The Loire-Atlantique department is the leading department for organic milk (here at Bignon, near Nantes). – G. Gobet/AFP

Loire-Atlantique, department in the most ecological way of France, at the time of the controversial airport project of Notre-Dame-des-Landes, who would have thought ? And yet it is she who is leading, in front of the Gironde, Herault, Morbihan, of the 10th record of the ecology revealed by the weekly magazine Life this Thursday. A half-surprise to the extent where it flirtait with the places of honor for several years (2nd in 2010, 3rd in 2012, 4th in 2015).

On the podium in three categories

the Eight main criteria have been selected by the magazine to establish its ranking. The Loire-Atlantique shines in six of them : 3rd in agenda 21, 3rd in waste management, 3rd in protection of biodiversity, the 5th in sustainable consumption, 7th in organic farming and 10th in the energy transition.

The weekly welcome the strong mesh short circuits (59 Amaps, 120 stores fair), 47,000 hectares of cultivated land in organic by producers of more and more numerous, the involvement of the communities (62 % of the population concerned by the agenda 21), a wind energy sector booming, the exceptional sites of lac de Grand-Lieu, the Brière or the Guérande salt marshes…

Bad qualities of the water and the air

Two black points emerge, however : the quality of the water, where the Loire-Atlantic is ranked 54th out of the 95 (high concentrations of phosphates and pesticides), and the quality of the air, where she finished 78th (discharge of oxides of sulphur and nitrogen related to urban and industrial activity).

>> also read : Loire-Atlantique: Should we be concerned about the air quality of the department?

not forgetting, of course, the folder of Notre-Dame-des-Landes, which divides the people and “will glide like a shadow” during the investigation, see Life.

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