The audacity to change – A new ecological deal for Martinique

Louis Boutrin

In this well-documented book, the author gives us his political vision of a new deal to lead Martinique towards its future.

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In 2020, Martinique entered an unprecedented health crisis, which affects the entire planet. To this day, no one knows when it will stop or what the "world after" will look like.

One thing is certain, however, is that these upheavals are taking place in a country in turmoil, battered by crises that feed on the uncertainties of the future, but above all on a badly resolved past.
At the same time, less publicized events, but at least just as dramatic, because potentially irreversible, generate serious damage to our environment. Chlordecone poisoning, sargassum invasions, episodes of sand mists of Saharan origin, fine particle pollution, global warming and the disappearance of our coastline are a perfect illustration of this ecological disorder.

While “the house is burning”, the public debate, stuck in obsolete statutes, sinks into the swamp of its contradictions. Martinique is struggling to find its way.

During five years spent in charge, Louis Boutrin, executive adviser to the Territorial Collectivity of Martinique, was in direct contact with all the issues he details in this book. He gives us his political vision of a new deal to lead Martinique towards its future.

The author

Louis Boutrin, doctor of law and lawyer at the Paris bar, specializes in environmental issues. President of Martinique-Écologie, he participates in the implementation of public policies that are part of a logic of ecological transition. His essay Chronicle of an announced poisoning – The Chlordecone scandal in the French West Indies – 1972-2002 , co-written with Raphaël Confiant (2007) made a significant contribution to debates whose dimension refers to Caribbean, national and global issues.