Jean-Christophe Charlier / Professor of Physics

UCLouvain – IMCN / Condensed Matter and Nanosciences

The translation of this testimony was generated automatically by a translation program. Thanks for your understanding.

As a physicist, I am mostly interested in the long-term structural changes in (renewable) energy systems to potentially solve part of global warming problems (greenhouse gases).
However, I am also quite involved in the ecological transition where a strong relation between Nature and human beings should be rediscovered.
In order to try not to participate as much as I can to the food industrial processing, I have been living for 20 years in the countryside and produce
most of my food (including meat, eggs, starches and vegetables).
The roof of my house is full of solar panels producing 7000 kWh per year and allowing me (and my family) to be self-sufficient in electricity.
Thermal isolation of my house has decreased my dependence on fossil energy by 2/3.
The only weak point remains in the mobility since my village is a badly-served region by public transportation, forcing me to do home-working two days per week.
Consequently, any political programme in favour of higher frequency of public transportation in the countryside would be mostly appreciated.
At last, mandatory changes in the society would require drastic modifications of both behaviours and objectives of most politicians, going from short-term actions
and personal enrichment to benevolence and long-term actions for the common good that would certainly smoothen the ecological and social transition.
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something
separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to
affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures
and the whole of nature in its beauty.” (Albert Einstein).

Originally posted 2018-04-28 13:14:24.

%d bloggers like this: