Christophe Bouillaud
Date / Time: 7 April 2022 – 11.30am-1.30pm
Place: Inria Grenoble – Rhône-Alpes – Grand Amphi ; Ligne TAG C1
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Summary:
Faced with global environmental warnings since the early 1970s, the lack of any significant reaction on the part of governments in this area could be questionable, and we might be tempted to see in it a lack of rationality in the human psyche. However, in this speech we intend to point out that political science has been uncovering, for decades in most cases, mechanisms that explain the path towards the climate and environmental chaos we are observing, through the very rationality of the actors, leaders and led.
The primary mechanisms are the determination of public policies through the mobilisation of actors with diverse resources; the preference of governments for increasing the material wealth of the governed in order to guarantee internal peace without recourse to violent, uncertain and costly instruments of repression; in the case of free and competitive elections, the disproportionate weight of ‘rich’ voters in electoral decisions; and the lack of electoral success of environmental movements since the 1970s; the pursuit of power by all major states in a ‘Hobbesian’ world; and the inability of the mass media in liberal democratic regimes to maintain the public’s attention on global issues that are distant from everyday life over an extended period. It is noteworthy that there has been a recent shift in perspective among climatologists and climate activists, who have come to recognize that merely stating the scientific truth is insufficient for leaders to draw the necessary conclusions in terms of the common good. Consequently, it is imperative to consider these mechanisms, the absence of which, despite the gravity of humanity’s environmental crisis, appears to be a remote possibility at this juncture.
It seems probable that no significant action will be taken until these same mechanisms begin to operate in the opposite direction, i.e. to take account of these warnings and scientific certainties. This implies a very late reaction time, in terms of material, human and other resources. Furthermore, the resulting financial damage is likely to exceed that observed during the global financial crisis of 2007-08 and the subsequent economic downturn associated with the emergence of the COVID-19 virus. Additionally, there is a distinct possibility that the standard of living of the majority of voters in democratic countries may decline significantly prior to the occurrence of such an event.
Bibliography: Lecture by Christophe Bouillaud, professor of political science at the Institut d’études politiques de Grenoble. Christophe is affiliated with the PACTE laboratory (Governance Team) and teaches at Sciences Po Grenoble. He is a regular contributor to the media and shares his thoughts in the blog “bloc-notes d’un politiste“.
