The citizens’ convention for the climate (CCC) expressed clear disappointment with the way the government has taken up its proposals. This harsh judgment emphasizes the responsibility of political leaders in the fight against climate change, against pollution, against the collapse of biodiversity. However, this responsibility is shared and the concern of the “conventional” should alert us to what is happening beyond the political field. Our planet will become less and less livable if we do not collectively take the path of sobriety.
Intolerant consumers
We remain intemperate consumers who are caressed with the grain of the producers of consumer goods and technological tools in search of customers to make their business profitable. You don’t need to have done a lot of studies to realize this. We can see it very immediately.
This sometimes happens under the guise of participating in the ecological cause. Thus, a vehicle manufacturer has found nothing better, when it releases the new version of the hybrid vehicle with which it has established itself on the market, than to significantly increase its power. In return for which it negates the fuel economy which could have been made with the improvement of its technology.
The sophistication of the programs
Likewise, when we need to change our washing machine or dishwasher, we pay attention to the electricity and water consumption of our future purchase. Undoubtedly, notable progress has been made, but we are amazed by the number and sophistication of the programs. We all know from experience that we will only use one or two, three at most. It is obviously on the options that competing producers try to distinguish themselves, and we allow ourselves to be seduced by gadgets whose main function is to maintain the price and especially the manufacturers’ margin. Here again, possible savings are not made.
Our computers follow the same slope. More storage capacity and more power, well beyond our real needs. As for our smartphones, we are constantly urged to renew them to take advantage of new functions… of which our use will in reality be very limited. It is as if the manufacturers of popular cameras had succeeded, 50 years ago, in convincing the general public that in order to keep memories of his family, it was essential to own the Leica of Henri Cartier-Bresson. !
Rush to the wall of ecological disaster
From the fridge to the radiators and roller shutters to the lamps in our home, everything can now be connected to our telephone, which is obviously connected to one or more speakers. It is possible to give the entire orchestra of our connected objects vocal commands from our living room or our bathroom. Thus are flattered both our fantasy of omnipotence (a word and our objects obey us) and our sluggishness (we are not going to get up to turn a button or endure the cold of a room while ‘she warms up). This requires more networks, more bandwidth, more power and therefore 5 G …
All of this consumes energy and raw materials… and produces waste. But we prefer to believe that our salvation is in the “always more” and we further accelerate our rush towards the wall of global ecological catastrophe… Without becoming Amish, we have a long way to go in learning sobriety.
– .