Good morning, dear reader,
this week is all about protest. And the glue. The people of the Last Generation have targeted the German capital and staged numerous actions. Where organized is too harmless a term. Yesterday they blocked traffic in many places in Berlin, and there was also a temporary standstill on the 100 city motorway. It needed 500 police officers, to prevent greater chaos. In Charlottenburg, officials had to saw through the asphalt because the glue on one of the activists simply couldn’t be removed. “We no longer accept that this administration does not abide by our constitution,” twanged a spokesman for the last generation. “We no longer accept that the government has no plan to stop the destruction of our livelihoods. We are now resisting.”
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The Kleber found no understanding in the governing parties, not even among the climate-moving Greens. Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser from the SPD sharpened their tone and grumbled in the “Tagesspiegel”: “I don’t have the slightest understanding of the actions. The rule of law cannot be danced around on its nose.” Legitimate protest ends where criminal offenses are committed and the rights of others are violated – that is “the red line”. She preferred not to say that the state is playing on young people’s noses and jeopardizing their future prospects by refusing more effective steps to combat global warming and thus breaking its own climate protection law, which can also be seen as crossing a red line.
This is how the activists get further and further marginalized in society – which is not good. Because there is an urgent need for a stronger awareness among the population that we all have to change our way of life as soon as possible. That it’s just not enough to point the finger at the Chinese or the Americans while you carry on as before. And that climate protection is not limited to waiting for the government to make announcements and cushion them with a lot of money so that they don’t hurt too much.
We have lived beyond our means and exploited the planet for decades. Especially here in the affluent West. Now we have to pay the bill. It will be many years before all the wind turbines, solar systems and power grids that are additionally required are in place, enough buildings are insulated, old heating systems are replaced and railway lines are renovated.
We don’t have that much time anymore. The first climate tipping points will probably already be reached in this decade. The longer we wait, the more complex, painful and expensive it will be to take countermeasures. That’s why a social consensus for determined climate protection so important now. It just doesn’t work to lament about the lame politicians over a glass of red wine, but get back into the gas guzzler or the long-haul jet the next day.
So what could climate activists do to transform themselves from nuisances to role models? For example, you could start encouraging as many young people as possible to waiver and to set an example for the older ones. Not only petrol cars and airplanes are harmful to the climate. Many of the popular activities of the under-30 generation are too. Like them Continuous use of digital devices: This massively increases the power consumption and thus also the emission of carbon dioxide. Streaming a film causes as much CO2 as driving two kilometers in a car, Googling 20 times uses as much energy as a lightbulb per hour.
The colleague Susanne Gaschke from the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” puts it this way: “As proof of their climate solidarity, young people could also stop streaming films, googling all sorts of nonsense or posting permanent reels. The Internet has a raging hunger for energy and consumes electricity on the scale of entire national economies every year, and the trend is rising. The abandonment of encryption-intensive Communication that is purely for entertainment would be an excellent sacrifice for the climate. But that would hurt. Climate sticker campaigns, on the other hand, are as much fun as Indian games.” Except for the polemical dig at the end, many could certainly subscribe to that. Possibly even the climate stickers.
