Serge Latouche proposes to live better with less. Professor emeritus of Economics at the University Paris-Sud, is one of the world voices of the so-called movement for the decrease.
Born in Vannes (France) 70 years ago, before a public who listened to him sitting in the corridors of access to the auditorium of the Larraona College of Pamplona, he stressed yesterday night that the current rhythm of global economic growth is as unsustainable as the deterioration and lack of resources on the planet.
Invited by the Dale Vuelta-Bira Beste Aldera collective, and under the title of his conference The decrease, an alternative to capitalism?, demanded that the society establish a self-limitation of its consumption and of the environmental exploitation. From his point of view, it is not a question of raising an involvement, but of coupling the speed of natural resource expenditure with its regeneration.
Specialist in North / South economic relations, European Amalfi prize for sociology and social sciences, his declining movement, born in the 70s and extended in France, defends sobriety in life and preservation n of natural resources before depletion. In his opinion, if the decrease is not controlled “ the decrease we are already experiencing ” will be a consequence of the collapse of an unsustainable form of capitalism, and it will also be excessive and traumatic.
A semantic bomb Serge Latouche affirms that the term decrease is a slogan, "a semantic bomb provoked to counteract the intoxication of the so-called sustainable development", a way of thinking, sustainability, extended by the liberal economicism of the eighties, and that encourages paying for everything "For example, in the case of wheat, it requires paying for the surpluses, for their storage and you also have to pay to destroy the leftovers." "We should talk about A-growth, " he said as an invitation to reflect on our lifestyle, including the superfluous display and excessive enrichment.
From his point of view "we live in a bassoon because of the economics of accumulation that leads to frustration and wanting what we don't have and don't need, " which, he says, leads to states of unhappiness . "We have detected an increase in suicides in France in children, " he added, to refer later to the granting by banks of consumer loans to people without pay and equity as happened in the United States at the beginning of the global economic crisis . For Professor Latouche, "happy people do not usually consume."
His numbers as an economist assure that they are right: every year there are more inhabitants on the planet at the same time that resources decrease, without forgetting that consuming means producing waste and that the environmental impact of a Spaniard is equivalent to 2.2 hectares, and that 15 million hectares of forest “ essential for life ” are consumed every year. "And if we live at this rate it is because Africa allows it, " he said. For Professor Latouche, which any type of shortage, food or oil, will lead to the poverty of the majority and the greater enrichment of minorities represented in the large oil or agri-food companies.
Work less and produce intelligently. Crossed out by his naive detractors, he postulated to work less and distribute the job, but work less to live and cultivate more life, he insisted. From a project that he described as " ecosocialist ", in addition to consuming less, society should consume better, for which he proposed to produce close to where they live and in an ecological way to prevent up to 4, 000 trucks from circulating between Spain and France. a week "with tomatoes from Andalusia crossing with Dutch tomatoes". He ended with a praise of the stoicism represented in Spain by Seneca: "Happiness is not obtained if we cannot limit our desires and needs."
AUTHOR: Gabriel Asenjo
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