INTERVIEW
How is it that Africa is the continent that suffers most from the consequences of greenhouse gases while it is responsible for only 4% of global emissions? This is one of the questions that arises Yamina Benguigui in his documentary The last lung of the world , broadcast Wednesday night on Canal +.
"The density of this CO2 is three years of global emissions at once"
Yamina Benguigui went to Africa, "in the Congo Basin, which includes about a dozen countries." "This is one of the largest forest areas, crossed by one of the largest rivers in the world," she describes at the microphone of Media Culture on Europe 1. Less media than the Amazon, which has been plagued by terrible fires throughout the year 2019, this Congo Basin contains within it a primary forest, discovered late 2017.
"It sequesters 30 billion tonnes of carbon If it were to open - if we exploit this forest - this CO2 would immediately return to us," says the former minister delegate to the Francophonie. "The density of this CO2 is three years of global emissions at once," she warns. A place that acts as a real "second lung of the world".
"They have our future in their hands"
In the face of climate challenges, Yamina Benguigui feels it is her duty to sound the alarm on these kinds of topics. "Filmmakers have an obligation to work on ecology," she says. "How can we not give Africans a voice? They have our future in their hands," she wonders, while lamenting that she had never seen any documentary or documentary giving Africans "the full word". ". With The Last Lung of the World , she hopes to sensitize the spectator and confront him with an African reality still unknown.