{"id":87127,"date":"2021-05-31T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-31T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/la-croissance-verte-contre-la-nature-critique-de-lecologie-marchande\/"},"modified":"2025-01-15T10:11:32","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T09:11:32","slug":"la-croissance-verte-contre-la-nature-critique-de-lecologie-marchande","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/la-croissance-verte-contre-la-nature-critique-de-lecologie-marchande\/","title":{"rendered":"La Croissance verte contre la nature"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Since the turn of the twenty-first century, the climate crisis and the imperatives of sustainable development have placed green growth firmly on the agenda, with the European Green Deal its latest incarnation. In her book La Croissance verte contre la nature [Green Growth versus Nature]<\/em>, the economist H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Tordjman unravels the complex mechanisms at work in this new economics, whose stated aim is to respect a nature transformed by human activities.<\/h6>
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Tordjman<\/span> H\u00e9l\u00e8ne, La Croissance verte contre la nature. Critique de l\u2019\u00e9cologie marchande<\/em>, Paris: La D\u00e9couverte, March 2021, 352 p.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \"\"\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n

In the first chapter, the author recollects that with the rise of nanotechnologies and biotechnologies in the 1990s came the hope that their convergence with information technology and cognitive science (engendering NBIC) would pave the way for a sustainable exploitation of natural resources, creating a \u201cbioeconomy.\u201d A conference organized in the United States in 2001 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) gave impetus to this program; meanwhile, transhumanists, inspired by a scientistic ideology, set themselves the goal of radically transforming the human species through NBIC-derived techniques. In response to these American ambitions, the European Commission issued various reports between 2010 and 2012 stressing the need to develop the bioeconomy. Synthetic biology (genome synthesis) is one of the key technologies of the so-called \u201cFourth Industrial Revolution\u201d celebrated in 2018 at the World Economic Forum in Davos. H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Tordjman recalls that Jacques Ellul, in his work La Technique ou l\u2019enjeu du si\u00e8cle,[1]<\/a><\/sup> had already called attention to the danger of technology becoming autonomous regardless of society\u2019s value judgment on its social impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biofuels are a typical example of how biological techniques are applied to the green economy, but, as H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Tordjman points out in the second chapter, their use has been disappointing. Combating climate change means decarbonizing energy, and one of the recommended strategies is to replace fossil fuels with fuels produced from biomass (corn, sugarcane, vegetable oils, etc.). However, as their production generates a non-negligeable carbon footprint, this strategy is far from sustainable. Experts have therefore suggested using plant waste (cellulose) or microalgae as a raw material. Since this produces lower yields, genetic engineering is employed, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are used to either increase biomass or develop microorganisms that speed up the processing of these raw materials (with enzymes, for example). The energy scenarios envisage \u201cnegative emissions technologies\u201d that combine biofuels with carbon capture and underground storage, although the effectiveness of these technologies has not been proven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genetic techniques are also adopted to increase yields in industrial agriculture, with the use of new seeds and GMOs that enhance photosynthesis, resist drought, and tolerate pesticide and herbicide treatments. Such techniques raise an important question: that of plant species ownership and the patentability of living organisms. The complexity of this issue is laid out in the third chapter. Created in 1961, the \u201ccertificat d\u2019obtention v\u00e9g\u00e9tale\u201d (plant variety certificate) grants a temporary monopoly of intellectual property to the \u201cinventors\u201d of a new variety. While the certificate is not a patent, its effect is that rigorous conditions are applied to farmers who use these seeds and wish to resow them. The advent of biotechnology led to the recognition of the patentability of living organisms, following a decision by the United States Supreme Court in 1980 concerning the patenting of a microorganism. The major agrifood multinationals entered into a battle over GMOs in order to monopolize the commercialization of plant varieties, primarily cereals \u2014 a battle that has picked up again with the rise of genome editing techniques in recent years. The author observes that, in this battle, the European Patent Office (EPO) has followed the United States without defending the interests of European agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The privatization of living organisms, through patents, has intensified the financialization of the services provided by nature, leading to the emergence of the concept of \u201cecological economics\u201d in the 1990s, following the Convention on Biological Diversity. This concept is explored in more detail in the fourth and fifth chapters. In order to protect a \u201cnatural capital\u201d (a hectare of rainforest or coral reef), its functional value must be assessed, so that its degradation can be taxed and its replacement financed. The services rendered by microorganisms, databases of their genes, etc., are \u201cfictitious commodities,\u201d whereby nature is somehow dematerialized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This kind of financial reasoning is supposed to limit the degradation of biodiversity and the environment. However, the author points out that such financial assessments are arbitrary. For instance, how can one put a number to the aesthetic value of a forest, or quantify the work of bee pollination? In 2005, an exercise to identify the goods and services rendered by ecosystems was carried out under the aegis of the United Nations, ascribing prices to each. This meant comparing \u201cobjects\u201d that tend to resist comparison (a forest, coastal waters, etc.) and effectively reducing nature to a catalogue of services. Ecological economics is therefore based on an illusion. Nonetheless, it has led to the development of compensation mechanisms (for example, the destruction of a protected area is compensated by reforestation) and climate protection mechanisms in the form of exchangeable carbon quotas, although the effectiveness of such solutions has yet to be established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can we trust \u201cgreen\u201d finance? That is the question H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Tordjman raises in the final chapter. In this system, financial tools are used to guide investment toward green activities: for instance, green labels awarded to companies that invest in the green economy (including oil companies), or green bonds whereby issuers commit to undertake projects that adhere to environmental standards and are therefore subject to evaluation. The author argues that green finance is only virtuous in appearance, as it only partially corrects the damage inflicted by capitalism on nature. Therefore, it would seem inappropriate to place our trust in green finance as a means of preserving nature, our common good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her book, H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Tordjman has conducted a thorough entomological study, meticulously examining the goals of a green economy that supposedly respects nature, as well as the scientific and technical means it employs. Her diagnosis is severe: green growth risks being a dead end. In her conclusion, Tordjman opens up a new avenue with the suggestion that the European Green Deal can only succeed if our economies change track by replacing industrial agriculture with agroecology. She advocates for self-management based on cooperatives, short supply chains, and local markets, a prospect that should be boosted with the launch of a new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). There is a great deal of work to be done! Nonetheless, let us risk a question at this stage: Will global warming allow us to dispense with biofuels and GMOs? Anyone interested in ecological transition issues is sure to read this book with great interest, as it abounds with information about the intellectual property of living organisms and mechanisms for the financialization of nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This article has been translated from French and edited by Cadenza Academic Translations.
Translator: Sophie Cherel, Editor: Matt Burden, Senior Editor: Mark Mellor<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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    Paris: Armand Colin, 1954. \u2191<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Since the turn of the twenty-first century, the climate crisis and the imperatives of sustainable development have placed green growth firmly on the agenda, with the European Green Deal its latest incarnation. In her book La Croissance verte contre la nature [Green Growth versus Nature], the economist H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Tordjman unravels the complex mechanisms at work … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"both","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":301,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[133,202,212],"keyword":[1307,962,1102,866,975,937,267],"class_list":["post-87127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-read-seen-heard","tag-economie-et-emploi-en","tag-environnement-en","tag-societe-en","keyword-agroeconomie-en","keyword-biotechnologie-en","keyword-ecologie-en","keyword-aspects-economiques-en","keyword-financement-en","keyword-genetique-en","keyword-developpement-durable-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87127"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101217,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87127\/revisions\/101217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87127"},{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=87127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}