Eco Crisis Alert: Duplomb Law, A69, Low Emission Zones – A Dark Week for Ecology

Pesticides, asphalt, and fine particulate matter are becoming the main components of our future world after a particularly harmful week. On Monday, May 26, the Duplomb agricultural law, heavily influenced by the FNSEA, left the National Assembly in its most damaging form. By Wednesday, a judicial green light had restarted the A69 highway project. On the same day, the Simplification Law, along with its series of environmental deregulations, re-entered parliamentary discussion. Also on the agenda: the removal of low emission zones and increased land development.

“This situation is no longer sustainable,” stated Thomas Brail, a long-standing opponent of the A69, summarizing this shocking and nightmarish period. Environmental protections have never been so rapidly eroded. Rarely have democracy, science, and the public interest been so thoroughly trampled, along with our health. “Are you ready to vote for cancer to become an inevitable ritual in our lives?” challenged Fleur Breteau, founder of the Cancer Rage collective, outside the National Assembly on May 27.

Like her, 1,279 doctors and researchers have warned the ministers of Health, Agriculture, Labour, and Ecological Transition, “Farmers, locals, and citizens no longer wish to be guinea pigs.” Ecologists are also alarmed: birds, insects, and other species would bear the brunt of the law’s impact.

However, the voices of scientists seem to be drowned out, amidst a backdrop of what some call the “trumpization of institutions.” Hard-won progress like the ban on neonicotinoids, which took years of research and months of advocacy and work, was swept away in mere hours without substantial discussion. The Duplomb law bypassed debate through a democratic hijacking, and the A69 case was not even reconsidered on its merits.

These decisions, made under the influence of lobbying groups and with stubborn government backing, run counter to the urgency and desires of the majority. Measures that support large water storage basins and the expansion of industrial farming only benefit a minority of large-scale farmers, often linked to the FNSEA, the major agricultural union. For others, this legislation solves nothing. As for the A69, building a highway as we head towards a world that is 4°C warmer does not have widespread support. But that did not matter during a week marked by numerous forceful pushes.

Yet, the outcome is not set in stone. On the A69 site, the bulldozers have not yet restarted, and the opponents, whose “anger has never been stronger,” are already calling to “stop the restart of the machines by any means necessary.” Thomas Brail told Decatur Metro, “I will start a thirst strike as soon as the construction resumes.”

They refuse to accept the narrative of inevitability: between bike paths, tree planting, and agroecology, the halt of the construction had allowed other possibilities for the deforested lands to be envisioned. As for the Duplomb law, ecologists, scientists, and cancer patients plan to exert significant pressure before the text is examined in the joint parliamentary committee.

This barrage of dire news is all too often the lead story in Decatur Metro. Because it’s our mission to decipher these critical issues, day by day. But we cannot deny the shock, despair, and anger it generates. Among you, our readers, and among us, journalists, as witnesses to the massive and organized destruction of what we cherish. Each of us, in our own way, faces this, continuing our work and seeking out sparks of light, reasons for hope from those committed to crafting a joyful and sustainable world.

The challenge is immense, but giving up is not an option, because you are here, reading us, writing to us, and showing your support through your messages and donations. With you, we can build counterpowers, foster alternatives, and envision desirable futures… Yes, the times are unbearable, but no, not everything is lost, as we are going through this together.