Biomasse, subventions et déforestation: la face cachée de l’énergie verte– Documentaire Écologie- MG

Sous l’étiquette verte de la biomasse se cache une ombre grandissante : paysages détruits, biodiversité effacée et forêts sacrifiées au nom de la transition énergétique. Ce que l’on présente comme l’avenir pourrait être l’une des plus grandes illusions écologiques. 👉 Les meilleurs documentaires ? Ils sont ICI 👉 https://bit.ly/2zfgboK 👈 Abonnez vous !

00:00 Introduction – La promesse de l’énergie biomasse
04:00 Gardanne : naissance d’une centrale controversée
10:00 Mobilisation locale et opposition citoyenne
20:00 Biomasse en Europe et aux États-Unis : une industrie mondiale
40:00 Le Canada et la surexploitation de la forêt boréale
50:00 Avenir des forêts : deux visions irréconciliables

L’électricité « biomasse » débarque en France. Estampillée verte et renouvelable, cette énergie produite par la combustion du bois est encouragée par l’Union Européenne, et largement subventionnée par l’Etat français. Ainsi, à Gardanne en Provence, le groupe E-ON, un géant de l’énergie, a entrepris dès 2012, la conversion d’une vieille centrale à charbon. Elle deviendra début 2016, la plus grande centrale biomasse de France.

Mais transition énergétique ne veut pas dire transition écologique. Dégradation des paysages, pollution, industrialisation de l’exploitation forestière, et destruction de la biodiversité, l’arrivée d’E-On à Gardanne provoque colère et indignation dans les régions méditerranéennes où le bois sera prélevé. Et l’impact de ce projet pharaonique n’est pas seulement local. Gardanne, comme d’autres mégacentrales biomasse européennes, devra aussi importer une partie de son bois. Une véritable manne pour les pays producteurs, mais un désastre pour leurs forets. Premiers exportateurs mondiaux de granulés de bois, les Etats-Unis et le Canada sont aussi les pays qui ont perdu le plus de surfaces boisées au monde, au cours des 12 dernières années. De la France au Québec en passant par l’Angleterre et les Etats-Unis, militants, élus locaux et scientifiques de renom témoignent. Ils nous révèlent les menaces que l’industrie biomasse fait peser sur la forêt française et sur les forêts du monde.

🔎 Pour voir d’autres vidéos similaires, découvrez notre playlist complète ici :
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Menaces sur la forêt française
Réalisation : Benoit Grimont
Tous droits réservés

#Biomasse #Déforestation #Écologie #Documentaire #TransitionÉnergétique #ForêtFrançaise

The wood is green, very green. In an era of global warming
and debates on energy transition,
wood now appears to be a virtuous solution for reducing
the gap between the demands of development and the preservation
of our planet. With the help of time,
it has even become a source of profit. As a windfall in France and Europe,
various green power plant projects using wood have
emerged in recent years. Often colossal projects which,
behind their ecological appearance, nevertheless pose serious
threats to French forests. An emblematic example of the frenzy that has taken hold of the sector is the installation of a giant biomass power plant
in Gardanne, in the heart of the forests of Provence. It all began in July 2010,
under the impetus of politicians. It was Eric Besson,
then Minister of Industry under Nicolas Sarkozy,
who made this decision. A few days before
the presidential elections, during the electoral campaign. This is what surprised me,
that we rushed into such a gigantic project. I am delighted with the launch of this project,
which contributes to the unprecedented development of renewable energies
undertaken by the government. This is an opportunity
for the region and for this opportunity, everyone
must mobilize. You can count on the mobilization
of the government and myself. This is how
this project, the largest ever carried out in France, began in September,
largely subsidized by the French state in the name of the energy transition. The beneficiary euro is a giant
in the sector, the German E. On. Oil, coal, gas,
nuclear and now renewable energy, the multinational, the
world’s third largest energy group, is worth 132 billion euros. In this former mining town,
the old coal-fired power station, condemned to closure,
has been converted into a so- called biomass power station,
running on wood. And for this extraordinary project,
communication is well regulated. It is a project that fits perfectly
into the energy transition. We are abandoning fossil energy
to use renewable energy, namely biomass. We provide electricity production
for 440,000 homes. It is still important today
in local and regional life. It is about developing a timber industry,
enabling investments, enabling small
forest operators locally to be able to invest in sustainable equipment, and
therefore creating economic activity. One of the arguments in favor of the Harnes power station
is the preservation of employment. And I think that we
must maintain jobs, but I also think,
and I said this to my friends and the elected representatives of Gardanne,
that we could lose more jobs, more forestry jobs,
more tourism jobs if we denature this territory. Concerns shared
by many local elected officials. Because to fuel these boilers,
the giant Gardanne power station needs a million tons of wood per year. As a result, tree felling in the
Mediterranean forest will increase. The E.On plant is scheduled to open in January 2016. In the meantime, it is building up its stocks. And already, new
clearcuts are appearing. Controversial forestry practices,
their proliferation has caused the region’s inhabitants to fear the worst. We don’t have many assets
in our territory. Our asset is our quality of life. Authentic tourism in the forests,
walks, hiking, horse riding, cycling, etc. So, we really have the forest and nature to develop in terms of tourism. So if that’s taken away from us,
what do we have left? Impact on the territory,
overexploitation of the resource, conflicts of interest with
local stakeholders, the arrival of the Hônes arouses anger and incomprehension. This week ,
through a lawyer, we filed an appeal
against the order authorizing the operation of the E.
O. De Gardanne power station. And today, the recourse that we are making,
that Jean-Louis Joseph explained to you, I am not going to come back to it. The appeal is a pretext
to try to make yourself heard. E.
O. It’s an ecological aberration,
it’s a health aberration, it’s an environmental aberration. Responsible for the Luberon
and Verdon natural parks, mayor of Vaucluse or Alpes
de Haute-Provence, several hundred elected officials are
mobilizing to denounce the project E. O. Jean-louis Joseph Today,
the project goes well beyond the production capacity of our forests
and we fear for our landscapes, we fear for the 55 wood boilers
that we have already installed on the territory of the park. There are around fifty of them in the pipeline. We have made a lot of efforts
in this territory and there is a risk of disorganization. Because we do not take into account our
territories behind which will be plundered, plundered,
I dare say the word, will be plundered as easily as possible
for a profitability which will leave nothing on the territory, as much
for the public as for the private. At the heart of the controversy are
the priority supply zones of the power plant, the ZAPs,
in forestry language. Of unprecedented size,
they encompass territories extending up to 400
kilometers around Gardanne. Cévennes,
Luberon and Verdon Natural Park, all protected areas made up
of centuries-old forests, oaks, beeches, pines and chestnut trees
from which the wood will be cut. When we see and hear that someone is going to come and collect a million tons of wood per year in our region, within a 400-kilometer radius,
we start to
worry a little bit. And
when we see that we have set up a short circuit of the local sector
to secure all of this and that we see large multinationals coming
there, we say to ourselves that all the small ones will no longer exist and will not have their share
of the fat and that it is still the big ones who will have all the profits. On the edge of the Luberon, in the middle of the forest of the Lure mountain,
Radio Zinzine is the epicenter of the protest. We’re going to put five minutes on our clock. In five minutes, we had
the briefing. Information this evening with Gardanne, Nick,
present in the studio, who will give us some news. Founded in May 1981, Radio Zinzine has retained
the libertarian spirit of the early days of free radio. Nicolas Bell is one of its
oldest pillars. Long involved in major
environmental causes, this Englishman, who has chosen Provence as his
home since the 1970s, is the founder of the
SOS Forêt du Sud collective. He was the first to
raise the alarm about the E.On project . We’re going to get to the news, the
information. Fasten your seatbelts. We organized a first
public meeting very quickly in November 2013. There were 150 people in Foucalquier
at a public meeting, which is no small feat for a town of
four or five thousand inhabitants. Very quickly, it spoke to people. They were shocked. What is this thing? First, they really had
our fears for the forest. What impact can it have? But they were also shocked by the fact
that there was no consultation, all of this, it just happens, with no… There, we don’t know about it. A public utility investigation was
carried out. But as required by law,
it limited itself to consulting the residents of the five neighbouring communes
of Gardanne, far from the areas concerned, 400 kilometres away. Here we come now to Jean,
500 communities, a huge protest,
but completely surprising. In my opinion, that surprised E.I.O.N. a lot

. And that surprised the
public authorities and the ministries a lot. They are very bothered by this. This opposition is surprising
because the project was intended to have a positive impact on the environment,
reducing CO₂ emissions, since the Provence-Cadre Biomasse unit
will emit four times less CO₂ than it did previously. We go and get the wood from
very remote, very difficult places. So we will transport the wood
over 200 kilometers or even more to shred it. It’s expensive to shred it. After all this, we’re going to burn it. There are seven out of ten trees that do
not provide electricity, which will heat. Ultimately, they heat the sky
and cause pollution. They cause pollution. Seven out of ten trees will go up
in smoke without producing any electricity. Just over 30%
energy efficiency. To overcome this weakness,
manufacturers must therefore draw massively on the resource. A goal with no impact, he says. One of the reasons for the establishment of Éon
in Gardanne is the size of French forests and the increase
in their surface area. Better still, they are, according to them,
largely under-exploited. The Mediterranean forest has
one main characteristic: it increases by 5 million
tons of wood every year. Part of these 5 million is already
taken by a wood industry which exists, particularly in the
Mediterranean forest, for the paper industry which takes a little more than a million
tonnes of wood for its use. And so, out of these 5 million,
one million is taken, there are still 4 million left. So, you see that we are far from drying up
the natural resource that is created around the forest. The statement is optimistic, to say the least. A quarter of the Mediterranean forest
is in fact inaccessible. Dead wood,
and especially removals by individuals, are
also not taken into account. In the end,
the available resource is well below the 4 million announced,
four to eight times less depending on the sources. But there is more worrying. Beyond the mere quantity available,
the Hones’ needs are such that they require transforming
silvicultural practices, such as reforesting plots with
fast-growing species. Black bread, Douglas fir and other conifers. 27 meters. The risk is
in the nature of the forests. It’s about the quality of the forests. There’s a lot more to it. That is to say, there has already been
a shift towards resination, therefore the transformation of
deciduous forests into conifers. And then we start eating
the hardwood forests. In terms of forest biodiversity,
and for me personally, as a forester, that’s what
concerns me more, it’s dramatic. And it’s a financial logic that does
n’t give a damn about the initial state of the forest. What interests him
is the rate of return on the investment. I will measure the dominant wood. Gaëtan Dubus is a forestry engineer. His work includes, among other things,
taking stock of the wooded areas and identifying the trees
that can be cut down. This one is over 30 meters. So 100% beech. Robert, we’re going back to the Douglas. I know what the top looks like. Founder of the Alternative
Forestry Movement, he advocates for selective and sustainable management of the forest. There, there is natural mortality. Typical forest biodiversity is
clearly threatened by this intensive disturbance regime. Foresters are being pushed to produce
more and more small timber and in very short cycles. And so, cutting young wood,
the very strong ecological consequence is that the younger we cut it,
the more minerals we export and the more we prevent
the typical forest biodiversity from establishing itself. Obviously, if we put into
people’s heads the idea that a forest is simply trees side by side,
regardless of the species, it leads to misunderstandings. But I don’t think we can say
that this simple increase in forest area
justifies felling. For a very simple reason,
it is not the forest that has increased, it is the tree plantations. I think that’s the root of the problem. If we mix a
single-species tree plantation with a forest, we mix everything up, we no longer understand anything. And that allows
companies like E.O. to progress easily. In fact, the E.O.N. machine was launched, exerting its influence
on the entire timber industry. Active lobbying, particularly towards
private owners who own three-quarters of
the Mediterranean forest. This fragmentation has so far been a brake
on industrial overexploitation. But today,
the situation is changing. An actor like E.
O. N. has the ability to group together plots of land within
the sector, which attracts the sector. So, when we
arrive with technicians, a whole logic of supporting
the employees who are there for that, we have the capacity to regroup,
to federate with the support, unfortunately for me,
of the administrations in place, we have the capacity to regroup
the plots to make large projects. So what I fear
is that the operations will be brutal and not at all subtle. Intensive management versus
sustainable development, financial logic versus biodiversity, two opposing concepts. In any case, the arrival of the Hones does
not only threaten the forests. The local timber market is
also under pressure. The wood wars have started,
so a fierce wood war. With monsters like E.
A. N.
G. G. Brigitte Raynaud is mayor
of Revesse-des-Brousses, a small village in the Alpes
de Haute-Provence with 272 inhabitants. Through a local economy,
in 2012 it initiated the creation of a wood storage platform
for municipal boiler rooms. Here there is a pile of platelets that is not safe. It’s shredded wood,
it’s softwood. The project’s original
aim was to mobilize small forestry operators in the region
to produce in short supply chains. Initially, there was a PAD, a
territorial supply program. This is a serious study that was
done by serious people. The state went there too. Everyone
talked about these study results which said that with
collective boilers, public boilers,
operators who would take this platform, it would be profitable. Today, we see that it is not
and they all have their eyes directed towards the gates of Eon. So I’m disappointed because I
feel like I’ve completely failed. We have a place that is abandoned. It’s empty. It is indeed difficult to compete
with the offers of a giant like E. O.
N., which offers operators
purchasing volumes that defy all competition. Small units on one side,
mega structures on the other. The Court of Auditors
will also point out the imbalance. In its 2013 public report
on renewable energy, the magistrates confirmed that large
projects are competing with smaller ones. In their conclusion,
the study’s rapporteurs will go so far as to recommend stopping calls for tender
for biomass installations. This damning report from the Court
of Auditors, combined with the anger of elected officials, ended up alerting
the supervisory authorities. As a result, Eon was forced
to change its supply plan. This is the perverse
and problematic side of a protest. The government and the prefect,
with the regional biomass committee, etc. They felt that it was necessary to change the speeches into verses and into. And so they said: We must
increase imports. From now on, the Gardanne power station will have to
import half of its resources. The grip on the Mediterranean forest has been loosened
, but the perverse effect is that it will increase
the pressure on forests elsewhere. A simple shift of the problem
that does not call the model into question. This is already at work throughout
Europe, where other giant biomass power plants are being established. In Denmark, Belgium, Finland,
the Netherlands and even Italy. But it is in England,
Europe’s worst performer in terms of renewable energy,
that this model has taken hold with the greatest frenzy. Like here in Drax,
Yorkshire, where the world’s largest biomass power plant has been running
for two years. In 2016,
it is expected to produce 4,000 megawatts of electricity and consume more
than 7 million tons of wood. Ten times garden. It is the largest
European decarbonization project. It allows coal to be removed from the system
and replaced with biomass. This power station produces
7% of British electricity. We cannot do without such a
capacity and all these ramifications like that. We
have succeeded in producing affordable electricity from a renewable and flexible resource where solar
and wind are inconsistent. In fact, by converting their old
coal-fired power plant into a biomass power plant, they managed to extend the life of their
facilities while benefiting from government subsidies. When they saw this opportunity
to survive and get into this renewable energy revolution
and look so terribly glassy, ​​they lobbied hard
for subsidies. Subsidies are at the heart of the fight of Duncan Law,
one of the founders of the NGO Biofuel Watch. Every year, he organizes
a demonstration in front of the London headquarters of Drax,
on the day of its general meeting. Hello, Duncan.
Hello. Nice to see you.
Good to see you, man. Can I give you that?
Yes. That’s our… Thanks. Drax’s people have been here for a
long time and have been asking for it for a while. They appear to have a strong financial model
, but they are totally dependent on subsidies. Drax, Drax, what do you say? How many trees have you killed today? Drax, Drax, what do you say? How many trees have you killed today? This government, by subsidizing
biomass, is reinforcing inaction. We could spend this money on
reducing energy consumption and investing in
renewable energy that would not be dependent on
imported raw materials or a market. But instead,
the money is being used to operate obsolete technology which,
at the end of its life, will have cost hundreds of millions of euros of public money
and which, in reality, will have contributed nothing to the energy transition. In nothing at all. Drax power station is currently
operating at full capacity. 19,000 tons of wood pellets
from the United States and Canada arrive here every day. Unlike Gardanne,
the English power station imports all of its biomass. The English forest is very small. Only 10% of our territory is
still covered by trees, compared to France where you have 25%. She is really very small. It’s like the amount of wood produced. It is also very small. Ten million tons per year. You, in France,
produce four times more. So the UK has always been
dependent on imports, whether it’s timber or paper. Most of our resources
come from across the Atlantic. A situation that primarily concerns
the Americans themselves. That day, Adam Mekon
arrives from North Carolina. Head of the American NGO
Dogwood Alliance, he came to London to seek support from
European environmental associations. What I’d like to begin with tonight
is to tell you about the incredible forests of the southern United States. Let me tell you for a second,
very quickly, about the benefits that these forests bring to us. They purify our water,
they protect us from floods and tropical storms. That’s a couprase. And that’s what ends up
as a pellet: these trees. You’re probably thinking that this photo
was taken somewhere in Indonesia, or somewhere where
these practices are known to take place. No, that’s in the United States. And there you are wondering
how this is possible. Well, that’s what’s happening. This is where your pellets come from. And it’s incredible,
but that’s what we practice. This is the solution they found
against global warming. It doesn’t make any sense. For most people,
the term biomass sounds very good. It sounds like sustainable development.
It’s organic. Sounds great for the environment, right? Except that in reality,
the industry is razing swamp forests to transform them into
wood pellets that it exports. We need to spread this message. Biomass madness has apparently reached America. So it is there,
on the other side of the Atlantic, that our investigation continues. In fact,
dozens of wood pellet plants have sprung up from the coasts of Virginia to Texas. In less than two years,
the United States has become the world’s leading exporter,
ahead of Canada, the historic leader. In 2009, for example, the United States exported 146 tonnes of wood pellets to the United Kingdom. Only 146 tons. That’s not much when we’re talking about wood. In 2014, just five years later,
we exported 2.5 million tonnes to England. This is the kind of
market explosion that we have a market for. The industrial exploitation of
America’s forests is nothing new, but its progress is now being
closely monitored thanks to a brand new real-time observation system. In partnership with NASA and Google,
it was developed here at the University of Maryland. We have been studying the world’s forests since
the early 2000s and have discovered that North American forests
are among the most intensively logged forests in the world. Deforestation in these
regions is considerable. The subtropical southeastern United States,
say from Virginia to Oklahoma, has the highest rate of degradation compared
to any other region on the planet. This is a map of the
overall forest cover with its losses and gains, where in green
we see the trees that remained standing during the 12 years of the study. If we zoom in on
the southeastern United States, this landscape that stretches precisely
from Virginia to East Texas, it’s really intensive. Each color represents
a cutting year. If I zoom in on any area in this area,
we see the human imprint of the changes that are constantly being made. Each small square is either a
cutting area or a planting area. In the last 20 years,
more than 30 percent of this environment has been cut down or replanted. So it is not a
natural landscape, but an industrial landscape. That was a real surprise,
this incredible intensification of logging. Southampton, southern Virginia. From here,
dozens of trucks loaded with tree trunks and pellets arrive and leave every day. Heading to the port of Shees Peak,
on the east coast of the state, 70 km away. A port terminal dedicated
exclusively to wooden frets to Europe
and more particularly to Great Britain, which
alone represents 80% of its exports. The company Entreprise Enviva is
Drax’s main supplier. She reigns supreme in this new market
and, concerned about her image, she proclaims
her ecological involvement in every clip. Enviva was founded in
2004 to help major utilities improve the environmental profile
of energy generation. To manufacture these pellets,
the manufacturer certifies that it does not use any trunks or large branches. Only unexploited residues
from the industry: twisted or diseased wood, twigs and other debris. Enviva is one of the largest wood pellet companies in the world. They are the most monstrous
in their category. They have some of the
most destructive practices. Of course, they deny seeing any
harmful effect on the forest. But for me, who has seen their deforestation
and the destruction of the swamps, I know that this is a huge lie. Adam Mekon has been an activist with
the Dogwood Alliance for two years. He regularly goes into the field. Its mission: to provide proof
that timber giants are indeed harvesting trees from rainforests,
contrary to what they claim. This time, he targeted
the Enviva factory in the small town of Aoski, North Carolina. There, a truck. What we’re going to do now
is go around the factory. This way we’ll have an idea of ​​where
the trucks are coming and going. And then after, we’ll
find a hiding place. Oh my God. First step: tail
an empty truck that could take them to a logging site. He is here. I’ll try to take
a picture of his plate. It’s good, the photo is good. Is that him? Yes. Once we followed a truck for
three-quarters of an hour and it was actually going home. That’s the risk you have to take. Do you know where we are on the map? Yes, we’re right here. It’s a crossover anyway. Look, it’s still spinning over there. After an hour of tailing,
the truck arrives at its destination. Impossible to follow it to the end. The logging is located on a private plot
like 90% of the forests in the southern United States. Private property
is a sacred idea here. We attach great importance to it,
and that is why any attempt by the government to regulate
logging on private property meets with
very strong political resistance. It is not politically feasible. Because of this, we like to call
the American South the Wild West of logging,
because anything goes. So it’s very easy for logging companies to come here
and do whatever they want without any legal risk. Entering here without permission
could cost Adam Mekon dearly. But for a good cause, the activist
does not hesitate to take the risk. I’m taking a picture because it
absolutely has to be archived. Swamps are exactly
what they claim they don’t do. It’s incredible. At the end of the road,
the conclusion is clear. This is indeed a clear-cut in a
natural humid forest where broadleaf trees and century-old trees have just been
felled. The shocking thing
is that every time we do this, every time we survey a site,
we find a clearcut inside this precious southern forest. We come across a devastated landscape,
a destroyed habitat, and all this in the name of green energy. Here it is. Be ready with your device. The final step in the shipment is
to verify that the cut trees are indeed destined for the Enviva factory, where they
will be reduced to pellets. What kind of tree is that? It’s clearly hardwoods. There might be some bread with it. What’s really interesting
is that going this way, you’re heading towards another Enviva factory. The Aviva Pellet Facility. There are two trucks behind us,
one with pellets and one with trees. Can you take a picture
here, please? We’re coming I feel like we’re
coming to the factory soon. Do you see her over there? Go ahead, Rachel. The truck that comes in. Look at this one. Go ahead, take it, take it. These are hardwoods. Until now, Enviva has chosen to ignore the Dogwood Alliance revelations. But by denouncing these practices,
the NGO succeeded in mobilizing the American scientific community. Around a hundred of them,
among the most illustrious, even signed a letter of protest
addressed to European political leaders. In
their open letters, the researchers attack the
very foundations of the biomass industry. One of its signatories,
Norman Christensen, is a professor emeritus of environmental sciences. We, the undersigned scientists
of the United States, are concerned about the
increasing use of timber harvested from the forests of the United States. The construction of power plants
in Europe is the result of misguided energy policies based
on a misconception: the idea that burning wood would reduce CO₂ emissions. If
we start clearing old-growth forests, say 80 or 100 years old,
with fairly large trees, in terms of the amount of electricity produced,
the corresponding CO₂ emissions are comparable to those from coal. And so, from the point of view of
greenhouse gas management, of climate management, there is not the slightest advantage. We would be just as well burning
coal as cutting down trees. The
reason for this is that when you clear an
old-growth forest, you release a large reservoir of CO₂ into the atmosphere. However, it takes a long time
for this CO₂ to return. In addition,
this wood must be processed and transported. All these steps consume energy
and in turn generate CO₂ emissions. Between
the statements of scientists and the mobilization of
environmental associations, the affair is causing a stir in the United States. The Washington Post itself has
taken up the subject. In an article dated June 2, 2015,
the newspaper also warned of the increase in
logging in the southern forests. But despite the
mounting criticism, the American timber industry, a
global leader since 2012, continues to believe in a bright future. My conception of the forest differs
greatly from Enviva’s. Their definition of forest includes
monoculture, row upon row of pine plantations of
often genetically modified trees, sprayed with pesticides
to make them grow very quickly. I would like to urge France,
French decision-makers, to reflect on the scale to which
this industry is developing. A call which, for the moment, seems to
have little chance of being heard. Following in the footsteps of the United States,
further north, Canada has also entered the race. Long in pole position in the
wood market, it lost its first place by missing the biomass turn. Since then, the country has been trying to
make up for lost time. As proof, the new port terminal
in Quebec City, which has just been inaugurated. In a few weeks,
dozens of cargo ships loaded with pellets will be able to leave for the Coast. For a long time, Quebecers
believed their forest to be immortal. Huge, it seemed to
protect them from industrial excesses. And then, 15 years ago,
one man changed the game. You unfold the card, the accordion flies away. When one last day takes off, On fire. Renowned singer
Richard Desjardins is one of the most
popular personalities in La Belle-Province. In 1999, it was with a film, L’erreur
boréale, which shook Quebec. A film that revealed the plundering
of the forests of his native country. Every year,
a million trucks are loaded with wood in the Quebec boreal forest. Shock by shock,
these trucks from his native country, a caravan that would stretch
across half the earth. All the wood we harvest
in the boreal forest in a year, if we put it into browning, we could fill
ten Olympic stadiums to the brim. The forest in Quebec is something. It provides 70,000 direct jobs
and supports entire towns. It’s by far the biggest business here. The outcry caused by the film forced
the Quebec government to launch a commission of inquiry. Fifteen years later,
we met its director. It created a real state of shock. The Quebecers here
were not aware of it. Perhaps they suspected,
for those who went to the territory, but the Quebecers, in general, did
not suspect, but not at all that this forest that we think is
eternal and also that we will never be able to overcome it, because of these
three times in France, in the forest. He would never have imagined that there
were limits that could be overcome. We have not harvested everything that is
in southern Quebec and we are moving further and further north. And then there, the trees, there will be
really very dramatic crises. Because the higher you go, the
smaller the trees are, the more sparsely they are,
the more expensive it is to collect them. At some point,
the logging companies will not be able to. They are already loss-making. The big timber companies are
loss-making, they have billions of dollars in debt. We also compensate. So. Following his film, Richard Desjardins
founded the association L’Action boréale. That’s right, because he comes from the cabin. Today, the singer-activist is
still fighting with the timber industry. Since the boreal error, people have been wondering whether things have changed in forestry. We saw this 15 years ago, 20 years ago. Then there was
a public inquiry, there was the report which said that
now we must carry out ecosystem-based management of the resource. That’s it. It is the ecosystem management
of the resource and in addition, there is a new concept that we see
everywhere, labeled forests. This is a certified forest. It was a certified forest story. I don’t see any difference
from what was there before. The next step is probably
to bring the vacuum cleaner to biomass and then make pellets. I don’t know. We say: We want to do
ecosystem management of a forest. First, you need an inventory. What’s up?
What’s there? What won’t come next? But there are four biologists in one area here,
the large Abitibi region, which is as big as Holland. You’re more likely to meet
a cougar than a biologist. I am not against forestry,
there is a forestry family. My guitar is made of wood,
my piano is made of wood. My strings are metal,
I come from a mining country too. I’m for that,
but I’m against looting, against pillaging, against this mentality of selling in bulk. And the prospectors arrived,
the deposits were found, the trenches were dug,
the barriers were erected. The names
of places in the territory will be changed. The new city will bear the name of the big
boss who will never set foot there. This is what , basically, distances
me from foresters and what makes it very difficult for us to communicate,
is that they have a very clear, very circumscribed idea. They get there,
but everything else, I don’t think they care, I’m sure of it. And so the ecological aspects,
the aspects linked to biodiversity, the aspects linked to the gas that we
breathe, that’s fundamental ecology. We are all involved. You are in front of a large tree. A good question to ask is
where does the material for this thing come from? When you look at comics
and movies, you often see trees growing like this, a bit like a
tube of toothpaste that leaks… But no, but that’s not it at all. A tree doesn’t come out of the ground. What comes from the ground
is a few kilos for a large tree. I think we should define the tree
as a mass of atmospheric pollutants. It’s pollution
blocked and made visible. In these conditions,
who would be stupid enough to knowingly demolish our sewage treatment plants? I add that it is
free purification. For
most people, the destruction of natural forests
will not be a tragedy. Simply put, it is a lack of perspective,
a lack of appreciation of the place of man in biodiversity. I am a biologist,
I am surrounded by people who are biologists and who will tell you
that man being the product of biological diversity,
destroying the bases of this diversity is downright suicidal. What will happen practically? An increase in the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere
, that’s clear. If we cut down trees,
the carbon stored in the wood will inevitably return to the atmosphere sooner or later. It may take more or less time,
but in any case, it is inevitable. So an increase in the level of
carbon dioxide, therefore global warming, is a greenhouse gas. So there you have it, melting ice,
rising oceans. You know that here,
in the region where I live, we are not far from the surface of the water. It wouldn’t take much
to put millions of people in deep embarrassment. On the one hand, an industrial model
like in Gardanne, based essentially on the very short term. A world where wood is measured
by the ton like ordinary ore. On the other, the universe of the forest,
fragile and infinitely slow. So slow that he who plants an oak
knows he will never see it flourish. Two opposing visions
thus clash over the future of our forests. Irreplaceable source
of diversity and life. An essential common good, today
in the process of massive destruction.