Rene Dumont

摘要

Evergreen is the word that comes to mind when describing Rene Dumont. If not quite a son of the soil, he was a grandson of it, and his concern for the land led him to become, first, an agronomist and in time an environmentalist, indeed the first environmentalist to run for the French presidency, in 1974. He captured only 1.3% of the vote, but can be credited nonetheless with having established the green movement in France. He was also passionately concerned with the poor world, with its exploitation (as he saw it) by the rich world, and with what some regarded as naive policies—call them green, if you like—to lift the poor out of poverty. And throughout his long life he remained unfadingly energetic, enthusiastic and vigorous. Just a week before his death he was throwing his weight behind the candidacy of the relatively little known Alain Lipietz to lead the French Greens in next year's presidential election. To general surprise, Mr Lipietz, a former Maoist, duly won the party's primary on June 21st.