Fernando Valladares, director of the Ecology and Global Change group at the National Museum of Natural Sciences (CSIC), publishes La Recivilización (Destino), a whole encyclopedia of well-crafted reflections in which he reprograms the imaginary of man's relationship with nature nature.
The book swings between the ideas of collapse and recivilization. What are we closer to?
The collapse is inevitable, it will happen; my hope is that we turn the collapse into an opportunity. He should not be so afraid, because we are collapsing. The UK has had supply chain collapses, we are having collapses in energy and health. If we want to avoid the frontal, global and deep shock, we must take advantage of the new opportunities.
Ecosocial crisis. How do we get in?
It takes doses of scientific knowledge and understanding the crisis better than we understand it; if not, we don't get out. Practicing image washing, greenwashing, is just not understanding it. And you need to be motivated to get out of it. Many can pretend that it doesn't affect them, that they can spend comfortable periods on the sofa...
Why do you need to get out of it?
Because we can win and take advantage of new opportunities. Because not only will we solve a problem, but we will enter a more comfortable, healthier, happier and more prosperous situation for 99% of humanity. When we do things that are good for others, as a social species, we feel better. In addition, the door opens to break the cliché of competition.
He talks about the hurdles that prevent overcoming the crisis.
Denialism is a well-known one. And there is a certain pathology in the inability to accept reality, which, sometimes, we deny because it does not suit us. And this is related to the individual, social and collective selfishness of the oil companies or large political groups, who do not like climate change and who exert strong pressures, of the type: "What happens to what is mine? ”, “I want water to irrigate, and if there is none, we will get it from biodiversity!”...
And there is the forward escape.
Yes. We are in a car that has a flat tire and, instead of stopping to change the wheel and continue, we say: "Go on, go on, go on, the wheel is still holding", but the wheel is not holding.
Talk about changing values: frugal living, cooperation, participation, empathy, kindness...
I am talking about a change in civilization and not about eliminating the capitalist model or fighting climate change. There are many issues that we must change to be better and live better. I turn to ethics as a minimum, a resource that has been the great failure of traditional ecology. Appealing to future generations only works for 20% or 40% of the population. I appeal to emotions, kindness and empathy, to things that can be enjoyed, that can get us out of the depression, anxiety and stress that we suffer in the global North.
There are those who see climate action as an attack on freedom, restrictions and scams.
For those who have become accustomed to always more, more and more, and who aspire to have whatever they want, the idea of limits does not sit well with them. But I would tell them to think. A kite flies because it has a string that ties it to the ground, to the hand that holds it. And these biophysical limits of the planet are what can make us reflect on how to tend towards a better model of civilization. Accepting the limits allows you to understand the advantages of cooperating and sharing.
Advocates for ecocentrism.
Yes, to put nature at the center, to understand that man needs it. When an ecocentric view is adopted, the human being is humanized. Putting green areas and more nature in the city humanizes it. This is more than paternalism or the magnanimity of leaving a corner to endangered species. Nature must be placed at the center of civilization's worldview. It humanizes us, makes us better; not only do we enter into a new relationship with other species, but with ourselves.
