Alain Le Flohic, 70, and his wife Claude Joanin, 73, both retired educators, are deeply devoted to their community in Brittany, France. Alain serves as the president of the Robien Neighborhood Committee, an organization dedicated to strengthening ties between residents and fostering unity. The committee advocates environmental awareness through promoting sustainable agriculture, beekeeping, supporting local artists, offering French lessons to immigrants, and creating opportunities for inclusion to build connections among all members of their community.
Both believe that humans and nature deserve respect and protection and must coexist in harmony. Unfortunately, the beautiful coastline of their region in Brittany is facing a clear environmental threat: the spread of green algae. This issue is primarily driven by industrial agriculture, especially the runoff from pig farming, which introduces excess nutrients into the water. As ocean temperatures rise due to climate change, the warmer waters provide ideal conditions for the excessive growth of green algae along the coast.
For Alain and Claude, Plage du Valais is more than just a beach—it's a place filled with memories and a reflection of Brittany's natural beauty. Yet, as they stroll along its shores, they witness the growing problem of green algae, which is becoming a sign of a much deeper environmental issue. They believe monoculture farming plays a major role in this crisis, with nitrates from fertilizers leaching into the water and promoting algae growth. Their hope is for a shift toward more sustainable farming practices, urging the government to reduce the use of harmful chemicals to protect the environment. As the algae decomposes, it releases toxic gases that pose a danger to both people and animals, quietly undermining the once tranquil landscape they hold dear.
What has climate change done here?
We are at Valais Beach, the only beach in St. Brieuc. It is a very nice beach with huts. There is a big problem: green algae.
This problem has existed for years in Brittany, especially in the Bay of St. Brieuc. It is related to industrial agriculture, especially industrial livestock farming. There was a lot of pig farming in the Côtes-d'Armor, and the manure from the pigs, called slurry, was spread for a very long time on the fields. Nitrates, via the waterways, went into the sea and caused the proliferation of these algae that wash up on the beach. When the tides are not significant, the algae stay on the sand. It rots and releases gases that may have caused the death of boars, but also of people. It is not directly related to global warming, but it is linked to a type of agriculture that is part of global warming because the gases produced by animals, especially pigs and cows, contribute to the greenhouse effect and, therefore, to worldwide disturbances.
What we are seeing here is that the weather is becoming less and less stable. The temperature is rising despite everything. Water is warming up, and certain fish are arriving that we couldn’t find (this type of fish) around here. We are in a region that is relatively privileged in terms of rising temperatures, and some people want to come live with us rather than staying in the South of France because of the rising temperature. It’s what we’ve been asking for years since the various COPs, and we are not making any progress on this issue. But this option is becoming increasingly visible, even in France, in an objective way, with floods and increasingly severe storms. Despite this, we tend to continue as before. It seems to me that our region should return to more environmentally friendly agriculture, and agriculture based on smaller farms and polyculture. While we have been more focused on monoculture since the beginning of industrial agriculture, products should be consumed locally so that the links between farmers and consumers are stronger. Like what the AMAPs are doing: promoting organic farming. This is the opposite of what the French government is doing, under the pressure of big agricultural unions. And then, we must stop the goal of French agriculture to feed the world. It is necessary to help the agriculture of the less rich countries in Africa to become subsistence agriculture again, and for us, on our side, to make it a more food-producing agriculture. In my opinion, I am trying to act, in my opinion, to challenge the government and the agricultural unions to move in this direction.
What do you think world leaders have to do now to stop things from getting worse and to help us adapt?
I think policymakers should listen more to NGO and small farmers and less to the wishes of agribusiness. There is too much pesticides, chemical fertilizers in the water of rivers and seas. Scientists are observing the deterioration of soil quality and disappearance of life on the Earth. World leaders should have a longer term vision and not just deal with day to day problems.
Life expectancy 2023
.svg)
