Bristol University Press
One ‘Our Home Is Burning and We Are Looking Elsewhere’
-
Anne Hessel
Abstract
Our home is burning and we are looking elsewhere. Nature, mutilated, overexploited, no longer manages to restore herself and we refuse to admit it. Humanity suffers. It suffers from poor development, both in the North and the South, and we are indifferent.
Earth and humanity are in danger and we are all responsible for it.
It’s time to open our eyes. On all continents, the warning signals are clear.… We cannot say we did not know! We need to take care that the twenty-first century does not become, for future generations, that of a crime of humanity against life.
When Jacques Chirac pronounced these words at the World Sustainable Development Summit in Johannesburg on 2 September 2002, some still had doubts about the reality of global warming. The image of the house that is burning and ‘a crime of humanity against life’ may have seemed excessive to them.
Today, no one can seriously doubt the reality of our climatic disruption. The last six years (2015 to 2020) were the hottest years since scientists have measured global temperatures, that is, since the mid-19th century, and each year, several tens of thousands of homes are destroyed by extreme weather events (see Figure 1.1).
Not a month goes by without hundreds of thousands of people across the planet seeing their lives turned upside down by droughts, heatwaves, forest fires or, at the other extreme, torrential rains and floods. In just a few decades, global warming has been accompanied by disruptions of water cycles.
Abstract
Our home is burning and we are looking elsewhere. Nature, mutilated, overexploited, no longer manages to restore herself and we refuse to admit it. Humanity suffers. It suffers from poor development, both in the North and the South, and we are indifferent.
Earth and humanity are in danger and we are all responsible for it.
It’s time to open our eyes. On all continents, the warning signals are clear.… We cannot say we did not know! We need to take care that the twenty-first century does not become, for future generations, that of a crime of humanity against life.
When Jacques Chirac pronounced these words at the World Sustainable Development Summit in Johannesburg on 2 September 2002, some still had doubts about the reality of global warming. The image of the house that is burning and ‘a crime of humanity against life’ may have seemed excessive to them.
Today, no one can seriously doubt the reality of our climatic disruption. The last six years (2015 to 2020) were the hottest years since scientists have measured global temperatures, that is, since the mid-19th century, and each year, several tens of thousands of homes are destroyed by extreme weather events (see Figure 1.1).
Not a month goes by without hundreds of thousands of people across the planet seeing their lives turned upside down by droughts, heatwaves, forest fires or, at the other extreme, torrential rains and floods. In just a few decades, global warming has been accompanied by disruptions of water cycles.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of Tables, Figures and Boxes v
- Acknowledgements: The English Translation viii
- How We Can Win the Battle by Nicolas Hulot ix
- 2020: A Warning Shot by Anne Hessel x
- Foreword xiii
- ‘Our Home Is Burning and We Are Looking Elsewhere’ 1
- Global Warming: The Essential Cause Is Our Greenhouse Gas Emissions 14
- ‘Soon It Will Be Too Late…’, Say 15,000 Scientists 24
- The UN Environment Programme Denounces ‘This Catastrophic Climate Gap’ between the Reductions Needed and the National Pledges 35
- Zero Net Carbon Emissions? Yes, It Is Possible 40
- Can We Make a Colossal Development Programme Work? We Can Do It! 50
- ‘€1,000 Billion for the Climate?’ If It Is Really Needed, Yes, We Can Do It! 56
- Putting Finance Back at the Service of the Common Good: The European Climate Finance Pact 78
- Save the Climate and Save Europe? It Is Now or Never! 97
- Conclusion: Creating a New Development Model 110
- Notes 112
- Index 119
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of Tables, Figures and Boxes v
- Acknowledgements: The English Translation viii
- How We Can Win the Battle by Nicolas Hulot ix
- 2020: A Warning Shot by Anne Hessel x
- Foreword xiii
- ‘Our Home Is Burning and We Are Looking Elsewhere’ 1
- Global Warming: The Essential Cause Is Our Greenhouse Gas Emissions 14
- ‘Soon It Will Be Too Late…’, Say 15,000 Scientists 24
- The UN Environment Programme Denounces ‘This Catastrophic Climate Gap’ between the Reductions Needed and the National Pledges 35
- Zero Net Carbon Emissions? Yes, It Is Possible 40
- Can We Make a Colossal Development Programme Work? We Can Do It! 50
- ‘€1,000 Billion for the Climate?’ If It Is Really Needed, Yes, We Can Do It! 56
- Putting Finance Back at the Service of the Common Good: The European Climate Finance Pact 78
- Save the Climate and Save Europe? It Is Now or Never! 97
- Conclusion: Creating a New Development Model 110
- Notes 112
- Index 119
