In just a few decades, ecological concerns have invaded our representations and our discourse. We now know that our societies cannot grow indefinitely, demographically and economically. We know that our current trajectory is absurd and that it is leading us straight to an environmental catastrophe that is increasingly certain. We therefore know that we must imagine another society in order not to transgress the limits of the planet. Yet we are not succeeding in changing our behaviour, either individually or collectively. Why is this so?

This is the heart of this book. The most obvious cause of the coming catastrophe lies in our excessive consumption, but the more distant causes of our addiction to consumption are less obvious because they are largely unconscious and we need to be aware of them in order to free ourselves from them… perhaps.

Whatever these determinisms, we have some degrees of freedom. The human brain has incredible creative and innovative capacities. We still have a choice. We can free ourselves from these determinisms inherited from our evolutionary history and the upheavals of the Neolithic revolution.