Good news: Germany’s “climate rescue” plan is light years away from FFF demands, thus postponing economic suicide leap, Bad news: plan means considerable hardship for German consumers and economy.
Haunted by visions of a climate collapse, German government yet decides to postpone its economic death leap, instead proposes highly watered down climate-rescue plan.
FFF’s draconian demands
The Fridays for Future (FFF) movement is sweeping across Germany. Media reports claim more than a million people attended rallies and blocked streets in dozens of cities throughout the country yesterday. The demonstrators’ demands are clear: Away with cars, industry, meat and plastic, etc. In short: Economic suicide.
Merkel announces “climate rescue” plan
And spooked by the gains made by the Greens in recent EU elections, the German mainstream Socialist SPD and Conservative CDU parties have been scrambling to take climate rescue really seriously. “No more playing around,” they declared. Angela Merkel’s CDU-CSU/SPD coalition government announced “an immense act of strength” would be taken to combat climate change.
From that point on Germany has been on economic suicide watch with the country watching in suspense.
No economic death leap
After having met some 19 hours in a “Climate Cabinet” meeting, the suspense ended yesterday as Chancellor Merkel’s government compromised and announced its long-awaited bold plan. The promised “act of immense strength” plan, however, turned out to be every thing but, and is light years away from what the FFF movement and climate cultists had been demanding.
Though the package promises more economic hardship and environmental destruction, the country at least as put off its economic death leap – for the time being.
The German plan forsees higher fuel prices for consumers, 10 million electric cars by 2030, a network of one million charging stations, an air traffic tax, cheaper train tickets, and more solar panels and wind turbines. Read here.
German industry already reeling from the Green onslaught
But already the now high energy prices and massive attack on fossil fuels and the automotive industry have been causing Germany’s precarious economy to enter a nose dive.
Germany’s once powerful automobile industry – the backbone of the country’s economy – is already reeling. The entire industry is under “massive pressure”, says Axel Dransfeld, head of restructuring at Brandl, and automotive supplier. German online NTV reports how workers at a number of automotive suppliers have not been getting their wages: “Just how dramatic the situation is is shown by the appeal made by IG Metall [trade union] spokesman Thorsten Dellmann at an information event for employees: ‘Let’s all pray that money will come.'”
Greens, FFF activists outraged by government’s plan
The Greens and FFF movement in Germany reacted to Merkel’s timid plan with outrage. For example, green lobbyist Volker Quaschning tweeted he couldn’t eat as much as he’d “like to vomit” and that it’s “a black day for the climate”.
FFF German activist Luisa “Longhaul” Neuerbauer retweeted Quaschning’s comment. Many activists are stunned and speechless by the timidity of Merkel’s 100-billion euro climate plan. However, the student protesters are absent from the streets today (Saturday).
“Collective psychosis…”wild fears and demnds”
Interestingly, some German climate alarmists are becoming alarmed by the hysteria the demonstrators have been showing on the streets and by the sheer uncompromising vehemence of their demands.
One RTL West reporter, Jörg Zajonc, commented “not only is our Earth doing poorly, but so is our understanding of freedom and responsibility. […] What I’ve also massively experienced today borders on a collective psychosis, paired with wild fear and demands. Ever shriller, ever louder, ever faster”.
Like the 1930s?
Zajonc also added that feasibility is being replaced by ideology, and anything that disagrees is getting labelled “criminal and so must be outlawed”.
He comments that the nation is becoming irreversibly divided by the extremism. Anyone expressing common sense is getting labeled “an enemy of the environment, a denier, someone who needs to be morally punished”.
The demonstration shell-shocked RTL West reporter Zajonc says: “I can barely believe any of it.”
Zajonc summarizes: “Freedom, democracy, liberal thought – all of it being sacrificed .. […] and everyone is enthusiastically cheering it on. What a development.”
We may not like it but the overwhelming majority of German voters want more pain, more poverty, more austerity and deprivation in their quest to Save the Planet. It may be foolish and ignorant, but it is what the people want.
I say “Listen to the people. Give them what they want so that Germany may become an object lesson for the world of what economic suicide looks like. Too bad for a once great culture, but a wonderful learning tool for the rest of the world. China and India and Russia will laugh and applaud as they will inherit the Earth”.
As an Brit and a Saxon cousin , it is just awful to watch as Merkle and her crazy policies are set to destroy Germany. I am gladdened to hear that at least the government has watered down the cultist greens proposals and bought some time. Daily new research findings are battering the climate alarmist doomsters theories to bits. Perhaps ! Just perhaps rationality will breach this out of control madness.
I say at young people and student: clean your life, don’t use smartphone, gym shoes, jeans, don’t use your personal computer, sattellites tv, play station, don’t use everything that today you contest, please. Everything that you use are fossil fuels, because everything are petroleum derivate, also solar panels, wind turbine and battery. Coerence, please, young people… Than, when you’ll be clean but poor, when your father and mother will not have work, when you’ll have cold or hot, when you’ll have hunger, silence, please, silence! You are a greenboys!
I agree with essentially with all that you say. You are right Regrettably, I think the lesson will be lost on the irrational factions in the remainder of the West, who will cheer us on to our civilization’s demise.
For the irrational, belief replaces understanding. Friedrich Hayek observed and was of the opinion that a person cannot be educated out of belief. That was the trouble with socialism’s rise in the 1930s (which much of this climate hysteria parallels). It was, and still is, a belief system.
I don’t think it is wide-spread conviction by the masses. People don’t care about the subject, they want to be politically correct, socially accepted.
So underlying the compliance of the masses is laziness and cowardice which has two roots:
(1) the seminal passion of Germans for obedience (Obrigkeitsgläubigkeit – a passion to believe in the powers that be), and the fact that
(2) the people enjoyed good governance (thanks to the victors of the 2. World War, who imposed reason and decency and an open-society on the Germans) for the first 30 years of the Bundesrepublik.
You then get a kind of political Minsky-effect: stability breeds instability.
30 years of good governance encouraged Germans to do what they like best: simply uncritically follow the powers that be. And so people accepted political correctness which is inherently authoritarian and potentially totalitarian, instead of defending an open political culture (which is alien to the Germans).
The result is Selbstgleichschaltung of the German masses, meaning the people are eager – of their own accord, in a proactive way – to become part of a uniform community, hoping to please their leaders or the spirit disseminated by them among the broader population.
The willingness to follow is the key – not conviction, in terms of convictions the Germans are highly malleable.
‘I don’t think it is wide-spread conviction by the masses. People don’t care about the subject, they want to be politically correct, socially accepted. ”
Yeah. But the German masses keep voting for Green policies… their votes are private, so there’s no social pressure when they vote… they vote because the believe in Climate Hysteria and endorse de-population, just as they welcome hoards of angry refugees from American wars. No one is making them do this.
By contrast the French take to the streets and vehemently protest; American politicians who run on Green platforms ALWAYS lose; the leadership of the Dumocratic Party doesn’t want candidates talking about a Green New Deal for that reason… even Green Australian politicians lose
But The Germans (and Scandinavians) are overwhelmingly, “True believers” and must be taught the error of their ways by giving them exactly what they demand. Unfortunately. Just the way children who insist on de-carbonizing the economy must learn by similar methods (though many will not survive the consequances)
Posa, where do we differ?
Die Geschichte wiederholt sich.
History repeats itself as nations / peoples have a culture and unfortunately the lessons from history are rarely learnt.
Very true.
“Interestingly, some German climate alarmists are becoming alarmed by the hysteria the demonstrators have been showing on the streets and by the sheer uncompromising vehemence of their demands …”.
Climate Change was simply a political tool, their reckless rhetoric has caused this, those alarmists don’t want to own what they started.
The demographic changes (unintended ?) coming to Germany will be substantial. Other places will benefit as capital and talent find new homes.
The State of Washington has had a history of water power.
The little coal power is being closed. There is one nuclear plant, many wind facilities, and ‘waste’ product thermal.
Any company that needs low cost electricity may want to consider Washington State as a destination.
Nothing stopping the FFFF from setting up a little enclave with ZERO CARBON. (I’ve lived like that for a few years and it’s challenging and fun.) But that would have the same effect on climate as if Germany as a whole went Zero Carbon…IT WOULD BE IMMEASURABLE.
They would have to send all the immigrants home though…with a devastated newly agrarian economy there would be insufficient wealth for welfare handouts.
So there would be one positive effect of a de-industrialized Germany…fewer rapes.
[…] view in Germany. Hovering on the brink of recession and […]
Considering the fact that Germany got a taste of “regime-change” in 1932, as Wall Street’s Granpa Prescott Bush, Bank of England chief Norman Montague, pumped money into the election of an Austrian.
We have seen a touch of this recently with Kiev, boasted to have cost the American and British tax-payer $5 billion over 20 years. Look what they put in power, again.
Years after WWII a well-known liberal economist Abba Lerner admitted, before camera in a 1971 NY public debate, that “if the Germans had accepted austerity, Hi*tler would not have been necessary”.
Bank of International Settlements chief Hjalmar Schacht as finance and economics minister authored the final solution. Schachtian austerity is still a favorite in the EU, and elsewhere.
China is getting a taste of this with Honk Kong right now – Joshua Wong and Denise Ho are, unfortunately, necessary, to topple Xi.
If Germany had accepted the Morgenthau plan, a pure agro-economy, Greta and the greens would not have been necessary.
The very high minded, as Lord Bertrand Russell put it, say “what of it” as population is culled. It is very unfortunate the very high minded have to resort to child abuse to destroy civilization, but only the very high minded can handle such mass murder, what?
LOOK! SQUIRREL!
Just kidding. It’s only the Australian government running out of other people’s money.
http://joannenova.com.au/2019/09/bubble-pops-australian-renewables-investment-down-80-as-ret-subsidy-ends/
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