Left: Billie at rest. France - 29 June 2022.

Right: The Miss training in the laces not far from home. France - 29 June 2022.

The departure date for the European cycling tour we are planning (see previous posts) is now clear. On Saturday or Sunday, we will set off from our "sweet home" to cross the Pyrenees and then ride in Spain and Portugal. The return (if nothing comes up against our plans as in Bolivia in 2020 - see the report "Chile after the COP "-) is set for late autumn or early winter.

We have spent the last few days :

- finalising reports; thus, during our journey, Ami Jim will be able to feed the site with new subjects such as those of the COP 26,

- saying Adios to family and friends.

There are still many things to put in order so you will understand that for this post, we will be brief. As usual, we will try to keep you informed of the trip, not via sms or grouped emails but by posts. Jim and we have taken great pains to build this blog, so let it be useful!

Hasta pronto!
Abrazos y Suerte,
Hélène and Thomas

PS: This time we'll exempt you from the usual press review. With the results of the legislative elections, inflation, etc., you must be tired. We'll just put here the grievances that we discover from Matt Jacob, a French photographer who wanted to share his experience of the job.

The approach reminded us of Bruno Latour (philosopher and sociologist of science with a worldwide reputation) who has already been mentioned on this blog. By the way, we have just finished his latest book "Mémo sur la nouvelle classe écologique" which you may read this summer, unless you prefer, like Billie Ze Cat, to take advantage of the hot summer hours to bubble a lot.

That's all Folks!

Left: Billie at rest. France - 29 June 2022.

Right: The Miss training in the laces not far from home. France - 29 June 2022.

The departure date for the European cycling tour we are planning (see previous posts) is now clear. On Saturday or Sunday, we will set off from our "sweet home" to cross the Pyrenees and then ride in Spain and Portugal. The return (if nothing comes up against our plans as in Bolivia in 2020 - see the report "Chile after the COP "-) is set for late autumn or early winter.

We have spent the last few days :

- finalising reports; thus, during our journey, Ami Jim will be able to feed the site with new subjects such as those of the COP 26,

Over the last few days, we have been working hard to finalise the new reports that we would like to complete before we hit the road again. There are about ten of them, which Jim will add during the summer, little by little, to the hundred or so galleries already on the site.

In addition to the Glasgow Cop (already mentioned on this blog), there will be other subjects on the climate and social issues and 3 or 4 photo series extracted from the long-term work of the Tour de France that we are working on. Hélène proofread and translated the texts and captions of the subjects while Thomas continued to assemble the diptychs, clean the dust from the scans (for the black and white photos), and make basic adjustments such as contrast, exposure and sharpness.

During this tedious job, he started listening to the matches of the second week of Roland Garros (and sometimes taking a look). It must be said that tennis was a great passion of his youth and that he still sometimes dreams that he is playing a game. This is how we followed the live intervention of the young climate activist, Alizé. Wearing a T-shirt that read "We have 1028 days left", she chained herself by the neck to the net on Philippe Chatrier's centre court during a men's semi-final. At that very moment, Toto was editing the diptychs of a story made with photos of the 3 Climate Marches that we documented in Toulouse between 2021 and 2022.

Discovering in the local press the message posted on Twitter by the young activist of the "Last Renovation" campaign made us feel funny, if you can call it that. "Sorry to have interrupted your game," she commented on the Last Renovation Twitter account. "But all eyes are on the French Open today, and we need to sound the alarm." Continuing, "No one gives a shit when we do climate marches, when we're all going to die so this is where we chose to act."

Later still, we came across an interview with her on a radio show where she explains her action. Note that at the time of publishing this post, we learn that the Dernière Rénovation collective took another action by blocking a bridge in Neuilly on 11 June.

For your information, the diptych we are posting is the result of this new documentary work which was prepared with the "han!" of the tennis players on the clay court in the background.

- The photo on the right was taken in March 2021 during a "March for a real climate law" in Toulouse. It shows France Insoumise activists demanding "ecological planning". An idea that was mocked for a long time (because it was seen as Soviet) before being taken up in the inter-round of the presidential elections by E-Macron! Here, an episode of a podcast (Climat : Macron ou Mélenchon, quelle planification ?) from the newspaper Le Monde in which Aurélie Trouvé (LFI) and Pascal Canfin (LREM) "debate their methods for achieving carbon neutrality in 2050".

- The photo on the left immediately brings to mind the book by Hélène Tordjman (economist, lecturer at the Sorbonne Paris-Nord University and member of the Paris-Nord Economics Research Centre) that Toto hurriedly finished reading before we left. The title is La croissance verte contre la nature - Critique de l'écologie marchande (Green Growth Against Nature - A Critique of Market Ecology). Her impressive research alerts us to what has been brewing for the past twenty years from the point of view of science, finance and technology.

This is a book that we recommend because it is extremely well researched and well written on subjects that we only knew about from a distance and that should certainly be brought to the debate. Have you already heard of the NBIC convergence ? (NBIC for Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology and Cognitive Sciences). But if you don't have time to read the 300+ pages, you can hear Hélène Tordjman on the radio in a rather short speech here and a much longer one there at a conference for a popular university in Marseille.

As far as physical preparation before our departure is concerned, we are not too bad. We ride almost every day and we take advantage of our rides to continue our series on Marine Le Pen started 10 years ago now (we already told you about it on this blog). By the end of the week, we should have passed the 500 km mark and above all, we are no longer reluctant (even in very hot weather) to attack the numerous hills we have in our area. We will need to do this if we want to cross the Pyrenees into Spain.

Normally, after the two or three dental appointments for Hélène, we should be ready to set off on the tour of the Iberian Peninsula that we have vaguely planned! and that we will share with you on this blog.

Hasta la próxima entonces!
HTC

Small press review on themes related to the site:

Pesticides:

In our previous post, we shared with you studies on pesticides. Since then, they have been contested and the newspaper Le Monde has published an article to maintain its information.

Also, we have learned that Le Monde journalist Stéphane Foucart (his work has sometimes contributed to the press review section of our blog) has long been accused of "troubled relationships" with "environmental activists." Here are his convincing explanations.

Finally, based on the book « Et le monde devint silencieux » (And the world became silent) by Stéphane Foucart, you will find the documentary by Miyuki Droz Aramaki, Sylvain Lepetit and Sébastien Séga: Insecticide - Comment l’agrochimie a tué les insectes (Insecticide - How Agrochemicals Killed Insects) which has just won the Special Jury Prize at the FIGRA (Festival international du grand reportage d'actualité et du documentaire de société : International Festival of News Reporting and Social Documentary).

Photography:

For those wondering why we're not on social media, here's an article on the latest evolution of Instagram.

About Nick Ut's iconic Vietnam War photo, a video explains why it was not decisive in stopping the war as we tend to believe.

That's all Folks!

Over the last few days, we have been working hard to finalise the new reports that we would like to complete before we hit the road again. There are about ten of them, which Jim will add during the summer, little by little, to the hundred or so galleries already on the site.

In addition to the Glasgow Cop (already mentioned on this blog), there will be other subjects on the climate and social issues and 3 or 4 photo series extracted from the long-term work of the Tour de France that we are working on. Hélène proofread and translated the texts and captions of the subjects while Thomas continued to assemble the diptychs, clean the dust from the scans (for the black and white photos), and make basic adjustments such as contrast, exposure and sharpness.

Poppies in a barley field and on the asphalt not far from home. France - May 2022.

The cool thing about cycling, apart from making you fall back into childhood as soon as you get on it (for those of you who have been riding as a kid), is that you have time to think and observe the landscape. And if you're in the break-in period as we are now, you even have the leisure to contemplate all the flowers along the road (so much you have to go easy not to wake up the damn tendinitises which would rot your life again).  

There was a time when, before embarking on a journey, we could afford the luxury of not training. The first week was a bit difficult because we had to get used to being in the saddle for hours on end and sleeping outside in a tent, but there was no breakage. The Tour de France that we did changed things for Toto and now we are preparing with apprehension. From the sixty kilometres indicated in our last post, we now have more than 300 kilometres on our legs. The pains felt at the start are gradually fading so morale is good.

The poppies at the edge or in the middle of the road made us think of Fabrice Nicolino and his colleague François Veillerette with their manifesto: "Nous voulons des coquelicots" (We want poppies). We remember that the "Appel des coquelicots (Appeal of the poppies)" had been launched just at the end of our tour of France in 2018. An association of the same name was also created, calling for a ban on all pesticides.

It is proposed to gather on every first Friday of the month in front of town halls to demand that the government ban all pesticides. And the poppy would become a rallying sign for people interested in this struggle. In their book, they explain why they chose the poppy: "This flower could be found in every wheat field before agrochemicals. Pesticides have killed billions and billions of them. So the poppy is fragile, and rare now." After some research, we found that the association is still active on Facebook (although the last post on their website was in 2020).

We don't know if you've been following, but this past fortnight, pesticides have been mentioned a lot in the press. First there have been a study, some reports (here and there), mobilisations and lately the problematic hiring by the main agrochemical lobby of the former chief of staff of the new agriculture minister Marc Fesneau.

About ten years ago, we found a very well documented book on pesticides in the Montauban media library: "Pesticides, révélations sur un scandale français". The author ? again Fabrice Nicolino and François Veillerette. For the most part, it tells the story of the post-war introduction of pesticides on French soil.  

Well, we are showing off our strawberries (a French expression). Time to go back to training! Speaking of strawberries, it's the season: those who come to see us on their bikes will be rewarded with a full salad bowl from the garden!

Best regards.
Hélène and Thomas, the Sunday "Monets"!

PS : If you want to hear the song "Gentil coquelicot" (Nice Poppy) again, there are many versions on the net. After having looked at some of them, from the most parodic (like the version of the Inconnus) to the oldest, we have chosen the one accompanied by a photo of the singer Marcelle Bordas taken by the famous Harcourt photography studio.

Small press review on themes related to the site:

Vanuatu:

At COP26, Simon Kofe, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tuvalu, drew attention to the situation of the islands (including his country, the archipelago of Tuvalu) and coasts threatened with submersion by global warming. He addressed the World Climate Summit in a suit with water up to mid-thigh. On Friday 27 May, his neighbour in the Pacific Ocean, Prime Minister Bob Loughman, declared a state of climate emergency for his country: the Vanuatu archipelago.

Chile:

- UN recommendations to alleviate the lack of drinking water: here is an article with hydrologist Emma Haziza (seen a lot in the mainstream and alternative media in recent days). The picture reminded us of our trip to Chile where we photographed cloud catchers in Chañaral in the Atacama desert.

- Since our 2,000 km cycling trip to Chile, we are always on the lookout for what's going on in that country. In this little press review that we keep fortnight after fortnight, we have already talked to you about the drought and the difficulties of water supply (as recently in Santiago), the drafting of the new constitution and the presidential election that saw Gabriel Boric come to power. Here is an article on the first criticisms of the new president.

- The army is back in the south of the country where the indigenous Mapuche population is demanding the return of ancestral lands.

Edgar Morin:

We have mentioned Edgar Morin several times on our site (notably in the introductory text about "The Battle of Sivens"). Recently he published an article about Ukraine, which is presented below.

Total:

Following the COP21, we photographed a mobilization in Pau against Total, then an action à Paris against 4 polluting companies including Total. On 25 May, 250 environmental activists blocked the general assembly of Total. They are protesting against the "climatic" projects of TotalÉnergies, which continues to expand and exploit fossil fuels in Africa and in the Gulf of Mexico. They are also demanding that Total withdraw from Russia.

COP15 Review:

In our last post, we told you about the COP15 (a COP dedicated to desertification) that took place in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Here are two articles (here and there) about what happened there.

Photography:

Since we saw Trent Park's « Minutes to Midnight" exhibition at the Château d'eau gallery in Toulouse, we have been keeping an eye on his work. He has just released a new book: Cue the Sun. Here is a presentation of his photographic project in India with some reflections and here a video of the bluffing page layout of his book.

That's all Folks!

Poppies in a barley field and on the asphalt not far from home. France - May 2022.

The cool thing about cycling, apart from making you fall back into childhood as soon as you get on it (for those of you who have been riding as a kid), is that you have time to think and observe the landscape. And if you're in the break-in period as we are now, you even have the leisure to contemplate all the flowers along the road (so much you have to go easy not to wake up the damn tendinitises which would rot your life again).  

There was a time when, before embarking on a journey, we could afford the luxury of not training. The first week was a bit difficult because we had to get used to being in the saddle for hours on end and sleeping outside in a tent, but there was no breakage. The Tour de France that we did changed things for Toto and now we are preparing with apprehension. From the sixty kilometres indicated in our last post, we now have more than 300 kilometres on our legs. The pains felt at the start are gradually fading so morale is good.

One of the two "Christmas gift" cups that will be in our bike bags when we leave. Under the gaze of our closest neighbours, the cyclist climbing the hill wears the "yellow jersey". France - May 2022.

Some time ago, we told you about some "brainstorming" in a post entitled "Big Fatigue!":

"... Soon, we should be sharing with you a brainstorming session linked to successive nervous breakdowns that led us to think about a new photographic and velocipede itinerary for the next few years. We had several options on the table and, if we don't chicken out, you'll see that we decided to spare no effort! We'll be sure to tell you more about it."

Here is the new roadmap in a few lines:

- After discovering the pleasure of long journeys during our initiatory bicycle trip that took us to India.

- After having experimented with reportage photography in Germany, Spain, the USA and West Africa.

- After documenting life on a dairy farm for a year, then social and environnemental struggles close to home.

- After having followed the COPs for 5 years since the Paris agreements and having been to Morocco and Chile for that purpose (to mention only two of the reports).

- After having travelled more than 20,000 km around France to document issues related to energy or agriculture, among other topics.

We thought we would now try to do a European cycling tour of about 4 years. The first stage Spain-Portugal would be very soon.

We would travel from spring to autumn. During the winter season, we would finalize the reports of the Tour de France that we still have to care about, as well as putting in shape those of the European tour.

Finally, once our European tour is over, we would like to embark on a world tour by bike. This is a dream we've had since our trip to India and for which we've been trying to organise ourselves as well as possible over the last decade.

That's why a short time ago we got back on our brave bikes in order to break in; in a few days we covered about sixty kilometers, not without pain. When we said in the title that it was a post of almost champions!

That was a brief outline of our plan for the next few years, if complications of all kinds don't get in the way.

Abrazos y Suerte!
HTC

Small press review on themes related to the site:

Gated community or residential enclave:

In Florida, I had the privilege of documenting the work of Frankie, head of security in a gated community. A radio programme on this phenomenon, which is taking root in France, brought us back this good memory.

COP15:

Another COP, different from the climate ones we follow. The fifteenth COP on combating desertification, also organised by the United Nations, began on 9 May in Abidjan.

Here and there, two press articles on this major threat to humanity at a time when the UN estimates that 40% of the world's land is degraded.

In the second link, an interview of Patrice Burger, president of the international solidarity association Cari. In the south of Morocco, a country badly affected by desertification, we photographed a pilot farm supported by this association (see the report entitled "Morocco after the COP").

Overshoot Day:

"On 5 May 2022, France consumed all the resources that the Earth can provide in one year."

Arno :

April 23 was marked by the death of the Belgian artist Arno. We had seen him in concert in Carmaux in the last century. During the Tour de France by bike, I had spent a night at the home of one of his great fans: see photo 151 of the report "Hosts of France". Here is a live version of his offbeat European anthem that he created with his then band TC Matic. Not sure we'll find the same enthusiasm during our European tour!

Photography :

How Kodak made us smile. A very short radio "programme" explains it to us.

That's all Folks!

One of the two "Christmas gift" cups that will be in our bike bags when we leave. Under the gaze of our closest neighbours, the cyclist climbing the hill wears the "yellow jersey". France - May 2022.

Some time ago, we told you about some "brainstorming" in a post entitled "Big Fatigue!":

"... Soon, we should be sharing with you a brainstorming session linked to successive nervous breakdowns that led us to think about a new photographic and velocipede itinerary for the next few years. We had several options on the table and, if we don't chicken out, you'll see that we decided to spare no effort! We'll be sure to tell you more about it."

Left: During a demonstration, at the very beginning of the mandate, to protest against the policies of the new president Emmanuel Macron. Toulouse, France - 2017.

Right: Marine Le Pen's election posters in the presidential interterm. Her campaign focused a lot on "purchasing power". Brive la Gaillarde, France - 2022.

And that's it! Covid has entered our brainboxes. Luckily, the virus hit us with a slight delay, so we were able to take care of each other. It must be said that this is quite unpleasant, especially when you fear that it will lead to a raging ear infection. And then productivity at work takes a serious hit.

In the last few days we went to a family party and then circulated during the period between the two presidential elections to continue our ongoing series on the extreme right in France, which we started ten years ago. To this end, on a Saturday, we photographed the hundred or so people who had gathered at Place du Vigan in Albi to "Fight Racism and Organise Solidarity". We also went twice to Toulouse to document a "ni Macron ni Lepen" demonstration of more than 100 people as well as a "big meeting" at the Bikini organised by Carole Delga (President of the Occitanie Region) which began with Edgar Morin's video address. This event, bringing together 1,400 people to "block" the Rassemblement National, took place 20 years to the day after Jean-Marie Le Pen qualified for the second round against Jacques Chirac.

Finally, we went to Carmausin and Graulhetois where the Lepénist scores were high. As an anecdote, in the mining town of Saint Benoît de Carmaux, we were the protagonists of a scene worthy of a sticky thriller. Under a light rain, while I was photographing a Marine Le Pen election poster (on which someone had stuck a black and white portrait of Jean Jaurès in place of her face), I saw two retired people (dressed in some kind of fatigues if I saw correctly) arrive in an old-fashioned 4x4 with all the gluing equipment in the back:

- What are you doing?
- Well, as you can see, I'm photographing the election poster. Why?
- There's a crazy woman, she's always tearing them down!
- Ah, it's because of the portrait of Jaurès that I stopped.
Blank and end of the conversation.

Five minutes after leaving them, we went back to the same place, the two RN boomers were no longer there and a new Le Pen had been stuck on the previous one to hide the portrait of the illustrious socialist. Surely they had gone to change the portraits that had been "Jaurèsized", like the one near the school we had just taken a picture of.
The day after the results of the presidential election, we read in the press that for the first time Carmaux, a historical stronghold of the left, has voted in a majority to the extreme right. For the record, in the Tarn, Emmanuel Macron came out on top, but only by a small margin (with 53% as opposed to 47% for Le Pen), and in the Tarn-et-Garonne (our old department in which we lived for a dozen years), it was Marine Le Pen who came out on top (with 52% as opposed to 48% for Macron).

The first image in the diptych comes from a work that we had absolutely no memory of and that we are in the process of making visible. At the beginning of the month, while going through several hard drives to try to free up space, we came across some very low definition scanned images stored on different drives. After putting them together in a single file, we quickly realised that this constituted a homogeneous corpus of images and that, if we gave it a title such as: "The Social Struggle in the Street under Macron BYV. (before the Yellow Vests)", the subject would work. It would provide a much more detailed continuation of the work that was done under Hollande during the Labour Law, also known as the El Khomri Law (see the topic "We won't capitulate").

We said to ourselves that if we didn't take care of them now, it was very likely that we would never come back to them (so much so that we are late with the photos of the Tour de France). So we got out our good old Nikon (repaired many times by our friend Sergio) and we scanned and cleaned the dust from the 293 images finally selected.
It seems to Toto that the fog created by the Covid corresponds rather well to the state of mind he was in at the time of shooting. It was a painful period following the Sivens story which had depressed his world quite a bit. And then his tour of France by bike was suspended because of some very persistent physical health problems. At that time, he often wondered whether he would not give up photography. So it's not surprising that these images have been completely forgotten.

At the moment he is creating diptychs as we usually do, but at a slower pace. Normally, he can create about fifty per working day, and here he has barely made forty in the last four days. Let's bet that the quality will be there!

We don't know if you've seen, but Jim has installed a new version of the software that allows you to view the photos and captions on the site. He wrote a very good post about it that we recommend you read (see previous post). Thanks again to him, both for the software that improves the navigation on the site and for the post!
Reading it made us think of the late philosopher Bernard Stiegler and all his work on the contribution economy. Toto had attended one of his brilliant lectures (in 2005 if he remembers correctly) during his only visit to the famous Rencontres de la Photographie festival in Arles. For a while we had been looking for an opportunity to pay tribute to him in our modest blog: our friend Jim, with whom we often spoke about Mr Stiegler, gave us it. Many good videos of him are circulating on the net. Still shocked by his death, we cannot yet watch them without being affected. That's why we won't share links here for the time being.

For once, we recommend some recently released music album that might have pleased Bernard Stiegler "jazz nut" and that is very good to listen to when you are covided. It was composed by two musicians, Jean-Marc Foltz and Stéphan Oliva and it offers a delicate rereading of Duke Ellington standards without a "big bang" (er, big band!), that goes without saying. To be noted: the cover by Emmanuel Guibert, the author with Didier Lefèvre of the comic strip Le Photographe!

Best regards.
HTC

Small press review on themes related to the site:

Chile:

In 2020, we travelled to Chile to document the 'mega-drought' that is affecting the country. Here are the latest and most worrying developments in the capital.

Germany:

A newspaper article tells us that another village is threatened with extinction by the expansion of a coal mine. At the time of the COP23 in Bonn, we photographed the village of Manheim being moved for the same reason.

XR actions and other struggles:

During the two rounds of the presidential elections, the Extinction Rebellion movement, which we have been documenting since COP24 in Katowice, Poland, carried out an action in Paris.

After the presidential election, another action in France against the artificialisation of land. During our tour of France, we worked on this issue.

Homo Confort:

Finally, a link to a book that we will try to have at hand one of these days.

That's all Folks!

Left: During a demonstration, at the very beginning of the mandate, to protest against the policies of the new president Emmanuel Macron. Toulouse, France - 2017.

Right: Marine Le Pen's election posters in the presidential interterm. Her campaign focused a lot on "purchasing power". Brive la Gaillarde, France - 2022.

And that's it! Covid has entered our brainboxes. Luckily, the virus hit us with a slight delay, so we were able to take care of each other. It must be said that this is quite unpleasant, especially when you fear that it will lead to a raging ear infection. And then productivity at work takes a serious hit.

This blog is concerned with photography and especially with how photography relates to environmental issues in France and around the world. But I want to draw attention in this post to what goes on behind the scenes, to the software and the labor that is necessary to present these photographs on the Internet.

The software that supports this site is produced by volunteers. Except for a small annual fee for hosting it is entirely free of charge. That is remarkable when you think about it: there are many layers of complexity in this website, the building of it requires many thousands of hour of highly specialized work by many people, all unpaid.

My work as a developer is free because I volunteer it. And would not be possible if the tools that I use, which are many, were not also free: Linux, Chromium, Jinja, ImageMagick, Masonry, Git, to name just a few.

For sure the internet has become more commercialized every year. It's hard to think of an object or vice that hasn't found its way to the internet with the hope of making money. But miraculously this has not driven out the tradition, started from the early days, of free software made solely for the pleasure of seeing code that one has written come to life.

Free software is free in two senses: it can be downloaded for free, and there are no royalties or copyright restrictions belonging to the author. One can alter it and republish it as one likes. The only requirement is that in copying one should acknowledge the source. If it becomes wildly popular, like Chromium, it may corporatize or attract corporate sponsors but it remains free to modify and distribute.

One may think that free software occupies a small niche, but that is not true. The Linux operating system powers many of the worlds most advanced computers. The majority of computers that host the world's websites rely on open-source programs such as Apache and Nginx. And one cannot imagine the modern internet without the free programming language Python or the version control system Git.

There is no other productive sector (with the exception perhaps of art and literature) that claims so much unremunerated labor.

I want to mention one particular software program employed by this site, Photoswipe. It is responsible for the slideshow and its captions: everything that happens when one clicks on a small image in one of the photo galleries. It is especially well-suited for use on small screens. Photoswipe is ten years old and is used by many major photo sites. It is written principally by one person, Dmytro Semenov, who lives in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Ukraine, as you know, is currently under siege. Dmytro has not fled, he has remarkably managed to release a new version even while his city is being battered. He has made a plea on Github for support through the 'Come Back Alive' initiative. You can see Dmytro's websites here and here.

Jim Latteier is the developer and maintainer of this website. He lives in Vancouver, Canada.

This blog is concerned with photography and especially with how photography relates to environmental issues in France and around the world. But I want to draw attention in this post to what goes on behind the scenes, to the software and the labor that is necessary to present these photographs on the Internet.

The software that supports this site is produced by volunteers. Except for a small annual fee for hosting it is entirely free of charge. That is remarkable when you think about it: there are many layers of complexity in this website, the building of it requires many thousands of hour of highly specialized work by many people, all unpaid.

Right: Taken during the 2017 campaign, a photo from our ongoing series on the far right that we have been running for 10 years now. On these two torn posters you can see the faces of Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, both finalists of the first round in the presidential election. France - 2017.

Left: In front of the entrance to COP26 (26th annual UN Climate Change Conference). As a lady hands out cloth bags printed "Be Vegan - Make Peace", these protesters with their banner want to remind the urgency of not forgetting the commitment of the COP21 in Paris: to keep global warming below 1.5°C. Glasgow, Écosse, Royaume-Uni - Novembre 2021.

In this blog, since the beginning or almost, we have been talking to you about the presidential campaign, which saddens us as much as it irritates and worries us. So we won't dwell on the results of the first round, which have already been widely commented on, even though they are relevant to our work, in order to take a little break before the demonstrations between the two rounds, which we plan to photograph this weekend.

On the other hand, if there has been an elephant in the room in this pre-election period, it is the issue of climate and biodiversity, as a recent study has shown: in the last two months, less than 4% of media time has been devoted to climate. Despite the release of three important IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports since August 2021, the campaign has proceeded without raising the expected and necessary curiosity or debate about them.
That's why we want to share with you in this post a few links about the latest IPCC report which examines solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Released on 4 April, it points out that we have very little time left if we want to stay within the Paris agreements of the COP21 -maintaining global warming at 1.5°C since the pre-industrial era- the first of the 6 COPs we have successively documented (see the reports "From COP to COP").

First of all, there is the fact that there are only three years left to reverse the increasing curve of greenhouse gas emissions and thus contain the rise in temperature.

Then, on the issues at stake, a radio interview with the paleoclimatologist Valérie Masson-Delmotte (a member of the IPCC), always very clear and educational. She explains how the IPCC reports are drawn up, consisting of a technical summary by the scientists and a synthesis for decision-makers, and discusses fuel poverty, losses and damage linked to climate change, equity and the fair sharing of efforts, the artificialisation of land and the quality of soil, which should be better documented, the limits to the capacity to adapt, the lucidity to understand, mental health, youth on whom "the burden of action should not be placed", our energies which finance authoritarian regimes and pose a problem for democracy (example the war in Ukraine), the difference between the French word : "sobriety" and its English translation: "sufficiency" which means: "that which allows one to live with dignity", etc.

Finally, a radio programme, listened to just after the report came out, illustrates 3 positions: that of youth with Camille Etienne, a young activist for social and climate justice, that of historian Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, researcher at the CNRS, his work focuses on environmental history and climate knowledge as well as on the Anthropocene, and that of scientist Franck Lecoq, co-author of the new IPCC report, specialist in the economics of climate change and teacher/researcher at AgroParisTech and director of the UMR CIRED.

To date, our penchant for history leads us to side with Jean-Baptiste Fressoz's analysis. However, it is vital to show the greatest curiosity about this report and all our support and energy for the new generations and for the countries already heavily impacted by climate change. Because, even if the 1.5°C objective now seems to be complicated to reach, it is not impossible if we refer to this other study which gives some hope. All efforts count and will be crucial for the 'habitability' of our planet in the future.

Soon, we should be sharing with you a brainstorming session linked to successive nervous breakdowns that led us to think about a new photographic and velocipede itinerary for the next few years. We had several options on the table and, if we don't chicken out, you'll see that we decided to spare no effort! We'll be sure to tell you more about it.

Best wishes!
Hélène and Thomas

Small press review on themes related to the site:

Climate marches :

In our penultimate post, we told you how on 12 March, we documented the "Look Up!" march in Toulouse, which called for the climate to be at the heart of the electoral campaign; 135 "climate marches" had brought together 80,000 people across the country.
On 9 April, the day before the presidential election, 60,000 demonstrators took part in these "marches for the future" in 80 French cities, with the watchword of the day: unity. The objective: to make the next five years "those of justice, climate, equality and peace".

Photography :

Here is an article about image banks that sell photos "at knock-down prices" thanks to their huge stocks. This reminds us of the advice (which left us stunned) given to us by the photo manager of a major weekly magazine during a photojournalism festival we attended: "The most important thing is referencing. Thanks to the right keywords, a photo should be very well referenced in image banks. You know, even the most beautiful photo site in the world made by the best photographer in the world, I won't go and look at it."

Journalism:

We are still following the stories on freedom of information and we read that on the evening of the 1st round of the presidential election, in Paris, a journalist was ticketed by the police for interviewing "yellow jackets" in the street.

Mali :

We previously reported on the disturbing presence of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner assisting the Malian army. Exactions are increasing in the country and the NGO Human Rights Watch (an international non-governmental organisation that defends human rights) speaks, after the massacre in Moura, of the "worst episode of atrocities" seen here for ten years.

Burkina Faso :

In this blog you have already read about Burkina Faso and the historic trial concerning the assassination of Thomas Sankara. The verdict just came in on 6 April.

Here is also an article about Thomas Sankara's sister, Blandine Sankara, who wants to raise awareness about food sovereignty and does agroecology near Ouagadougou. At the time of the cycling trip to West Africa in 2010, see the reports "West Africa") this farm did not yet exist, which saves us the regret of not having photographed it!

That's all Folks!

Right: Taken during the 2017 campaign, a photo from our ongoing series on the far right that we have been running for 10 years now. On these two torn posters you can see the faces of Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, both finalists of the first round in the presidential election. France - 2017.

Left: In front of the entrance to COP26 (26th annual UN Climate Change Conference). As a lady hands out cloth bags printed "Be Vegan - Make Peace", these protesters with their banner want to remind the urgency of not forgetting the commitment of the COP21 in Paris: to keep global warming below 1.5°C. Glasgow, Écosse, Royaume-Uni - Novembre 2021.

Left: Pontoon on the dry Aculeo lake. Aculeo, considered as the Riviera of Chile, was very popular as a holiday resort for the inhabitants of the country. Chile - January 2020.

Right: In West Africa. After a heavy rainfall at the start of the rainy season, a Fulani woman is bringing home some ground peanuts (which she just bought at a village 2 km from her house). She can now feed her cattle which are starved after the drought that comes before the rainy season and weakened by the cold and humidity of the past few days. Near Diandioly, Senegal - 13 July 2010.

After the long post of the last two weeks, this time we'll try to go easy on the number of characters. We suggest that you review (or immerse!) in two of our reports made by bicycle in recent years: "What future for the rural world in West Africa? and "Chile after the COP". Since the launch of this blog, we have been keeping you informed in our little press review (at the bottom of the post) of the contrasting political situations in Mali and Chile, the first country experiencing a kind of descent into hell and the second a democratic renewal.

After reading many "papers", we thought: we get it for the general context, but what about the people we met? In the villages and the countryside, do they have enough water for crops and simply for daily life?

Here are two recent articles that give us some answers, not necessarily cheerful, concerning the difficulties of farmers confronted with the effects of climate change, which evoke the problems (notably water stress) that we documented during our trips to Mali and Chile.

Yes, we know, the news is not rosy at the moment with: the French presidential elections which earned us yesterday this disillusioned comment from a passer-by (while Toto was photographing an election poster board for a reportage project on the extreme right undertaken 10 years ago now): "It's not glorious, is it? ", the tragic war in Ukraine that began more than a month ago, the announcement (quickly forgotten) of the latest report by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) that warns of the dizzying consequences of an ever-warming world", and the cases of Covid-19 that are multiplying around us.

So you may say that there is no point in undermining our morale any further with Chile and Mali. But it seems to us that, in order to have any chance of the future not being even more blocked, it might be better to look at the world with "both eyes" in order to try to understand it and (come on, let's be crazy!) to "repair" it (as we say nowadays) while there is still time; we could also have said to put it back on the right track!

This expression "with both eyes" comes from a conversation with Eva, a lovely Andalusian woman who, with her partner Pelayo, lived a stone's throw from the Cabo de Gata National Park, not far from Almeria. In 2006-2007, Toto was shooting for our first "big report" documenting the link between intensive agriculture and its need for immigrant labour living in catastrophic conditions all over Spain: "The Garden of Europe or the Third World". He often parked his car in the shade on their small street to go and have a look at the library near their village house. And the vintage car (his grandmother's old GS Citroen in which he slept) had caught their attention. They got to know each other and they kindly kept the films safe and cool for him, as well as treating him to generous impromptu aperitifs.

Anyway, he remembers what she said to him as he told them what he had seen during the day among the sub-Saharan farm workers employed on a daily basis in the surrounding greenhouses; (from memory): "You know Thomas, we are here because we love nature. And everything pushes us to look at things with one eye only to continue to enjoy life. But we understand that what you do is essential." Since then, we wrote to each other a little bit and then we lost contact (their mailbox doesn't work anymore). So, this little post is an opportunity to send them an Abrazos y Suerte muy Fuerte.

Have a good viewing.
Best regards.
Hélène and Thomas

* Eyes wide open! A wink to Stanley Kubrick's film 'Eyes wide shut'.

Small press review on themes related to the site:

Climate march :

New "Climate Marches" took place on 25 March during an international day of strikes, called by the Youth for Climate movement or Greta Thunberg's Fridays for Future. For France, here is a report from Toulouse where hundreds of demonstrators marched and here a report from Paris where thousands marched. The strike continued the next day and there were also Climate Marches on 26 March.

Antarctica:

Scientists are concerned about the exceptional heat wave affecting Antarctica.

Rachel Carson:

Last time we told you about the Meadows Report, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in March. In the same vein, this year, 2022, marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of Rachel Carson's famous book "Silent Spring", which investigated the reasons for the disappearance of bird songs. This American biologist was the first to raise the alarm on the impact of pesticides on the environment.

Marc Dufumier :

Last time also, we mentioned the launch of the "Dernières limites (Last Limits)" Podcast in the wake of the famous Meadows report. Since then, an interview with Marc Dufumier (always clear and passionate) entitled "How to feed the world" has been added online. This agronomist is an honorary professor at AgroParisTech, an expert with the FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation) and a specialist in agroecology. We attended two of his conferences, once just after the reports from Spain and the other after the battle of Sivens.

Finally, on the same theme as in this interview, here is an article by a group of scientists published yesterday in the newspaper Le Monde.

That's all Folks!

Left: Pontoon on the dry Aculeo lake. Aculeo, considered as the Riviera of Chile, was very popular as a holiday resort for the inhabitants of the country. Chile - January 2020.

Right: In West Africa. After a heavy rainfall at the start of the rainy season, a Fulani woman is bringing home some ground peanuts (which she just bought at a village 2 km from her house). She can now feed her cattle which are starved after the drought that comes before the rainy season and weakened by the cold and humidity of the past few days. Near Diandioly, Senegal - 13 July 2010.

After the long post of the last two weeks, this time we'll try to go easy on the number of characters. We suggest that you review (or immerse!) in two of our reports made by bicycle in recent years: "What future for the rural world in West Africa? and "Chile after the COP". Since the launch of this blog, we have been keeping you informed in our little press review (at the bottom of the post) of the contrasting political situations in Mali and Chile, the first country experiencing a kind of descent into hell and the second a democratic renewal.

Perhaps, to illustrate the second part of the title of this post (speak around), we could mention the famous Meadows report which is 50 years old. Limits to Growth, is better known as the Meadows report, by the name of its co-author Dennis Meadows. It was commissioned from scientists at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in the United States by the Club of Rome (an international think tank created in 1968 and composed of economists, government officials and scientists). In 1972, it was the first report to warn of the destructive consequences for the planet of unlimited growth. It made a lot of noise at the time of its release but did not bring about any changes in society, much to the surprise of those who wrote it.

This 50th anniversary has led to articles in the press and broadcasts, including one on the radio in which Dennis Meadows speaks. He was the supervisor of the report and the three others co-authors were his wife Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers and the Norwegian William Behrens.

Now 79 years old, he speaks in a calm manner about the IPCC, degrowth, the younger generations fighting to preserve the climate, the difference between the universal and global problems, green growth, the importance of education, scientists, misinformation, etc. and also gardening! In an article in Télérama, illustrated by a famous photo of René Burri, you can read his advice to young people and about local action, as well as « the incredible story of the four researchers who had already planned everything », their "working methodology" for this report and their life "journey" since.

Several times updated, the latest version of the report Limits to growth (in a finite world) published by Rue de l'Echiquier was released on March 3rd in bookshops.

Latest news: We have just learned of the launch of a series of podcasts by Audrey Boehly entitled "Dernières limites" dedicated to the Meadows report. We have listened to two interviews, one with Dennis Meadows and the other with Gaël Giraud, and we will be following it closely.

Best regards.
Hélène and Thomas

Small press review on themes related to the site:

- Olivier Dubois :

News of the French journalist Olivier Dubois, hostage in Mali.

- Sazy :

We are happy to read good news about the family we followed during our reportage at the Salon de l'Agriculture in Paris in 2010.

- Chile:

The latest news from Chile with the strong in symbols inauguration of Gabriel Boric as President of the country.

Perhaps, to illustrate the second part of the title of this post (speak around), we could mention the famous Meadows report which is 50 years old. Limits to Growth, is better known as the Meadows report, by the name of its co-author Dennis Meadows. It was commissioned from scientists at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in the United States by the Club of Rome (an international think tank created in 1968 and composed of economists, government officials and scientists). In 1972, it was the first report to warn of the destructive consequences for the planet of unlimited growth. It made a lot of noise at the time of its release but did not bring about any changes in society, much to the surprise of those who wrote it.

Saturday 12 March, we are on the train to Toulouse. We are going to photograph another Climate March organized at national level ; we have been following them for a few years (see the reports on this site in the "Around the COPs" gallery). This time, we hesitated a bit between today's march and tomorrow's Die-in, which will take place in Place du Capitole, because we only want to make the trip once. Realising that in the previous post we had already put a photo of a die-in in Glasgow we opted for the demonstration. And also on the programme we read that it was called: "Look Up Big March", in tune with the buzz around Adam McKay's recent Netflix film "Don't Look Up: Cosmic Denial" which we mentioned in another post. This American comedy-drama, about a comet that is about to collide with the Earth and two scientists who try in vain to alert the population, the media, the politicians, would be a metaphor of what we are experiencing with global warming. Good choice because the next day the die-in will be cancelled due to bad weather.

From the train we see soggy fields, it's raining heavily, it's like being back in Scotland. There are also fields of solar panels, we did not remember that there were so many. We feel that spring is near with the first trees in bloom, white or pink and the yellow of the forsythias and mimosas. In Toulouse, we arrive an hour and a half earlier than the 2pm departure time. We decide to cross the city centre and go to the Ombres Blanches bookshop to have a look at the photo books. We also go to say hello to a friend from school in her shop.

On the way, we take the opportunity to observe the changes. The Miss' favourite manga dealer has moved to Rue de Rémusat, a poster in the window tells her that Naruto is twenty years old and she's dragging her feet a bit. Place du Capitole, a large white banner with a black band in the left corner is unfurled on the façade of the Town Hall with the words "March 2012, Toulouse remembers", in reference to the terrorist attacks by Mohammed Merah in Toulouse and Montauban. These sad events coincided with the start of Toto's Tour de France bike ride.

At the big bookshop in Toulouse, one went up to the photo floor while the other picked up a book on the subject of Europe that we had spotted in the new releases. A future tool for future reporting projects? On Place Wilson, in front of the Gaumont cinema, there are "guide-files" announcing that a health pass will be required at the entrance. Oh yes, that's right, the requirement will only end on Monday. On the other hand, the UGC, unbelievable! is empty of any cinema poster and a big sign announces "Caso patrimoine - Purchase Rental". We think that it has been a victim of the Covid-19 pandemic which would have emptied the theatres of its spectators, but no! We read later that it had already closed in July 2019.

From 5 to 13 March, a major climate week is being held in the pink city: "CliMars Attack" (a reference to the film "Mars Attacks" by Tim Burton) with a dozen associations and collectives at the helm. The poster is based on the design of the COP26 poster in Glasgow, Scotland: on a blue background, a stylized planet with swirls and the words "Climate out of control, so what? A whole week of actions is planned to "relay the warnings of scientists, discuss the necessary social transformations that should be at the heart of the political debate, ask elected officials and presidential candidates to make real changes."

Indeed, one month before the presidential elections, NGOs inform us that climate issues occupy less than 3% of the debates of the presidential campaign. However, there was the 26th COP (United Nations Annual Conference on Climate Change), preceded in August and followed on 28 February by two IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports. But the subject of the environment is still struggling to make its way into the news, and it would now seem to be totally overshadowed by the outbreak of war in Ukraine, which has repercussions throughout the world with energy and food security issues.

At the top of the Allées Jean Jaurès, the demonstrators gather at the foot of the statue of Pierre-Paul Riquet. There were only a few hundred of them when we joined them; they would reach a thousand by the time the Look Up march started. Luckily, the rain stopped. We have seen as we photograph Climate Marches that the number of demonstrators in them tends to decrease. In Montauban, where we used to live, we will learn that there were only about fifty people who met in front of the prefecture before marching through the streets.

The dynamics of these demonstrations, which used to bring together thousands of people before the Covid-19 pandemic, suffered from the confinement. There was also fatigue and discouragement in the face of political immobility and the slowness of the population to be convinced. The climate activist movement is in flux after two years under Covid and is wondering what tactics to adopt. Many activists are experiencing burnout and, just as at COP26, they are testifying to this here. There is even a "Metamorphosis" association to help them.

As in Glasgow, we photograph scientific participants from Atécopol, here of the Political Ecology Workshop (Atécopol), wearing their "panicked scientist" t-shirts (with four waves of increasing size: Covid 19, Recession, Climate Change, Falling Biodiversity, which are about to crash into a coastal city topped by a bubble that says "Wash your hands well and you'll be fine"). We find members of Extinction Rebellion, this time in white tunics with a paper crown on their heads saying: "I consume therefore I am". At the head of the procession led by young people from Youth for Climate, a banner mentions the local associations and collectives that are participating: Alternatiba Toulouse, ANVCOP21, Greenpeace, Attac, L214, FNE Midi-Pyrénées, etc. Behind them, to the sound of the "Manifanfare", political organisations will also march: EELV, the Popular Union (ex La France insoumise), the Animalist Party...

In addition to the usual drawings and slogans about the planet and climate change, there are many messages of support for Ukraine and its yellow and blue flag adorns some of the placards. Two women, one draped in a rainbow flag with "PEACE" in big white letters and the second in a blue flag with the words "Prevent wars, Cultivate peace", are handing out leaflets "The peace movement". In the parade, solidarity with Ukraine is displayed with this slogan that is shouted: "Peace, climate, same fight!"

For a little over two weeks now, Vladimir Putin's Russian army has been attacking Ukraine, which is resisting with its President Volodymyr Zelensky at their head. Three million inhabitants have fled the country and are for the moment well received by the neighbouring and western European countries. There is even some surprise at the use of the word "refugees" instead of the word "migrants", which had previously been used for those fleeing Syria or Afghanistan (to mention only the most recent examples).

At the demonstration, organisers and participants were well aware that "the crises are interdependent": "Vladimir Putin's criminal regime is also financed by this dependence on fossil fuels. Getting out of fossil fuels is necessary for the climate and for a more stable world", explains Lorette Philippot, of Friends of the Earth France, to l’AFP.

The procession advances to the Place Wilson with its usual slogans and chants:
"We're hotter, hotter, hotter than the climate!"
"And 1 and 2 and 3 degrees! It's a crime against humanity!"
"1 step forward, 3 steps back, That's the government's policy!"
There is also something new with : "Greenhouse gases, Plastic in our seas, We don't want this whole society!

At the crossroads, at the exit of the Jean Jaurès metro station, another group of about 200 people, "Ago Rap" "No to the health pass", hesitates to follow them but finally goes in the other direction, to the regret of their speaker who would like the struggles to unite.

Then the Look Up march sets off again towards the War Memorial, with other slogans "We are strong, We are proud, Ecologist and radical and angry!" "Work, consume and shut the fuck up, That's the message we give to young people!" Surprisingly, we notice that there are few messages linked to the slogan of this march : "denounce the absence of the climate and social emergency in the presidential debates." and the placards are often the same as usual.

It reached the Allées Jules Guesde, behind the Grand Rond where it ended. There, the different organisations that had participated took the floor and announced their next actions and meetings to continue the struggles. They warned that there are projects to connect the bypasses to each other, to build huge agricultural basins; they invited people to come by bus to demonstrate at the Golfech power station, deploring the lack of debate on nuclear power...

This is the end of the demonstration which lasted two hours. It is proposed to do the "Dance of the planet" which would be practised in 65 countries of the world: around musicians, the marchers place themselves in 3 concentric circles which turn in different directions, the one in the centre walks, the one in the middle trots and on the outside they run. Then the majority of the demonstrators disperse little by little while others remain to chat a little more in front of the Quai des savoirs.

Toto talks a bit with his fellow photographers. He talks to them about gardening and gets advice on the work of a colleague: "You type in 'a village and photo' on the internet and you'll see it's beautiful." He is also recommended to drink Picon bière to relax.

Saturday 12 March, we are on the train to Toulouse. We are going to photograph another Climate March organized at national level ; we have been following them for a few years (see the reports on this site in the "Around the COPs" gallery). This time, we hesitated a bit between today's march and tomorrow's Die-in, which will take place in Place du Capitole, because we only want to make the trip once. Realising that in the previous post we had already put a photo of a die-in in Glasgow we opted for the demonstration. And also on the programme we read that it was called: "Look Up Big March", in tune with the buzz around Adam McKay's recent Netflix film "Don't Look Up: Cosmic Denial" which we mentioned in another post. This American comedy-drama, about a comet that is about to collide with the Earth and two scientists who try in vain to alert the population, the media, the politicians, would be a metaphor of what we are experiencing with global warming. Good choice because the next day the die-in will be cancelled due to bad weather.