The real shale gas scandal

PROMOTION

Marine Jobert and François Veillerette.
Editions Les Liens qui Libèrent. 237 pages.

In December 2010, 300 people gathered at the foot of Larzac to launch an unprecedented movement against the exploitation of shale gas. One month later, more than 100,000 people had joined them by means of a petition. Within six months, dozens of collectives were born. From Montélimar to Montpellier, via the Cévennes and Larzac, then from the Paris Basin to the Jura and Lorraine, thousands of "refuseniks" rose up in the face of this threat to their environment and health, against a decision taken without information or consultation.
But why? And why did a seemingly unanimous political class immediately decide to pass a law that, in the end, settled nothing? This book answers these questions, but goes much further.
The stakes in this gigantic energy battle go beyond France's borders, and almost everywhere in the world, people are already drilling for this gas. There is indeed a secret history of shale gas, stretching from former US Vice President Dick Cheney to the half-brother of a certain Patrick Balkany, via our country's senior administration. Just as there are deep-rooted links between billionaires Paul Desmarais and Albert Frère, on the one hand, and President Sarkozy, on the other.
The shale gas affair is also a formidable revelation of our appetites for consumption, our blindness to the climate crisis and the collapse of the democratic spirit. And it's only just begun. Will we burn every last molecule of gas, even if it means destroying landscapes, crops and water tables? Isn't it time to think again?