is the English title of an essay on climate change in Freiburg's Saturday newspaper. Your reaction will possibly be one of annoying, ”Another one of those articles describing doomsday; we feel those manmade changes daily, have read about it, and seen it in the movies
ad nauseam.”
However, this time it is different for the subtitle of the essay translated from German reads like the glad tidings of the gospel, ”Why the climate disaster will not come. A plea for a new eco-realism.” And Professor Daniel Dettling of the
Zukunftsinstitut in Frankfurt somehow continues with Apostle Matthew
8:26, "And he said to them, Why are you full of fear, O you of little faith?"
The German word of the year 2018 with the never-ending European summer was ”
Heißzeit (Hot times)” reminding us that in spite of and beyond populism, xenophobia, shitstorms against everything and everyone, as well as data theft there is still something that unites us all: We live together on a heating-up planet. Climate change exceeds our imagination and at the same time touches on archaic patterns of perception of guilt, atonement, and punishment leading to a spiral of fear and hysteria that either discharges into cynicism or into a seemingly artificial rescuer pose.
It is easy for demagogues to deny climate change as man-made while a vast majority finds optimism difficult for it is all too late anyway. German angst tends to exaggerate the issue, so it is no coincidence that a German, Roland Emmerich, brought climate change to the Hollywood screen as an apocalypse when he shot "The Day After Tomorrow" and "2012".
But there is hope as climate change is synchronized with people's minds: the vast majority wants more climate protection. Dettling continues: But still, there is one unifying element missing: optimism for action coupled to the desire for a better quality of life and not to the penalty of renunciation. So the energy question should not be seen as a battle for scarcer resources but rather as a project for technical progress by unleashing the forces of nature.
ENERGY
With a share of renewable energies in the electricity mix reaching a record of 40%, Germany met a milestone last year. Due to governmental funding, millions of houses in Germany are small power plants today. Sure, for many a solar panel on the roof just means a lower electricity bill, but more important is that living in such a house creates an entirely different relationship with the environment. The aim is to distribute, store, and network these renewable energies correctly and isn't "networking" mainstream these days?
And there is new political energy too with the Greens having the wind in their sails. Seeing their future jeopardized young people shouting „Fridays for Future“ all over the world unite for massive protests against apparently climate-lazy governments.
TRANSPORT
In urban areas, traffic is responsible for 70% of the CO
2 emissions. Lately, a discussion broke lose about the NO
x output from diesel engines. Newer worries are about concentrations of fine dust, i.e., particulate matter in urban agglomerations. Although the City of London has practically banned individual traffic, its mayor still describes the situation in drastic terms, "The air in London is a killer.” Poor air quality presents the most significant environmental and health risk for the population.
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CO2 emissions: China has a long way to go |
CO
2 production goes hand in hand with air pollution, and here the people in China suffer massively and painfully. The People's Republic is still burning almost half of all coal worldwide, but by 2050 the country wants to be the leader in green electricity. Chinese leaders have understood that the energy revolution will protect its population, so their evolution of renewable energy is fast. It even goes so far that the government is paying a premium of 12.000 U$ for the acquisition of an electric car.
The preferred public transport is on rail using electricity from renewable energy sources. Also, electric trains contribute, but small amounts of fine dust. It is sad but true that in the transport sector Germany will largely miss its own mark of a 30% reduction of CO
2 until 2020. What are the solutions? To turn people away from using their private cars, free public transport is frequently proposed as the method of choice.
Since the end of 2017, the use of buses has been free of charge at the university city of Tübingen on Saturdays. This pilot project increased the number of passengers by 20%, but there are two problems linked to free public transport: financing and an overload on the existing transport systems. Any subsidizing of public transport will require new revenues (taxes?) and the current local and long-distance rail systems in Germany are already running at their capacity limit now so new lines must be constructed.
NUTRITION
Although the Earth has exceeded 7.5 billion people, all can be feed today. Fact is that worldwide, more people suffer from over-nourishment than from malnutrition. The most significant climate sinners are sugar, meat, and cheap fat. In the affluent societies, too many calories are produced, of which too many are simply spoiled and wasted. So we don't need to intensify agriculture further but rather require intelligent solutions that will serve people, the soil, and the climate. The trend for organic food is picking up momentum, and even in the States meat consumption is on the decline. Red Baron belongs to a group of people called "flexitarian," i.e., once in a while a piece of meat or even better fish but otherwise milk products to satisfy the body's need for protein.
In the end, countries that we today condemn - in soothing our conscience about our own "climate" behavior - as climate sinners will decisively advance the great turning point. China and India are on the way to becoming green superpowers. And although POTUS's withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement efforts to save our blue planet are not only continuing but are intensified in the States on the state and local level.
Professor Detling ends his article on a positive note, "We are witnessing a process in which personal behavior, technology, and politics are gradually synchronized towards a positive outcome. So let us venture a forecast: the 'carbon peak,' the peak of global CO2 emissions, will already be reached in ten years. By 2050, the word "climate catastrophe" will have disappeared from public vocabulary. It will be warmer on the planet, but not necessarily permanently catastrophic ... the post-fossil remediation of our planet needs a social majority with a positive attitude to the future bringing together the things that really belong together. Ecology and economy. Technology and nature. Progress and beauty. That's possible. Wanna bet?"