Toward Zero and Beyond

ALAIN DESVIGNE is the CEO of a leading solar company, the Amarenco Group. He strives to contribute to sustainability in every field of life. Here he explores the nature of reducing and minimalizing our use of resources in the world, by working on our reaction emissions and inner climate changes.

- ALAIN DESVIGNE

What has led us to this point?

The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in the history of the world. Indeed, almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. The population growth and GDP per capita had been broadly stable for thousands of years, and suddenly the average income and the size of the human population began to exhibit unprecedented growth during this new era. However, it is a growth that we acknowledge now, 200 years later, as being harmful to the overall fragile balance of Nature.

The unsustainable model of development associated with the Industrial Revolution has led us to where we are today – a “house on fire.” But how could the trajectory of one single species succeed in hijacking the journey of millions of others and even jeopardize life itself?

The core underlying principle of the Industrial Revolution was based on more, more and more. Adding new basic materials, chiefly iron and steel, adding the use of new energy sources, including fuels and motive power such as coal and petroleum, adding new machines ... The list goes on and on to lead us to the ever-increasing accumulation of carbon and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, more growth, more shareholder value, etc.

Can we simply reverse the problem?

Thus, at first glance, unravelling the devastating effect of the past seems very simple. The answer lies in fixing the source of the problem that created it: we just need more of less and less! Less of harmful sources of energy, less of harmful lifestyles, less of harmful pollution, etc. In short, less of anything that is contributing to an unsustainable model of development.