Four scientists warned of the environmental disaster in 1973.
Everything is there, but nothing works. In 1972, four young researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a report entitled “The Limits to Growth”. It was commissioned by social democratic capitalists. The observation is clear: the Western model, based on growth, is leading us straight into the wall. We cannot exploit something finite infinitely. We must slow down demographic and industrial growth to prevent the world from collapsing during the 21st century. The report is transformed into a book. It had an immense impact, before falling into indifference. It makes a boom then a splash. In “Cabin”, the novelist Abel Quentin changes the location of the research, the name of the report, and the identity of the scientists to tell a story of ecological and psychological exhaustion. We are in Berkeley, in 1973. We follow the destiny of the four scientists. They won't recover. How to live after seeing the crime and not being believed?
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In “Cabin”, who are the four researchers? An American couple (Mildred and Eugene Dundee), a Frenchman (Paul Quérillot), a Norwegian (Johannes Gudsonn). Everyone will react in their own way to the success and failure of their report on the future of the world in the 21st century. At first, they were convinced that their findings would transform lifestyles. They will go from illusion to disillusionment. American Dundee couple become anti-growth activists and move into pig farming in Utah; the Frenchman Paul Quérillot sold himself to the oil industry, before creating his own consulting company and becoming a multimillionaire; the Norwegian Johannes Gudsonn disappears to choose the path of ecological radicalism. Everyone has their own way of escaping depression: continuation, betrayal, explosion. A young French journalist is responsible for investigating, for the 50th anniversary of the report, what became of them.
Man does not have the ability to imagine the radical nature of the collapse
The author of “Voyant d’Étampes” (2021) has written a political novel about collective denial. The reality is there, before our eyes, impossible to ignore. The Earth has a limited surface area, with limited resources. But we continue to act as if nothing had happened out of comfort, habit, stupidity. The explanation: man has the ability to imagine the worsening or improvement of a situation, but not the radical nature of the collapse. In “Cabane”, Abel Quentin remains on the side of literature. He recounts the resentments and jealousies between the different academics; he creates a character of a scientist on the verge of madness who can be interpreted in different ways; he has an ironic and scathing style. It shows how tragedy unites and then separates human beings. The multimillionaire, the monk-soldier of mathematics, the activist couple. Everyone has their gray areas.
The report will not change human habits, but it will turn the lives of the four scientists upside down. They experienced fear and anxiety. Tell the truth and not be heard. From 1970 to the present day, Abel Quentin strives to follow one and the other. The too rigid Johannes Gudsonn; the too flexible Paul Quérillot. The French journalist's report will ultimately focus on the mysterious figure of the former Norwegian mathematician. A madman, a visionary, a pure one. What happened to him? We follow in his footsteps, all over the world. From a sheepfold in the Drôme to a cabin on an island in Norway. In this ecological and political fresco, the writer questions himself about humans: at what point do we lose ourselves?
“Cabin”, by Abel Quentin, ed. The Observatory, 480 pages, 22 euros.
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