From Chaos to Cosmos

摘要

"History can be written in Paris," said President Francois Hollande recently. Sadly he did not have in mind the terrible coordinated attacks by ISIS, which were unforeseen when he spoke; rather he was referring to the French Revolutions of 1789, 1830,1848, 1871 and 1968, and the COP21 meeting of world leaders on climate change.The irony is that in all of those revolutions the critical actions came not from the monarchy, or the presidency, or the Estates General, or the French parliament, but from the streets. Indeed, and in terms of COP21 in particular, we might well ask if realistically the climate crisis can be saved by bureaucrats in long meetings using jargonistic language surrounded by piles of documents and arguing from hidden agendas, without pressure from and the support of the general public, not just in France but globally.