The question of ecology must be considered as a human issue. The issue of humanity calls for philosophy, psychology, literature and poetry. The ecological issue is no different.

How do we wish to relate to the environment? How do we see ourselves as a species that (co)habits a world alongside thousands of other species?

In the human question, we analyse our experience and behaviour in relation to ourselves (the self) and to others. Literature allows us to experience how we react to a situation of dementia or following a traumatic event. Psychology categorises these conditions and behaviours. Philosophy attempts to explore who we are as rational beings or thinkers, to respond to ethical dilemmas and to take us further as a society. Poetry attempts to access the marvellous.

The question of ecology can be approached in the same way. In addition to scientific data (e.g. the rising average temperatures, the occurrence of extreme weather events, or the proportion of land used for livestock farming), we can draw on other disciplines to answer numerous questions that can help us transition from the current situation to a more sustainable way of life. For example:

• How do humans experience their estrangement from nature? What are the consequences of this estrangement?
• In what conditions do animals raised for human consumption live?
• Why are facts relevant to the climate crisis, such as the impact of the food system on the environment, not communicated more widely?

Literature can help us imagine new worlds. Science fiction might help us imagine an apocalyptic world following the destruction of the planetary boundaries; or a world where we have found a sustainable solution to humanity’s relationship with other species and the planet’s resources. Psychology can help explain climate change denial or our inaction; or explain why humans are so drawn to consumption.

As a society, over the centuries, we have tried to organise ourselves for the common good. We have created social, religious, political and economic institutions. We have imagined democracy, socialism and anarchy. We have lived through dictatorships. We have developed the welfare state. We are still trying to refine these models, but we are active. We work. We pay taxes. We go out to vote.

The time has come to reorganise society, to rethink humanity with a distinct, sustainable and ecological concept.

Bringing the question of ecology into the human sphere implies reviewing the organisation of institutions, society and education and, in what is certainly a more difficult task, altering the course of our recent history. Since the Industrial Revolution, with dramatic advances over the last 50 years due to technological development, human progress has come to be measured in terms of ‘more’ and ‘bigger’. We need to change the value and meaning of progress. It seems the time has come to shift the very focus of progress, from the economy to human beings and the environment.

The ecological issue is inseparable from the human issue, and the survival of our species and the way we wish to live depend on a deeper understanding of these two intrinsically linked issues.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)