[…] The more ecological pressures increase, the more they impose restrictions on individual freedom, either spontaneously or through the intervention of the state. The following example sheds light on the way in which the question arises: in the analysis of road accident statistics in Great Britain, specialists observed that pedestrians, in particular children, provided a significant part of the traffic. death. Fortunately, this rate has declined in recent years. Why? The roads have not become safer, say the experts, but families have adapted to the road traffic: children are no longer allowed to walk to school or play outside. And the report concludes: the increase in freedom allowed by the generalization of automobiles "has come at the cost of a loss of freedom and choice for children".

So it is not the Earth that is in danger. But, through the effect of the degradation of the operating conditions of the biosphere, the values ​​of justice, freedom and beauty that we try to inscribe in everyday life. The challenge is no longer to "save the planet", but to modify a social organization whose ecological impact reflects the way it considers these values.

Extract of " The whale hiding the forest“, From Hervé Kempf.
Edition The Discovery, Paris, 1994.