doing the same and polluting a little less. It has absolutely no interest because what we are trying to do today is eradicate life. Today, life is seen as a resource.”
Words that challenge, repress and make you think. Provided that they contribute to the awakening of consciences.