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Many thousands of people across Germany took to the streets in search of more climate protection, after a long break related to the crown with mask and distance. The movement considers your concern more urgent than ever.
For the first time in many months, supporters of the “Fridays for Future” movement have taken to the streets their protest for a more determined climate policy on a large scale. Thousands of people participated in demonstrations in many cities in Germany. In Berlin alone, the police put the number of participants at around 8,000, organizers said 21,000. According to the police, around 6,200 people gathered in Hamburg. Thousands of people also joined the protest marches in Dresden, Frankfurt, Cologne, Bremen, Bonn and Göttingen. According to “Fridays for Future”, around 2,500 rallies were planned around the world.
“We are there, but something like that,” said activist Luisa Neubauer at a vigil in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. “We are all cause for hope. Calm down: let’s go!” The movement accuses the federal government of insufficient efforts in the fight against climate change. The amendment to the Renewable Energy Law initiated by the cabinet is not compatible with the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement, criticized Neubauer.
Climate researcher Stefan Rahmstorf told protesters in Berlin that the crown crisis was very great, but that the climate crisis was much more dramatic. They will carry the earth for millennia. Even if carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced to zero, the next ice age, which will occur in about 50,000 years, will fail due to the high content of CO2 in the atmosphere, according to the expert from the Potsdam Institute for Research on the Climate Impact.
“We are young and we need the world”
In Hamburg, three demonstration trains marched through the city at the same time. On the posters appeared slogans such as “Medical confidentiality does not apply to the environment” or “We are young and we need the world.”
Scientists from the German Neumayer Research Station in Antarctica informed the participants of the rally in Bremen via audio messages about dramatic climate changes. These can be felt “very clearly”, especially in the western Antarctic peninsula. Sea level is rising due to melting glaciers.
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who started the protests in 2018, participated in a rally in Stockholm. “We have to treat the climate crisis as a crisis, it’s that simple,” said a 17-year-old. The goal is “to increase the pressure on those in power to change things.” Thunberg wore mouth and nose protection due to the pandemic.
Organizers repeatedly asked participants in the rallies to keep their distance to reduce the risk of infection. In recent months, “Fridays for Future” had mainly moved its protest to the Internet due to the Corona crisis. The rally in Munich had been canceled due to the high number of infections.
Altmaier: people want prosperity
Federal Economy Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) said in Deutschlandfunkthat it is fair that young people express their conviction: “Global warming does not take a breath.” But faster and better climate protection must go hand in hand with economic success, the minister said. “People around the world want prosperity and we must show how wealth can be combined with protecting the climate.”
Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) noted that climate protection had remained on the agenda despite the Corona crisis and had even been strengthened. It plays “a central role in the federal government’s Corona stimulus package, for example, with even greater funding for the switch from combustion engines to electric motors.”
Supporters of “Fridays for Future” are calling for the phasing out of the use of coal and oil to be accelerated to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. From the point of view of scientists, this would require a radical change of direction. In Germany, according to data from the German Meteorological Service, the current decade is around 1.9 degrees warmer than the first decades of records of 1881. The rise in global temperature is estimated at 1.1 degrees.
Green leader Robert Habeck praised the commitment of climate activists. “Today is another sign that society has deeply recognized that politics must change,” Habeck said.
Before the corona pandemic, demonstrations for climate protection had regularly reached six-digit figures in Germany. On the occasion of the United Nations climate summit in September 2019, 1.4 million people participated, according to “Fridays for Future”.
