I confess. I would have loved to be there bathing in the luxury of the Romanesque-style lecture hall at Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU Munich). Rather bulimic when it comes to science and epistemology I would have loved to be attending some (just some) Ted talks, impromptu seminars in philosophical Parisian cafés, participating to dialogues instigating by Harari, ponder about the reality of reality animated by Lakoff, dive into the promises of artificial intelligence. I would not even have minded to shut up as dutiful women tend to do when it comes to the sky of ideas. I confess I fell into that world just like Obelix fell in the magic chaldron. I passionately love to be part of the wonder, of the questioning on how many angels can dance on the tip of a pin.
But here I was, a woman, stuck in Ottawa, secure, quiet and predictable, attending a seminar on climate change, back to reality, meaning no discussions about reality, but reality-reality, survival not only of myself, but of my children, my culture, humanity, ta ta ta ta. Hard data were hard indeed: trends, shortages, demographics. Whether we like it or not, the balance between too many people and resource does not look good, not even close to good. In two decades nine billion humans (take one million off or on) will flock to the boundaries of lands spared of calamities: that is Taiga and Canada. We all watched, silently.
Floating in the room, floated the untold story of fear, hope, dread, life.
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