Ecological commitments

If the bee disappeared from the planet, man would only have four years to live.

Albert Einstein

Why do we get involved?

There are many ways in which an individual can be triggered to make a commitment to the environment. It may be through the force of reasoning, action or emotional motivation. The head, body or heart can be nurtured to encourage a shift. Transforming our relationship with the living world requires individual conversion.

Entry through reasoning

Personal awareness arises when one realizes the importance of the environment and the consequences of one's actions on the planet. This can be achieved through education or awareness-raising activities (see the climate fresco, Briquet 2022). Acquiring knowledge about environmental issues and possible solutions helps to foster a commitment to the environment. Education also involves looking at and learning about the landscape, its beauty and its perspectives. Learning to look.

For some, this means learning from experts, or reading books. In this respect, the works of Bruno Latour (2017), Pierre Rabhi (2014), Baptiste Morizot (2020) or Francis Hallé (2015) are welcome openings. Each storyteller tells the tale in his or her own way, and will touch the reader in the singularity of his or her expectations.

The most solid reasoning, raising awareness of our own ecological footprint, of what we weigh in terms of carbon, and of the changes we can make in our daily lives, can lead to a more sustainable commitment. But reasoning can also occur through an understanding of the link between the environment and human health, for example air pollution or toxic chemicals, motivating support for ecological measures.

Reasoning and associated questioning lead to knowledge. Endogenous knowledge connects us to the living, often in agriculture , and also to the elements that surround us: stones, herbs, winds, the cycle of the seasons, or the primordial human knowledge of caring for our children or our elders. Knowing that we are mortal restores the value of life.

Entry through action

Action is supported by social interaction. Interacting with people involved in ecological initiatives inspires and encourages an individual to get involved in turn. This is the modeling effect described by Albert Bandura (2019).

The most meshed social interactions occur during community engagements. For example, this may involve taking part in group actions, conservation projects or local campaigns that can prompt a deeper commitment to the environment. Social pressure and popular movements also have an effect. Participation in demonstrations, boycotts or other forms of ecological protest can be a catalyst for a stronger ecological commitment.

Action can also be linked to contexts, legal incentives and constraints, or treaties. In Europe, for example, the CSRD (Lecourt 2023), the Green Deal (André 2020), the Taxonomy for Green Finance (Creti, 2021) or Sustainable Development Commitments (Bonnifet et al 2022), provide incentives for action. In some cases, business leaders perceive business opportunities and transform their organizations' orientations accordingly. The same reasoning leads us to diagnose our deleterious consumption patterns. Consumption is the final destruction of the good, and today we're told that on the Internet, if we're not the buyer, it's because we're the product. Are we a product to be consumed and discarded?

Parrique (2022) advocates degrowth and asserts that "the mechanisms of an ecological democracy, the alliance between local consultation and the global creation of a dedicated right, have yet to be invented".

Understanding the power of models such as the regenerative enterprise is also a way of reaching out to those involved. At the heart of the action, all activities linked to the living world reconnect us to the cycles of the seasons, such as tending a vegetable garden or learning about permaculture. Observing the slow growth of plants reminds us of the complexity and fecundity of living things.

Entering through the heart and emotions

Emotional shocks such as natural disasters or hard-hitting documentaries can trigger an emotional response and motivate people to take action for the environment. The influence of authority figures plays on the emotional fibre.

When respected personalities or opinion leaders make a commitment to the environment, it can encourage others to do the same. But the imitation of a peer, or questions from one's own children, friends or spouse, can also change the nature of one's orientations and preferences. What do you say to your child who looks you straight in the eye and asks what you're doing for the planet?

The metaphorical language of poetry opens up the possibility of alternative narratives. Cultural creators imagine new languages. They know how to touch our hearts. They invent stories that make future worlds desirable.

Relationships with the living

The effect of each factor can vary from one person to another. Some people may be more sensitive to certain triggers than others.

The experience of nature occurs in a number of ways:

• immersion in nature, such as bathing in the sea, feeling the wind on your skin or rubbing against trees in the forest. Hiking, camping or other outdoor activities can awaken a love and respect for the environment.
  
  
• emersion is letting living things penetrate us, dialoguing with water, the sensation of rain that we let penetrate and quiver within us. The contemplation of what keeps us alive.
  
  
• Naturists proclaim a return to the earth, a confrontation with its harshness, the keeping of a vegetable garden, the experience of the complexity of living things that links us to the seasons and to fundamental organic constituents.
  

Places and their aesthetics make us feel more strongly alive, to the point of enlightenment. Rationalists have scoffed at shamans and animists, but as soon as they have the money, they rush off to the most inspiring places that nature has given us, to enjoy the space, light, water, landscapes, plant riches and silence.

Collective intelligence and the intelligence of the living are probably closely linked, and cooperation is a path worth exploring. The law of mutual aid (Kropotkin 1906) has its place alongside the law of the jungle.

Maffesoli (2017) states.

"Whatis at stake in post-modern economic sensibility is indeed the reanimation of social life by taking into account the vital force animating natural life."

Another avenue to follow is that of biomimicry and its principles to help us build our commitments (Hamant, 2022). There isn't just one way to make a commitment, but several. Each depends on how we relate to the world.

Sources

Parrique, T. (2022). Slow down or perish: the economics of degrowth. Seuil.
https://www.decitre.fr/livres/ralentir-ou-perir-9782021508093.html

Arnsperger, C. (2023). L'existence écologique: critique existentielle de la croissance et anthropologie de l'après-croissance. Seuil.
https://www.decitre.fr/livres/l-existence-ecologique-9782021397802.html

Graeber (2018), Bullshit job - https://www.decitre.fr/livres/bullshit-jobs-9791020907363.html

Maffesoli, M. (2017) L'écosophie: sagesse de La Maison Commune

Latour, B. (2017). Où atterrir?: comment s' orienter en politique. La découverte.
https://www.decitre.fr/livres/ou-atterrir-comment-s-orienter-en-politique-9782707197009.html

Rabhi, P. (2014). Towards happy sobriety. New edition. Éditions Actes Sud.
https://www.decitre.fr/livres/vers-la-sobriete-heureuse-9782330026592.html

Morizot, B. (2020). Manières d'être vivant: enquêtes sur la vie à travers nous. Éditions Actes Sud.
https://www.decitre.fr/livres/manieres-d-etre-vivant-9782330168445.html

Hallé, F. (2015). In praise of the plant. Pour une nouvelle biologie. Média Diffusion.
https://www.decitre.fr/livres/eloge-de-la-plante-9782757842263.html

Bandura, A. (2019). Self-efficacy: how feelings of personal effectiveness influence our quality of life. De Boeck supérieur. - https://www.decitre.fr/livres/auto-efficacite-9782807326811.html

André, J. C. (2020). Green Deal and environmental health. Environnement, Risques & Santé, 19(5), 317-319.

Bonnifet, F., Cerland-Kamelgarn, D., & Granier, F. (2022). Professional commitment to sustainable development and ecological transition. Sociologies pratiques, (1), 13-19.

Lecourt, B. (2023). Publication of sustainability information by companies: directive (EU) 2022/2464 of December 14, 2022, known as the "CSRD Directive". Revue des Sociétés, (02), 119.

Hamant, O. (2022). La troisième voie du vivant. Odile Jacob.
https://www.decitre.fr/livres/la-troisieme-voie-du-vivant-9782738157294.html#ae85

Briquet, E. (2022). How to make students aware of climate change? Development of widely distributed awareness-raising videos based on the Fresque du Climat. https://matheo. uliege.be/bitstream/2268.2/15313/4/Mémoire_EmilieBriquet_s161306.pdf

Selectra Carbon footprint: calculate, reduce and act for the climate
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Sempels, C., & Thuillier, B. What is a regenerative company?. https://source. lumia-edu.fr/uploads/2022_Qu_est_ce_qu_une_entreprise_regenerative_5e91abd2db.pdf

Kropotkine, P. (1906). L'entraide. A factor in evolution.
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