A planetary awareness

Great upheavals are followed by great changes

Rapid change is possible, provided that political will and citizen voluntarism are combined. With the pandemic that humanity is currently facing, we have found that we are able to adapt quickly, with humility. Because here we are, once again, faced with many challenges. Let us remember how difficult it was for the 16th century cardinals to accept the idea that the Earth revolves around the Sun ... This major discovery led to considerable philosophical and religious upheavals!

Today, ecological awareness is growing more and more in all of us. The world that would be good to rethink has been shaped over the past 30 years, a period that some scientists call The Great Acceleration (the most recent period of the Anthropocene *), during which the impact of human activities on the planet (as well as the withdrawal of non-renewable natural resources), has increased dramatically. The invention of plastic packaging, only a few years old, is a notorious example. Another example is the ultra-polluting transport industry. The list is immense. However, everything we have done we can transform: humanity has reached a high level of science, intelligence and technical capacity to move in this direction. What are we missing? This ability to hear, absorb and accept the data and lessons transmitted by scientists: "It is a sad thing to think that nature speaks and that mankind does not listen", regretted Victor Hugo in 1870.

Indeed, the debt we see towards the climate is overwhelming, compared to the decisions endorsed in the Paris Agreement of 2015. July 29, 2019 was recorded as the day of the overstepping. The day when mankind had consumed all the resources the Earth could regenerate in a year. In France, March 5, 2020 was the day of the deregulation, during which we exhausted our CO2 quota for the year. In just over two months, France has emitted all the greenhouse gases tolerated in one year if it meets the carbon neutrality objective set for 2050. To achieve it, the global energy decrease must be noticeable from 2025 In France, we will have to divide our carbon footprint by six to reach less than 2 tonnes of CO2 per person per year. It will also be necessary to monitor the 2020 balance sheet of global CO2 emissions. “States have shown that they are able to react very quickly to a global crisis, by putting in place drastic measures; why are we not managing to mobilize so much on the issue of climate? "asks Sandrine Mathy, environmental economist at the Laboratory of Applied Economics in Grenoble.

Many economists agree that the next 30 years will be among the most life-changing mankind has ever experienced, in such a short period of time.

The first battle to be waged is no longer for the economy but for the ecology. A large family aboard the same boat, humanity must, in order not to capsize in these historically unprecedented times and in order to continue its fabulous journey, relearn how to feed the Earth with time and attention.

BaseX will enlighten on its point from 3 different angles which are all voices of reflection to prepare for this transition: the individual facing their climate responsibilities, the company facing its environmental commitments, the community facing generational issues.

Would the planetary invasion of Covid-19 not be an accelerator of consciousness for a humanity affected in its existential base? Doesn't humanity's state of health resonate with the suffering we have inflicted on planet Earth?

These are all questions we will be addressing in this first season of BaseX: Towards Another Acceleration.