In Paris, tourists admire the Eiffel Tower… And the environmentalist hanging from a tree

Ecology and mass tourism, from the outset, do not have many points in common.

For a few days, both realities have been at odds in the center of Paris.

Thomas Brail, a French activist who fights for the defense of trees, has decided to climb a hundred-year-old banana tree located in the vicinity of the Eiffel Tower and leverage himself there to demand that this tree and other neighbors not be felled, as planned, to instead install shops, restaurants and offices.

Paris is one of those wonderful cities for casual visitors who take selfies with the Seine in the background and imagine being part of the cast of a

but it is also hell for regular residents, who must deal with rent exorbitant prices, devilish traffic and a city designed and rethought above all for tourists.

Is it worth getting rid of trees, as if they were rusty street furniture to build more "service" buildings?

Do passing tourists have more rights than the trees, planted a hundred years ago and permanent residents of the City of Light?

Brail is a tree climber that settled in the banana tree on May 30 to draw attention to the tragic end that awaits this specimen and 42 others, some centenarians and others bicentennials, given the project to build five buildings in this zone.

The future redevelopment of the surroundings of the Eiffel Tower aroused a few weeks ago the wrath of environmentalists, who denounced the desire to "cement" the landscaped area of ​​the Champ de Mars, which surrounds the famous tower.

Do passing tourists have more rights than the trees, planted a hundred years ago and permanent residents of the City of Light?

With this action, the Paris City Council seeks to condition the center of the French capital in view of the 2024 Olympic Games. To carry out its project, the authorities have agreed to declassify 950 square meters of classified forest space, as well as privatize public gardens from the city.

Brail is not alone in not agreeing with the municipality's construction initiative.

His organization, Groupe National de Surveillance des Arbres (GNSA), together with four other associations, have launched a petition on Change to demand that the project be stopped: that the trees not be felled and that it not be built in a protected environmental zone .

As I write these lines, they have received more than 140,000 signatures.

At the beginning of May, the City Council reversed its project in part due to the avalanche of criticism.

The councilor responsible for Green Spaces of the Paris City Council, Christophe Najdovski, announced on Twitter that the mayor, Anne Hidalgo, had promised not to destroy any trees;

that the project was going to be reviewed to ensure that each copy was protected.

In the same tweet, she took the opportunity to recall that the initiative also contemplated 1.7 hectares of free space for cement and vegetation, as well as the planting of more than 200 trees, to add to the existing ones.

Brail denounces the project of the Parisian authorities that foresees the felling of 42 trees, some of them centenarians, for the construction of picnic areas, shops and luggage stores around the Eiffel Tower. THOMAS COEX (AFP)

This first concession of public power did not convince Brail, who will be received on Friday, June 3, by the competent authorities.

He and other activists who accompany him want the project to be redone from top to bottom and the guarantee that the gardens will not disappear under the cement.

Brail is hanging from the tree in defense of the surroundings of the Eiffel Tower, but also to sound the alert about what is happening in France.

The banana trees of the Eiffel Tower attract the eyes of tourists and the media and will be amnestied to the delight of locals and strangers.

But without electricity or stenographers to take notes, centuries-old trees are being felled throughout France and with impunity.

It is the finding and the complaint made by your organization GNSA, which receives continuous alerts from scandalized citizens because their city council intends to cut down a centenary tree.

Let Paris serve as an example and a model.