“My partner calls it my ‘obsessions'”

“You know it’s the ladies who do that?” It is 6 o’clock in the afternoon, in the middle of February. Etienne sees his companion, Aude (all our interlocutors requested anonymity), go around the apartment to close every shutter, as night falls. It seeks to conserve heat without touching the thermostat. If it was up to him, he would just do the surgery “+” of the radiator. This scene of everyday life is a new type of “mixed couple”, of which Etienne and Aude are a part. Those who are out of step ecologically: one seeks to reduce its carbon footprint, the other less so.

The topic of weather makes headlines and stays parallel in the intimate sphere of the two lovers: “In the past, ecology was an unquestionable choice that we could put away. Today, in the face of fire, drought, epidemics … we feel undoubtedly affected, and some make a lifestyle that becomes difficult not to share with a spouse.begins David Faure, author of the article “For an ecological turning point in psychosociology”, published in New Journal of Psychiatry in 2022. Food, holidays, housing, travel, children, etc., there are few important questions in the life of a couple that are not affected by the environment and which are all areas where we can take action by modifying our behavior. When ecology is placed in the marriage bed, minor frictions are never far away.

If you are rarely in a relationship with someone whose commitments are very different from your own, such as in a political matter, there may be differences, which change over time. Etienne has “ecological awareness” which he has been developing for a few years, but his level of involvement is not the same as Aude’s. When he meets this woman “very environmentally friendly” in August 2022, he is beaten by “a type of high demand in the application of certain principles”. On the environmental symbol front, Aude is definitely more “attention” than him. He eats vegetables, wears only Emmaüs, prefers trains to planes. He prefers small shops made in France, uses animal products, minimizes his air travel but is reluctant. He is “very accurate planner”when he realizes that he could make an extra effort to put his waste in the right bin.

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