Interview: Yann Arthus-Bertrand for Vialala

What an honor! Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the eco-friendly globe-trotter who has been alerting us to the fragility of the planet for over 20 years, has granted an exclusive interview to Vialala in the context of promoting his new work, the film Legacy, which has been broadcast since last week on M6 (and M6 Replay). The subject of the interview? The future of travel, obviously given the context...

Vialala: In "Legacy", you discuss the Earth Summit in Rio (1992) as the starting point of your commitment to the environment. What has changed over the past 30 years, in your opinion? Has the epidemic accelerated or hindered the changes you perceive?

Yann Arthus-Bertrand: First, the subjects are no longer the same. In 1992, despite the Rome report being 20 years old, only very specific topics like the ozone layer had reached the majority of people. The general public was not aware then of the rapidity with which the environment was being affected by human activity.

Since then, everything has changed: hot topics have multiplied and the most urgent, climate change and the decline in biodiversity, are now widely known and accepted, whereas they were not discussed at all in the early 90s. Al Gore's film ("An Inconvenient Truth"), IPCC reports, and COP21 among others have changed that.

The pandemic has further accelerated this awareness by allowing us to better perceive the contradictions of the growth-at-all-costs model that endangers the planet. We stop, and yet life goes on. The awareness of the severity of the phenomenon is all the more acute. On this February 1, 2021, Le Monde publishes a chilling article (sic) on the results of a study by Météo France about the effects of climate change in France, with very pessimistic forecasts for 2100. An increase of 4 or 5 degrees in temperature in France is not insignificant!

But the propensity of humans to always want to grow and improve everything constantly, this tendency towards productivity so characteristic of the species, pushes us to always go further in exploiting the planet's limited resources. Even if it leads to our own demise!

Let's zoom in on the situation of the oceans: overfishing by the Chinese, and other Asian countries, affects all the seas of the globe. As for container shipping, the numbers are dizzying. While we speak, just today, 20 million containers are being shipped between all countries of the world.

People, goods, capital, are constantly moving very quickly. Because growth finances everything, and we don't really have a simple solution to get out of it. It's a kind of headlong rush in the form of an endless race for growth, a subject that I discuss extensively in the episodes of my podcast on the @Majelan application.

Vialala: We have followed your work and commitment with great interest. How do we resolve the contradiction we all find ourselves in? How can we continue to travel while combining the discovery of Earth's wonders and respecting the environment and populations?

Yann Arthus-Bertrand: Here again, Covid has been a powerful catalyst for change. Video conferences have largely replaced business travel, and younger generations are capable of managing almost everything through video, including their studies. The epidemic allows us to mourn the "world of before", as it has forced us to focus on what is essential, on the people we love. We accept the constraints because these constraints save lives. We all need to adapt, myself first as a filmmaker, and all of us as travelers.

But we can continue to travel, while better respecting the Earth. Obviously, there is no miracle solution! We will have to slow down. Spending the weekend in Marrakech, just to sit by a pool and do nothing else, is not "sustainable". We can travel close to home. We can also travel without a plane for much of the year, and limit ourselves to one tourist flight per year for example, to enjoy it more. Flying should be only if we cannot do otherwise!

Let's consider our continent, Europe: the train is clearly preferable for all trips. But going to Lisbon by train in 2021, it's 30 hours. We absolutely must make progress in infrastructure because it can be much faster. At COP 2018, I suggested the idea of chartering a train to take the entire French delegation to Katowice (Poland), but it was impossible to organize according to the government. We absolutely need to accelerate the development of cleaner mobility. Favoring night trains instead of some short flights is another simple solution, but it’s not done yet.

Regardless, we must stop confusing holidays and travel. Travel involves a process of discovery that is completely absent from certain types of holidays; once again, there is no need to go to Tahiti just to stick to a deckchair for a few days.

We take for granted moving around without thinking, whereas multiplying Express trips, as we have all done in the past, is not always traveling.

Traveling better is not just about enjoying more rare distant trips: it's undoubtedly about seeing travel differently, returning to the almost initiatory approach of the traveler, who makes the most of the journey to reach their destination. The so-called "off the beaten path" travels, more immersive and respectful, are already a real progress, as are the eco-friendly travels.

And thanks to the revolution of L.N.G. propulsion (Liquefied Natural Gas), which today primarily concerns the transportation of goods, it will take very little time to cross the Atlantic on clean ships. One can imagine that in a relatively near future, we might once again enjoy traveling by boat; like before when we spent time crossing the Atlantic, but still much faster than in the past! For every true journey, the journey itself is important: "There’s no way to happiness, happiness is the way".