Half a century of environment between science, politics and prospective: in honor of Jacques Theys.

Summary It is now half a century since the environment emerged as a scientific, political and societal issue. Faced with the current challenges, it is important to understand what has happened during these decisive decades, to look back on the progress or failures - on what has or has not "worked". This is what this book aims to do, and it also aims to draw some perspectives for the future. The aim is not to draw up an ecological balance sheet of the last five decades, nor to recall the events that marked them, but rather to approach these years from the inside, through the particular prism of the relations between science, politics and society - at the interface between the movement of ideas, the advancement of knowledge and public action. Few witnesses to this half-century are as valuable as Jacques Theys. Since the 1970s, he has occupied a privileged position as a "border-crosser" between science and politics, dividing his time between university teaching, responsibilities in the administration or in foresight, and involvement in civil society. Even if it is not limited to this, the book conceived in his honor can also be read as a synthesis of the often avant-garde reflections that were his. Through the multiplicity of analyses gathered here, it is an unparalleled look at the evolution of environmental policies, their relationship to science, information or democracy, the place of foresight as an "intelligence of time", or the future of sustainable development that is proposed.