Translator: Alexandra Griffiths Reviewer: Didar Omar
A while back, I watched a cartoon with my kids.
This cartoon was Toy Story.
In Toy Story we meet Woody, a simply cowboy,
who is young Andy’s favourite toy.
Everything is going well for him
until Buzz Lightyear arrives
and is given to Andy for his birthday.
Buzz Lightyear is a superhero from space who has come to save the world
and has lots of impressive gadgets.
He can even fly and land with style, depending on your point of view.
Overnight, Buzz Lightyear takes Woody’s place
in young Andy’s heart and becomes his favourite toy.
As a child, I would have done the same as Andy.
I certainly would have preferred Buzz’s technology,
wanting to go to infinity and beyond,
over the simple cowboy with no power, no gadgets
who only has a snake in his boot.
In hindsight,
I saw this cartoon as a reflection of society.
Technology has played a critical role in our everyday life.
We find it everywhere:
to feed ourselves, to move around, to have fun.
Technology has replaced the simple ways of life of our grandparents
and has brought so much comfort to our everyday lives.
But in a world in the midst of a climate crisis
can we really allow it?
Tonight, we’ll see.
In his book “Reaching for the stars”
Mike Horn, in his own way, gives us some keys to understanding.
Mike Horn, is known in France
for his survival TV shows.
Mike Horn is the modern day explorer
that we often dream of, for me, in any case,
he’s a person who is always pushing the limits
of what a human being can accomplish, and has numerous achievements.
The first time I felt like a real explorer
I was on my own for a whole weekend with my highly energetic children
If you don’t have kids you won’t understand,
but you will understand one day.
In his book, Mike Horn describes
his willingness to scale four of the biggest peaks of over 8,000 metres
with no oxygen or help, it would be so simple.
In this book, he describes his motivation and preparation.
He also describes the stages of his climb
that last for several weeks.
He describes, with precision,
a well-known zone, dreaded by mountaineers.
This zone, is the death zone.
The death zone finds itself above 7,500 metres.
It’s a zone where there is a third less oxygen
and conditions are extreme.
Arriving in the death zone
Mike Horn explains the difficulty he experienced despite his training:
the fatigue, the air that burns his lungs.
All the signals his body is sending telling him to turn back,
but his unrelenting willpower and the adrenaline boost him
and make him continue towards the summit.
He somehow continues, even though the air’s oxygen is thinning.
Things lose clarity.
He’s running on auto-pilot.
He has no control over anything.
He reaches the summit, obviously, an incredible, hypnotic spectacle.
He stays, except he’s still in the death zone.
And his time is numbered.
He stills until he dangerously reaches the edge of the summit
and risks losing his life.
He wrote this book, you see it on TV, he managed to survive.
He had a wake-up call, he took control at the last minute,
and managed to turn around and keep the memory.
Above all, there is a lesson from this expedition
which for me reflects our society quite well.
Effectively, he says that you can reach for the stars.
However, it’s crucial to keep your feet on the ground.
Today, our capitalist society
is essentially based on infinite growth
which extols this deep need to want to reach for the stars.
Some people even want to colonise Mars.
In itself, this is very poetic.
But in reality, this growth
is accompanied by the development of technology
and the accumulation of goods, some useful and others not.
Unfortunately, on a planet with finite resources that won’t get bigger
you cannot consume infinitely.
Our consumption today
is making us exploit our planet’s resources
in a completely unreasonable way,
whether this is in terms of energy or raw materials.
Alongside this,
there is a total lack of connection between human beings.
Paradoxically, we have never been more connected with
Facebook, Insta, Twitter to name but a few.
And yet, we have never been so alone as individuals
and confronted with growing inequalities.
Personally, I’ve been shocked
I’ve realised that I had hundreds of friends on social media
but I didn’t even know some of my neighbours.
We are in a world of contradictions
that aren’t sustainable.
This way of life is full of consequences.
We’ve degraded our planet, pollution and waste are everywhere,
on the ground, in the ground, in the sea, with a sixth ocean made of plastic.
Now, even in space, there are thousands of satellite bins.
Where is the limit?
In its last report in 2018, the WWF stated that over 40 years
60% of wild animals on Earth have been lost.
Over 50 years, we damaged 60% of natural environments.
These figures are colossal.
But what we have to bear in mind is that even if we damage our planet,
we won’t be spared.
Nowadays, extreme climate events are amplifying
both in terms of intensity and frequency.
You will have seen from the news over the summer
floods in Switzerland and Germany
and also wildfires in Greece.
The situation is quite dramatic
and experts are following these changes on an international level.
These experts meet at the IPCC
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
These experts study all of the scientific studies and reports
and they publish a report.
The last one came out in 2014.
We have been waiting for the new one. On the 9th August last year
the sixth report on climate change came out.
Unfortunately, it was not given much coverage in the news.
It occurred at the same time as another major international event...
the arrival of Messi at PSG.
You might call it bad timing.
In this report,
there is a graph that accurately portrays the IPCC’s main conclusion.
It presents the evolution of the temperature on Earth
since the pre-industrial era - 1850 - until today.
Along the bottom are the natural changes in the Earth’s temperature
and in orange you can see the impact of humans on the Earth’s temperature.
These images speak for themselves.
The IPCC tells us, even though we expected it,
that global warming and climate changes
are a result of human activity.
However, since 2015, at COP21 and in the Paris Treaty,
countries have been engaged in preventing
the Earth’s temperature from rising by 2°C
and ideally no more than 1.5°C.
We are already at 1.1°C
and according to the IPCC’s estimates
by the end of the century, we will likely reach an increase of 2.7°C.
In the most pessimistic scenarios, an increase of 5°C is projected.
You might say “that’s cool, we’ll be warmer,
less need for heating, summer all-year round.”
But in reality, that won’t be the case.
We must not confuse changes in climate,
which are global,
with changes in weather, which are very local and isolated.
The equilibriums that sustain our planet are being disturbed.
Some more figures from the IPCC.
They say that the differences are huge between an increase of 1.5°C and 2°C.
However, there is only 0.5°C difference.
But this 0.5°C difference
will cause 200 million excess deaths per year because of climate change.
It will cause a twofold increase
of the loss of biodiversity.
It will cause a twofold increase in sea levels.
Every degree counts, every tenth of a degree counts.
And for your information,
+5°C is a figure that marks the difference between life and death
for the human body.
Boris Johnson introduced the last COP26 in Glasgow,
which ended a few weeks ago,
by saying “It’s one minute to midnight”
When we see the disastrous results of this COP
we can question the intentions of our governments.
They must have parachutes.
Today, the situation in our society
is a bit like that of the mountaineers:
we want to reach the summits
in this long climb,
except that we have been in the death zone for some time.
Like Mike Horn, we are getting dangerously close to the edge,
and it is important to act now.
Do we act to move away from the edge?
At first glance, it’ll be complicated to even break the fall.
I’ve told you all this, surely you know many of the figures.
You’re aware of the facts but it is important
to be reminded of them.
Because if we don’t keep in mind the reason we need to act,
we can’t properly identify how to act.
What is important in this report,
even if the conclusions are overwhelming, even scary,
it’s that even though we are responsible for climate change,
the experts believe there is still time to act
and that we must act.
One day, Churchill said:
“If you don’t take change by the hand,
it will take you by the throat.”
I believe that, today, we would be wise to take his advice.
From our current standpoint, there are lots of solutions available.
We can say that we’re screwed, not change anything
and enjoy it.
Our future would certainly resemble something from Mad Max.
Conversely, we can say that we will change everything, our ways of life,
we’ll eat berries, live in the woods, walk around naked all the time.
For some of you, that sounds pretty good.
But it’s not quite that simple.
The third solution, is to say: “Technology will save us.
Our infinite creativity will find the solutions whatever happens.”
Today, these three solutions each have their own limits.
The first isn’t very joyful:
fighting daily for resources isn’t what dreams are made of.
The second would be ideal:
the least impact on the environment,
but the opposite of our current lifestyles
and how we are willing to live, so it’s unachievable.
The third, as we have just seen,
is based solely on technology and its resources.
In a world of limited resources,
this is equally impossible.
We can pretend for a while, but it’s not sustainable.
You might ask “What do we do then?”
“If none of those solutions are viable,
what do we do?”
And so we reflect on what actions we can implement.
Some have been tested, some are well-known,
there are several possibilities, some are yet to be discovered.
But the most important thing
is to change the current system.
The current system is not permanent,
and because of that, we must collectively write a new story.
This new story,
it must be within the planet’s limits, obviously,
but equally within human limits.
This new story
must be based on strong values of mutual aid and solidarity.
We saw during the first Covid lockdowns
that we have never been so close.
It must be based on a simple behaviour in all of our customs
and, evidently, it goes back to nature
removing this lack of connection that bit by bit has come about.
The third cornerstone of this new story,
will be innovation.
We can’t let go of innovation or technology.
However, we will need to learn to use technology wisely,
at the right time, in the right place
and developing ethical solutions
that can be based, for example, on low-tech systems.
This new story will take on meaning if it excites us.
It’s up to us as a collective to find solutions we can implement,
to find this new story that will unite as many people as possible.
The most important thing is to take the first step
and to dare to move towards this change.
Personally,
this change has taken a long time to come about, even if, from the start
I dreamed of saving the world, being a fireman, veterinarian.
After work experience at a vet’s, I quickly changed my mind
and went in the direction of environmental studies.
That’s how I came to the association of united energies.
Within this organisation
I lead on complementary actions for the transition of energy.
Today,
energy essentially is seen, by most of us,
as a bill that needs to be paid at the end of the month.
Except, energy today
is the main cause of the situation we find ourselves in.
Energy used on a global level
originates from fossil fuels which are heavy polluters of CO2,
the gas that increases the greenhouse effect which is natural and vital for us.
Today,
the level of CO2 in the atmosphere exceeds anything we’ve known before
it has never been so high in 2 million years.
Day to day,
I join businesses, communities,
individuals wanting to be involved in this transition.
A key value in my work is in outreach.
Going out and finding people.
Because, on the face of it, the topic of energy isn’t super sexy.
With my team we reflected on
how to engage people in the topic of energy transition
and make it appealing.
We managed to find a good idea, an educational game.
We created an educational escape game about the climate.
People loved it and really enjoyed it.
We tried different things and now it works,
we found a solution that excites us.
Personally, I felt I’d done my part up to that point.
But there have been two stand-out events in my life.
The first, as with many people,
was a real upheaval: having my children
The arrival of my children made me ask serious questions.
What I wanted for them and to what point I was willing to act and why?
I no longer worry only about myself.
I was now responsible for the lives of two other beings who relied on me.
The second event, was a conference.
A conference with Pablo Servigne on collapsology.
You’ve likely already heard about it, seen on the famous series on Canal.
Collapsology is the science of destruction.
In this conference,
he explains to what extent our way of life is linked to energy,
notably fossil fuels,
and to what extent, overnight,
everything can fall like a house of cards.
It’s quite scary.
It was a shock, and I took some time to get started again.
But after going through a depression, I wanted to get back on my feet
I said “I have to act, and now,
to find a solution with greater impact,
to make real change.”
I didn’t really have a militant character,
I directed myself more towards politics,
but at a local level,
aware that it’s not the government who was going to change things.
I’ve been elected since July 2020 in my small community in Yvelines.
And after entering into this transition,
I try to encourage my town and its people to make the same changes
for a territory that is more resilient to the choc that is projected
and to try to write, with residents,
a new collective narrative that will be more sustainable.
Today, I am always in transition.
Towards what? I don’t exactly know,
but in any case, towards something that fulfils me
and in which I feel I am doing some good to the environment,
whether it is nature, or even my relationships -
often the most difficult bit.
I dared to, and I found meaning in everything I do on a daily basis
and particularly, securing a better future for my children.
Mike Horn said
that within us, there are several territories waiting to be discovered.
We don’t understand our own abilities
and finally, unlike those on our planet,
there are infinite territories to be discovered.
At the end of the first Toy Story, Woody dared.
He explored these territories, he found the solutions,
and at the end it turned out well for him with his snake in his boot.
He became Buzz’s friend,
he made Andy happy and, they went to infinity and beyond.
Today, we also need to dare to go to infinity and beyond,
because in reality, we have an infinity of possibilities
to go beyond what we know today.
(Applause)