From one systemic problem to another. In many ways, and despite all the progress they bring, our lifestyles and the way our society is structured are not suited to the good of humanity or to the future that threatens it. But even if we know, we are not ready. Desperately not ready. And the news continues with some cruelty to remind us of this.
Thus, in recent days, the issue of migration has returned with full force, whether through the Mediterranean wanderings of a humanitarian ship,Ocean Viking, finally welcomed by France on 11 November 2022 after being rejected by Italy, or the investigation into the tragic death of 27 migrants on 24 November 2021 in the English Channel.
The subsequent dramas
Each time the same observations emerge: lack of expectation, lack of funds, lack of a real policy of European cooperation to deal with a persistent phenomenon that has no reason to dry up. Here and there we can invoke realism in a context of economic crisis, point out the criminal cynicism of smugglers or, like the former Minister of the Interior Gérard Collomb, link immigration and insecurity, making this subject the reason for his resignation in 2018 : The fact is that they tragedies that have followed each other for years form an indelible stain on the attachment to human rights that we like to claim in Europe. Especially since the flow of people will only increase in the future, whether we accept it or not.
Coincidence, oh so symbolic of the calendar: this new episode took place at the moment when Cop 27 was being held in Egypt, to relative general disinterest. Are we seeing a paradox here as awareness of climate change continues to grow? Not quite: the hope, even measured, born of the Paris Agreement of 2015 has been somewhat dashed for seven years by the cynicism of certain major nations and the wait-and-see attitude of others, which has already put humanity on a warmer course. greater than what one could then fear.
Global Ecological Debt
But the consequences of this unprecedented disruption have also taken their place in the news headlines: droughts, heat waves, floods, storms and disasters… So many extreme meteorological phenomena that will eventually make certain parts of the world uninhabitable. And will create new armed conflicts and population movements, which we will have to learn to respond to.
All this the people of Europe are hardly aware of. Nevertheless, a policy which would finally project itself in the long term, instead of sticking to the scum of the crises, would from today have the duty to conduct a discourse of truth on these issues. And prepare for it. Especially since the West has assumed a form of global ecological debt to the countries of the South by basing its economic and social development – that which so many nations only legitimately aspire to – on the exploitation of fossil fuels. Not even to mention the resources from colonization. Today, this debt goes with a responsibility in relation to justice in the ecological transition…
But who would really be ready to see their standard of living fall, especially at a time when an economic recession is looming, to try to stop the catastrophic machine of global warming and its consequences? Overall, we are not ready. Yet it is one of the most crucial questions of our time, and the end of this story has not been written. It is a question, no more, no less, of protecting humanity. Our humanity.
