Climate change is faster than mentalities
Interview - Environmental and risk sociologist Florence Rudolf has been working on the ways in which society views the climate threat. A "terrain" at the heart of his book "The climate is changing ... and society? ".
Let's start with the conclusion of your book: can our society adapt to the consequences of climate change?
Florence Rudolf: I must confess that as I explored this terrain, I despaired more and more.
That much ?
Yes, because climate change is going at a pace far more frantic than that of our societies. It reminds me of the book "Collapse" by Jared Diamond, which describes situations in which human societies are totally overwhelmed by the events of which they are the origin.
Certainly, but unlike the Vikings of Greenland or the Maya, our civilizations are aware of what happens to them ...
There is a huge production of speech, but it is still very insufficient to generate any action.
For what reasons ?
Unconsciously, it is clear that the solution does not go through small transformations. Worse, these transformations, fundamental, will have to be realized in a rather short temporality. This reinforces the issue. There is also a problem of power of action.
That is to say ?
Today, on the planet, it is a little like on Easter Island in the sixteenth century, with all its tribes who were unable to develop an island governance. We know what this has done: the end of Pascuane civilization.
Do you think that this inaction can be a consequence of the action, precisely, of climate-skeptics?
What despairs me in this story of skeptics is that they make quibble politicians and decision makers on some degree or on a hypothetical influence of the sun. But the problem is no longer there! The urgency is to set up research programs on new urban development, transport, the carbon economy ...
What does this controversy show?
The publicization of this controversy is at the same time the signal of a fear. His virulence is reassuring. It shows that those living in carbon-rich sectors feel threatened by this transformation. Because, in this transformation, there will be winners - those who emit little greenhouse gases - and losers, big emitters.
How do we see our future?
I come back from Forum World Social of Dakar. I met climatologists there who are very pessimistic. According to them, there will be very brutal climate changes that could overwhelm the adaptation capacities of our societies. This is already happening in the most vulnerable countries. And it's very violent. This makes me think that what we observe in African metropolises today is a fairly good representation of what awaits us in the near future. All these pressures on water, on land, all these wars for access to resources foreshadow what awaits us. The way we deal with climate issues is still very polished.
Source: http://www.terra-economica.info/Le-chan ... 16224.html