Ecological crisis and social crisis ---- The rich... Ah, the rich, they
are imposing, they are crushing society, the Earth. Hervé Kempf, JuanMendez publish with the Seuil editions, a comic strip entitled How the
rich are devastating the planet and how to stop them. On the cover, a
couple, snobbish, the lady with a glass of champagne, no doubt, in her
hand, the gentleman confidently holding the lady's waist, a sign of
possession? And behind an airplane, ransacked, burned spaces, in the
process of definitive destruction. On the inside page, another rich man
leaning casually on a rich man's car with the license plate: Me 1. And
then planes, shoes on a carpet, all luxury, a helicopter to get to a
yacht, a decadent side of a bourgeois consumer of white powder. And
then, let's move away, the earth is shrinking, it is becoming a pinhead
in the universe. The ecological catastrophe is looming and the rich are
gorging themselves, the crisis is global and they don't care.
Inequalities are widening. How did we get here? We are embarking on a
long history of Humanity. The elements are succeeding one another that
are preparing the capitalist shock. Watt's steam engine, industrial
evolution, colonization, in short the history of capitalism all over the
world.
Obviously, the consequences on the climate are terrible. We immediately
think of Elisée Reclus who denounced, already at the end of the 19th
century, this degradation of the environment in his book Du sentiment de
la nature. It is to be feared that Man is not or is no longer nature
becoming aware of itself. A figure: 40 billion tons of CO2 are released
into the atmosphere per year. And that's not all, forests are
disappearing, the number of wild animal species is plummeting. Fish
stocks are running out because of fishing techniques that are destroying
the seas and oceans. And then we have pandemics, water shortages or at
least the deterioration of drinkability. Food is definitely polluted.
Pseudo-organic products are affected. How can we find a space free of
any damage caused by man and his industry?
Change the system?
We must change the system, this is the thesis of our authors. In
reaction to those who deny this catastrophe: Trump, the RN, Sarkozy. I
would add those who shed crocodile tears but do nothing. Recent
political events and budgetary choices in France amply demonstrate this.
The words of Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the UN: "Humanity
has opened the gates of hell" do not change anything, they are
forgotten, a year after being spoken. The Earth has become a market,
neoliberalism maintains inequalities for the benefit of the rich. The
authors' explanations dismantle the mechanisms of the standard
billionaire man. You will recognize some faces. The race for profit
supplants any other vision. And yet, the slogan "consume less,
distribute better" remains interesting.
Where are we heading? Artificial intelligence, supermen, the alliance of
the rich and politicians? It's not new, but following the news shows
that they are acting with less and less discretion, especially since the
election of the last President of the Republic in France. A form of
sinister caricature? Be careful, they control the State, the media. The
alliance of the police and justice recalls Victor Hugo's formula: "The
police everywhere, justice nowhere!" Do you object? The repressive laws
are falling on you.
"Consume less, distribute better"
Solutions? Tax the rich, fight against inequalities, build a future,
build a common history to believe in it and not crush the weak as we are
experiencing today. Hervé Kempf, Juan Mendez explain, analyze. The
drawings are educational, all the statements and assertions are
referenced. Very important at a time when defamation proceedings are
multiplying. I repeat the last words of the back cover: "In this book,
we laugh, we cry, we learn, we mobilize: it is a tool to change the
world. It is urgent."
* Hervé Kempf, Juan Mendez
How the rich are devastating the planet and how to stop them
Ed. du Seuil, 2024
https://monde-libertaire.fr/?articlen=8077
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