Climate and biodiversity, when do we talk about it? In a column published Tuesday on the France Info site, nearly 1,400 researchers urge the presidential candidates to express themselves on these subjects as essential as they are not very audible for the time being. “We note with concern the absence of democratic debate in the presidential campaign on the serious upheavals in progress and to come, whether they concern the climate, the ocean, biodiversity or pollution”explain these 1,398 researchers in different disciplines (climatologists, oceanographers, mathematicians, economists, philosophers, historians, etc.).
If the programs of most of the main candidates for the presidential election, from Jean-Luc Mélenchon to Marine Le Pen, contain more or less detailed proposals related to the climate and environmental crisis, the subject is struggling to impose itself in the debates. , dominated by questions of purchasing power or even immigration. “This forum could have been summed up in two words: “Look up!” (Look!), as claimed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film don’t look up, allegory of denial in the face of climate change, which depicts a society more concerned with its navel than with the threat that is looming”write the signatories.
They point to “the speeches of inaction”
“The challenges ahead of us include reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preserving life. But they also relate to the nature and pace of adaptation, the fair distribution of risks and efforts, solidarity between generations or between territories.underline these researchers, including climatologists Valérie Masson-Delmotte and Christophe Cassou, both members of the UN group of experts on climate (IPCC), geographer Magali Reghezza-Zitt, member of the High Council for Climate (HCC) or the president of the Scientific Council of the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) Luc Abbadie.
These challenges concern multiple economic sectors and the lives of French people, they continue. “The citizens still have to be able to decide in their soul and conscience. For this, the candidates for the presidential election must be able to express themselves, and therefore be questioned on these substantive issues.emphasize these researchers. “While the talk of inaction is multiplying, 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.”
“Voters need to know the proposals of the candidates for the presidential election and their conditions of implementation”they insist, without reducing the debate “to a clash between supporters of nuclear power and defenders of renewable energies”. It remains to be seen whether these 1,400 or so consciences will be heard.