Is it too late?

It is now 90 seconds to midnight!

The world we leave to our children is particularly alarming. Unlike our grandparents and great-grandparents, we are far from believing in offering our grandchildren a better world. Instead, it is rather the opposite that unfolds before our eyes and to our conscience. Extensive and profound changes in our way of life must take place very shortly. Unfortunately, it is less and less likely. Otherwise, our world is doomed to suffer disasters repeatedly.

Our civilization is at stake

Uninterrupted growth, cleverly disguised in the shadow of sustainable development1 , continues to wreak havoc. We are heading straight towards crises of unprecedented magnitude. The only unknown is whether they will first be economical, social2 , environmental,3 or even the aftermath of a full-scale war.4 For 2023, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' "Doomsday Clock" strongly warns us that it is now only a minute and a half to midnight! It is the most severe warning from this international scientific community's tool, the clock's closest approach to midnight since its inception, even worse than in 1953, during the nuclear threat most scary days5 . Is our civilization doomed to collapse within a few decades for want of anything better than the "least bad political system" described by Winston Churchill?

Will we survive the 21st century?

For several years, the stalemate findings in which we find ourselves have been multiplying. Sometimes it is timidly mentioned that we have indeed entered a new century. The prefix "21st century" is often added to a topic to support the idea that we deserve better, much better. The current situation forces us to ask ourselves this existential question: Will our civilization survive the twenty-first century? Or even more improbable, serenely start this 3rd millennium, which seemed so full of promise, just a few decades ago?

Challenging our way of life

It may be too late already. We believe not. But it is, of course, impossible to answer this question with certainty. However, it is evident that time is running out and that our ruling class seldomly take truly encouraging actions. Continuing to sprinkle minor changes here and there would be unconscious. It seems that the scientific community does not know how much clearer to tell us.

Two of our biggest headliners in the scientific world shared explicit messages about the urgency of finding new paths fundamentally different from those we have explored so far. On the one hand, David Suzuki believes that "environmentalism has failed."6 On the other, Hubert Reeves frankly tells us that our civilization's very survival is at stake7 . And too little seems to be in place to avoid the worst. We, therefore, believe that it is legitimate to question many fundamental aspects of our way of life.

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