Thomas Giesinger, who has been active in varied ways with Friends oft the Earth Germany for many years, has put it to the test: Are we really living in a climate and eco dictatorship in Germany? Or are we heading toward one? What do the sober figures say?
Many people in Germany and around the world are committed to the energy transition. Many decisions and developments in climate protection are going too slowly for them. What really drives the climate activists up the wall is when contemporaries claim that a climate dictatorship is already in place in Germany - or that we are on the way to it. A guest article by Thomas Giesinger from Friends of the Earth.
Coal phase-out: It is scientifically undisputed that the rapid phase-out of coal is a central component of climate protection. So anyone who dictatorially wanted climate protection to be pushed through would have to start with the rapid coal phase-out. At the coal commission, which met in 2019, (the large and powerful climate dictators Green Party and environmental associations sat at the table with the commission) it was achieved that coal-fired power plants, including particularly problematic lignite piles, may run in the climate dictatorship of Germany say and write 20 more years, until 2038. One was afraid that 20,000 jobs would be lost by the coal phase-out. When 30,000 jobs were lost in the German solar industry around 2010 due to anti-solar decisions by the German government, many of them in the structurally weak Erzgebirge region, no one was afraid. Climate dictatorship?
Wind power: Supporters of the theory of climate dictatorship often cite the "push-through" of wind power. The green-led state of Baden-Württemberg - where one would most likely expect a climate dictatorship and a "push-through" in Germany - is in last place in a comparison of the five large German states in terms of output and second to last in terms of additions in 2021. Climate dictatorship?
Car "bans": at 48 million vehicles, the number of cars in Germany has continued to rise and has reached an all-time high. There is hardly any other country that has so many cars per capita. There is one car for every two inhabitants of Germany. By way of comparison, in the car country USA, where there are people who collect cars like other stamps, there are 108 million cars for every 330 million inhabitants - in other words, one car for every three inhabitants. Climate dictatorship?
Electric car "obligation": of the 178,683 cars newly registered in Germany in October 2021, only 32 percent were electric cars, despite massive advertising and high subsidies. Only 17 percent of all cars in Germany are electric cars. A huge success for the climate dictatorship?
Diesel "ban": It is scientifically undisputed that diesel soot from passenger cars leads to increased health damage, indeed: deaths, especially among residents of the main streets of our major cities. Nevertheless, there are still 15 million diesel cars in Germany. 35 percent of all cars are diesel cars. Climate dictatorship?
Heat turnaround: Two-thirds of our energy consumption and CO2 emissions come not from electricity and not from fuels, but from heating and hot water. The renovation rate for building insulation and newer, more ecological heating systems has been languishing at well under one percent per year for decades. Climate dictatorship?
Energy source for heating: Although gas is a fossil fuel (with massive CO2 emissions), gas will remain the most common form of heating energy in Germany for years, if not decades to come. Even new oil heating systems are still being installed; in Germany in 2021, there were several thousand new oil heating systems in residential buildings alone. In total, there are 4.6 million oil heaters in Germany. Climate dictatorship?
Near-surface geothermal energy is now considered the most climate-friendly form of heating for individual buildings. For new construction areas, the most climate-friendly form is considered to be local heating networks with a heating center, which is either also operated with geothermal heat plus solar or at least with renewable raw materials (wood chips and/or biogas - as in the bioenergy villages of Radolfzell-Möggingen and Liggeringen/Germany). With these technologies, CO2 emissions are largely avoided. I have not found any figures about the current construction of such plants per year. However, I read and hear very little about new plants of these two modern, mature and hundredfold tested environmental technologies. Climate dictatorship?
We are definitely miles away from a climate dictatorship or an eco-dictatorship in Germany.
Cement and concrete produce six percent of CO2 emissions. In the third of Germany's cities and districts that are most densely populated, construction is currently going on like crazy. In many places, the result is the biggest land grab of all time. A prime example (of countless) is idyllic Radolfzell on Lake Constance: between 2015 and 2025, 90 construction projects and development areas will add to or tar over 100 hectares of land. An area as large as Lake Mindel. All previous efforts by the climate dictators at Lake Constance to reduce construction activity have failed. The only things causing area-saving delays are a lack of personnel in city administrations, architectural offices and in the trades, as well as a recent shortage of materials - due to the massive construction. Climate dictatorship?
Factory farming: 20 percent of greenhouse gases come from animal husbandry. Mass livestock farming should therefore be viewed critically, not only because of animal welfare, but also for climate protection reasons. Around 763 million animals live and die in factory farming in Germany alone (as of 2019). Despite criticism and scandals and despite meanwhile 1.13 million vegans in Germany (2021, figures of the Allensbach Institute), the number of animals kept is hardly decreasing. On the contrary: meat grilling is one of the boom hobbies of our time. Climate dictatorship?
Assessment: If someone (such as the Greens or environmental associations) had set out to establish a climate dictatorship or an eco dictatorship in Germany or Baden-Württemberg, and one would have to evaluate the dictatorship-promoting successes of this institution, one would have to come to the conclusion, in view of the figures described, that the greatest dilettantes of the century are at work here. We are definitely miles away from a climate dictatorship or an eco dictatorship in Germany. (TG/hcn)
