After 50 years of struggle, 10 years of physical occupation and over 11,000 canisters of tear gas, that rarest of things happened to one of France’s most infamous social movements: they won. In January 2018, plans for the Gran Ouest airport, in the making for half a century, were cancelled. The 4,000-acre territory known as the Zone to Defend or “Zad” was saved. This means that local ecosystems, the world’s atmosphere and all of our lungs have been spared the impact of hundreds of extra flights a day.
In the gloomy world of environmental activism, victories like these are hard to come by, and when they do happen they are rarely celebrated. What are a few hundred fewer planes a day when compared to the thousands that still fly? But this is a crippling attitude. If we don’t pay attention to our victories we won’t learn from their success. Perhaps even worse, we’ll deprive ourselves of stories full of hope.
