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Crisis, catastrophe, collapsology... Books make a powerful comeback Volume 20, issue 1, January-February 2021

Author
Ingénieur-chercheur en écotoxicologie
2325, route du colonel Maurice Bellec
13540 Puryicard
France
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This article presents a sample of recent publications on crises, catastrophes and collapsology. At least nine books were published on this subject in 2020!

Debates around the concepts relating nature and man are intensifying. Since the 1970s, plenty of works have addressed these matters. In the current situation, questions surge ever faster about the state of the world and what happens next.

But what is it all really about if we make no effort to use the right terms? We use crisis, catastrophe, collapse, solastalgia, collapsology and so on. But what do they all mean?

Ancient and modern writings show that we do not start from nothing, but that this “explosion” reflects the ideological state of our society. We’re again talking of the apocalypse, and, after genocide, we now talk of “ecocide”.

Without a doubt this is a much-needed, genuine debate.