Ecological Disaster

Some will object that the term disaster is exaggerated. We can still eat and breathe. Temperatures remain bearable, there have always been climate accidents over the ages. The level of the oceans has varied much more in the past. With a good anti-UV cream, you sunbathe safely on the beaches, the hole in the ozone layer seems to recede. In any case, environmental activists are responsible for solving all these environmental problems…

To which one can oppose that the passengers of the Titanic continued to feast and the orchestra to play the Strauss while only a few officials could predict the drama, and even the best placed did not foresee it in its full scope. Where are our leaders? More and more scientists worry and sound the alarm, others resign themselves to the shipwreck they consider inevitable. Some policies are green and go to war.

One might wonder whether researchers who give in pessimism exaggerate the dangers, or whether they are simply better placed to have a realistic vision. Some try to awaken consciousness by blackening the picture, while opponents, depending on their habits, or linked to all sorts of lobbies, work to minimize the risks. Objectivity is far from guaranteed, because the economic stakes are enormous.

The oil industry and all the nebula that it drives in its race, transport, food agrochemistry, large and small industries inevitably put their budget before the preservation of the environment. Most scientists depend on the industry that subsidizes their research. They have good reasons to reassure the people. The system works in a closed vacuum and all drifts are possible.

However, let us start from the idea that all are sincere, both optimists and pessimists. It is well known that the same situation can be seen very differently depending on the observers and their motivations, despite any will of honesty. The most common reasonable position is between extreme positions. It is also necessary to take into account the general evolution of social thought, which can be expected to progress towards increasing objectivity.

However, the number of voices shouting by fire is growing. Optimists are becoming increasingly rare. The ecologists who spoke to us about global warming, a few decades ago, were going for sweet fools, whereas their point of view is today largely majority.

Anyway, tropical forests disappear. The marine world is contaminated with pesticides to the most remote places. The melting of the ice and the retreat of glaciers leave no doubt as to the responsibility of man at least partial. The hole in the ozone layer is measured at the thickness of the recommended cream layers to avoid melanomas (although according to some studies, it is the more intensive use of sunscreens that would multiply cancers)…

It all depends on how things are considered. The present situation is still bearable, but what if we extrapolate its evolution to future decades? What is not a disaster today is likely to become a disaster tomorrow if we do not forcefully stop the descent into hell.

The contamination of so-called developing countries by Western customs extends from day to day. However, it has been enough to reach the current situation by half a billion people who are in love with “progress”. It is clear that by multiplying this number by fourteen, one changes dramatically in order of magnitude. Instead of a planet, it would take fourteen to deal with abuse…

Objectively, disaster is possible, and probably probable. Faced with the danger of future generations, and under the precautionary principle, our duty is to do everything in our power to avoid it. To begin by clarifying the causes and mechanisms that have created the current situation and may prolong or worsen it.

Things will only change when the majority of people around the world actually measure the danger and are ready to revise their way of life. It is in order to give more chance to a general awareness that human ecogenetics strives to highlight and make known the fundamental mechanisms that started the spiral and might well lead to the bursting…