Geodiversity and anthropocene landscapes: from abandonment to new perceptions. Some European coalscapes trajectories
Résumé
Covering 29% of the world energy needs in 2012, coal is at present the second energy resource of the humanity, behind the oil (31%). It is the first source of electricity with 40,4% of the production in 2012. Coal was used as fuel from the XIth century; its extraction made the industrial revolution possible at the end of the XVIIIth century. Coal is an essential element featuring "the anthropocene event" (Bonneuil and Fressoz, 2013). Its exploitation, today more or less passed in Europe, has transformed some places and left marks that constitute a major component of the energy landscapes. Often associated with an economic decline and thus vector of a negative image (social movements, hardness of the work of collier, pollution, economic fall, unemployment, abandonment of areas), these places are today reinvested by three new heritage status: industrial heritage, recognized at the end of 1990s (Bonerandi, 2005), ecological and geoheritage, recognized at the dawn of the 2000s. These new appreciations have brought about an aesthetic renewal of the coal landscapes: after a polluting industry, they become ecological landscapes with significant environmental qualities. These landscapes of margin, often abandoned, are recognized as living environment, with leisure and nature activities. This paper aims to reconstituting the landscaped trajectories of these “coalscapes” recently rediscovered.