In his latest book, Vers l’économie de guerre, the philosopher Pierre Charbonnier, professor at Sciences-Po and close to environmental circles, rethinks energy sustainability by linking security and protection of the Earth. Excerpts.
Our opinion
How can we regenerate the link between wars and energy, the foundation of modern geopolitics? At the end of the Second World War, peace was built on productivity and trade, made possible by the increased consumption of fossil fuels. But this association is now obsolete, at a time when fossil fuels have become a source of destruction, the damage of which is comparable in the long term to that of the worst conflicts. We must therefore build a new world order that links security and protection of the Earth, where peace is maintained without destroying the planet. This is the bold stance of the philosopher Pierre Charbonnier, in the wake of his first book, Abundance et Liberté. A professor at Sciences-Po and close to environmental circles, the author nevertheless gives a new tone to classic discourses.
Contrary to the philosophical foundations of political ecology, associated with pacifism and degrowth, Charbonnier proposes a combat ecology, which places rivalry between nations at the service of the production of decarbonized energies.
Towards the ecology of war, Pierre Charbonnier, Editions La Découverte, 319 pages. 23 euros.
Extract
“In a world that is often thought to be governed by the economy, and which in fact is at least in peacetime, the principle of security can prevail over the imperative of growth, if only momentarily. It is according to this logic that the European energy revolution has found a new legitimacy, beyond the usual environmental and scientific arguments. From now on, energy and climate are inseparable from geopolitics. Acting for the climate is no longer acting disinterestedly for the good of an abstract humanity, but it is entering into power rivalries and defending the security of a nation or an alliance between nations. The great paradox of this situation is that in this race for “net zero”, we must arrive in a good position.
Read more
For small[…]
- challenges.fr
