French President Emmanuel Macron may be trying to restart construction of new nuclear power in the country, but he has just declared “the end of the age of abundance” to the French people and by extension his Malthusian dicta was to the people of Europe as a whole. This was met immediately by trade union leaders, responding, “What abundance?”
Macron, making a call for government unity he doesn’t have, said, “We are living at the end of what could appear to be [an age] of abundance, of insouciance, of endless cash flow, for which we must now face the consequences in terms of state finances, of an abundance of products and technology which appeared to be perpetually available…. The breaking of value chains, the shortage of this or that material or technology, the end of an abundance of land and of resources, and that of water as well, it is all reappearing [as in the COVID pandemic].” And then, pleading for “unity,” “We must reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, double the efforts we have made over the past five years, transform the country even more quickly so that it can confront these changes.”
