There is now a broad consensus on the climate issue in Europe, even if a certain number of our fellow citizens are still in denial. Yet it has been half a century, so two generations, that scientifically sound whistleblowers have revealed to us the possible scenario of a collapse. A must-see video archive!
” The problems of production, development, our society of abundance, I am convinced that we are completely on the wrong track. If we don’t realize it early enough, we will arrive at the disaster. “This is the speech that held on the television this visionary whistleblower, 50 years ago.
Talking about collapse before its time
Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard (1922-2008) spent much of his life exploring the deep seas and designing submarines. His highest feat of glory: having reached in 1960, in his bathyscaphe, the lowest point in the earth’s crust, located in the trough of the Mariana Islands (Pacific) at a depth of 11 kilometers.
He is the father of the no less famous Bertrand Piccard*, designer of the solar plane project Solar Impulsewho completed a world tour in this mind-blowing flying device between March 2015 and July 2016.
I stumbled upon a television intervention by Jacques Piccard in 1974. Invited to an RTS broadcast, he then tried to explain to incredulous interviewers that ” If everything continues the same way, around the 2030s, so in 50 or 60 years… humanity is threatened. »
The Meadows Report
Jacques Piccard then relied on the famous Meadows Report, published two years earlier, in 1972. This report, published under the title “The Limits to Growth” (Limits to growthalso called “The report to the Club of Rome”) highlighted the need to end growth to preserve the global system from a collapse feasible and to stabilize both economic activity and population growth.
50 years later, this report is still systematically cited as a reference by climate change experts as Jean-Marc JancoviciPablo Servigne, Arthur Keller, Philippe Bihouix and others.
Most of them regard it as the starting point of the awareness planetary boundaries. Tea Limits to Growth has become the benchmark for debates about the ecological consequences of economic growth, resource limitations and demographic change.
Now that we know, where is the problem?
As early as 1972, the authors of the report had already perceived what seemed to them to be two facts:
- The later the decision is taken, the more it will become difficult to establish.
- For an economy without growth to be accepted, it will be essential to distribute wealth to ensure basic human needs are met.
In the television interview, Jacques Piccard explains that all the scenarios that have been modeled on a computer by MIT researchers invariably lead to the same conclusion.
Exploitation of natural resources, pollution, food production, capital investments, standard of living, population growth rate: whatever the settings that we try to revise downwards, the result is always the same: a disaster resulting in a sharp drop in population. What collapsologists designate today under the termcollapse…
There it is, the danger!
Perplexed, the interviewer tries to find a reason to hope by questioning Piccard: But can we seriously imagine that it is so dramatic? »
The scientist then explains that the MIT researchers then had the brilliant idea of putting the problem upside down by looking for the trajectory to follow to avoid this inexorable collapse. ” The computer calculated, continues Piccard, that it was necessary reduce investments by 40%pollution by 50%, exploitation of raw materials by 75%, food production by 20% and limiting the birth rate. »
The interviewer then reminds him with relevance: Is it conceivable to slow down progress economy when 3/4 of humanity is in a state of underdevelopment? »
And Jacques Piccard explains with incredible lucidity: ” Well, you have just answered the question you asked me at the start: is humanity in danger?… We have found a solution and you yourself admit that this solution is impossible to apply. There it is, the danger! »
* Bertrand Piccard is today at the head of the Solar Impulse Foundation who identified more than 1000 efficient solutions and cost-effective to protect the environment and address ecological challenges without undermining economic growth.
