The last lecture was devoted to biodiversity/ecology/economy interactions. How can ecology and economics be reconciled, as advocated by Robert Barbault and Jacques Weber[11] ? And how can we continue to do so in a world where 20% of humans manage and consume 80% of resources? In 1987, Gro Harlem Brundtland, then Prime Minister of Norway and UN Chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development, wrote:
"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present generation while preserving for future generations the possibility of meeting their own needs[12]
Economists have taken up Rockström's (2009) scheme, discussed in the previous lecture, and are trying to approach it with economic tools. In fact, the problem lies in actively moving from an anthropocentric economic vision to an ecocentric one. The paradox of our society is that unequal access to consumption leads rich and poor alike to aspire to continued growth. Moreover, the horizon for political decision-makers remains very short, with the next election only a few months or years away. Finally, in "classical" economics, nature has no value in itself, acquiring value only through human labor. We therefore need to switch to another system that takes into account the value of ecosystem services. We absolutely must develop new indices of development and growth that also take human well-being into account:
"[...] moving towards a truly green economy, i.e. one capable of satisfying the needs of all humanity without destroying the natural foundations of life, presupposes far more profound transformations in our modes of production and consumption than are proposed to us today.Transformations which, far from making us live less well, could on the contrary enable us to live better [...][13]"
Robert Barbault wrote in 2010:
"For a long time, the defenders of biodiversity were seen as butterfly counters and sentimentalists... But biodiversity is not the preserve of romantic poets. The fruit of billions of years of evolution, it is what has made life on Earth, including the human species, so successful. Whether in the form of cabbages, carrots, birds or worms, it conditions our future, and we can't do without it. To deny this obvious fact exposes us to a very dark future... Clearly, the degradation of biodiversity points us back to our dysfunctions as a social species, and it is mainly our humanist dimension that it calls into question ..."
A fine piece of work published in the journal Science[14] analyzed the fact of taking into account the value of ecosystem services in land use management in the UK and concluded that, in the long term, yields were much better than in current agriculture, while preserving biodiversity. Ecological planning is not intended to replace the market, but to frame it where it proves inefficient, said James K. The development of participatory sciences[15] and bio-inspiration approaches[16] are very interesting and effective tools for improving the situation and harmonizing Man-Nature relations. True wealth is first and foremost the product of human intelligence and knowledge, which can be accumulated endlessly, of sharing and of humility! Our technical possibilities are far beyond anything we've ever known before, so let's put all that to music and finally deserve the term " sapiens " that we've dubbed ourselves!
