Germany year zero
Environment — di Tommaso Perrone
It is also the title of a celebrated neorealist film by Roberto Rossellini. A reference more apt than ever, because the climate crisis, in Germany and beyond, is more real than ever.
Germany year zero
It is also the title of a celebrated neorealist film by Roberto Rossellini. A reference more apt than ever, because the climate crisis, in Germany and beyond, is more real than ever.
In the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, there is an active coal power station belonging to the electricity company Rwe, with a capacity of over 4,000 megawatts, fed by a lignite mine extending across 48 square kilometres. That of Garzweiler. A site that has frequently been the target of protests by activists owing to its enormous impact on air and climate, and which, as LifeGate, we reported on the occasion of the climate conference (sic!) held a handful of kilometres away, in the city of Bonn, in 2017.
CO2 without borders
This is the same region that in mid-July was struck by flooding, an extreme weather event made exceptional in its intensity and force by global warming. To this day the death toll remains uncertain, and several hundred people are still missing. It is no coincidence that this is the same region where the coal power station is located — the dirtiest fossil fuel in the world — because, as we know, global warming knows no borders. The CO2 emitted in one corner of the Planet can have devastating effects at the other end. This is also why it struck us to see a country considered as efficient and pragmatic as Germany experiencing — helpless — this tragedy.
++ Eilmeldung ++ In #Erftstadt-Blessem sind Häuser massiv unterspült worden und einige eingestürzt. Es werden etliche Personen vermisst. Aus den Häusern kommen Notrufe, aber eine Rettung ist vielfach nicht möglich. Unser Katastrophenschutz ist vor Ort. Fotos: Rhein-Erft-Kreis
The climate crisis is already here
It is a coincidence, as we were saying, that causes and consequences became intertwined and collided in the same place, but it is no coincidence that the number and intensity of events such as floods or heatwaves is increasing. We knew it before and we are experiencing it now. There are two solutions: act now to mitigate, to reduce CO2 emissions down to zero as quickly as possible, while at the same time putting in place adaptation policies — that is, those needed to save our skins, to survive and to make our homes, businesses and places of culture safe. The climate crisis is already under way. The ongoing debate about the major European climate plan and its ambitions is therefore, to say the least, anachronistic. Not only should it be welcomed with enthusiasm — at last we have a road map for securing our future — but we should all be pushing in the same direction so that these ambitions are only the starting point. The example for other continents to follow.