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Three days ago, my hometown Berlin witnessed an event (German news article) that combines several culture war flashpoints into an almost absurdist melange: a cyclist was driven over by a concrete mixer truck (who was at fault is unclear at the moment, initial statements by the police indicate that the cyclist fell over by her own and that the driver could not react in time, though he might still be at fault for driving too close to her), the driver, as he was leaving his vehicle to call for help, was attacked and wounded with a knife by an unknown and currently fugitive
homeless* person, resulting in him needing hospital care, and finally, to top it all off, the special emergency service vehicle purpose built for rescuing people stuck under heavy vehicles was hindered in its approach to the scene of the accident by a traffic jam caused by climate activists who had glued themselves to one of the main highways of the city, losing valuable time and forcing personnel that had made it to the scene to "improvise", in their own words. The woman has died of her injuries today, the driver will survive, as far as is known.It goes without saying that this story has something for everyone: car drivers vs bikers & new urbanists; crime, homelessness and decay of public spaces; climate activists vs people wanting to go about their day without disruption; and of course the extra comedic cherry on top that this happened in Berlin, notorious for incompetence and embarrassing gaffes.
In the days that followed, several notable people weighed in on social media. One particular take by one of the luminaries of German climate activism quickly made waves on social and legacy media for its display of a pretty cold-bloded pragmatism:
(image of the now deleted original)
Now, this guy in particular was always pretty radical, but until now this exact scenario was always waved away as something improbable that no activist of good conscience would allow to happen. As already mentioned, after the backlash he quickly deleted it and apologized, but his output since then has been to basically affirm the content of the tweet in a more polite tone, and the scene around him seems to agree AFAICT.
The last few months have seen an increase in highly visible stunts by climate activists, most notably a constant flow of people gluing themselves to the glass casings around famous paintings throughout Europe's museums. Highway blockades such as the one from this event are becoming a regular occurrence here in Berlin and other large German cities. It seems as though climate activism is becoming more and more serious. Up until now, reactions have been more annoyed than angry, with most people I talked to or saw posting on social media dismissing these activities as childish stunts. This and the rather unapologetic stance of the people involved might change things a bit. It remains to be seen if the reaction will be a decrease in happenings as activists are slapped down by prohibitive fines or a further radicalization. Demographically, the protestor seem to be a mixture of almost entirely urban and college-educated young people and a few younger Boomers and older Gen-Xers. I don't know if that's the stuff which refinery bombers or electricity-cable cutters are made of, but perhaps an event approaching significant eco-terrorism might be on the horizon.
* I remember reading something to this effect initially, but that seems to have been retracted or deleted. For now, nothing but the assailant's gender is confirmed.
On the one hand, there is constant low-stakes disruptive protest or mini-terrorism, depending on what side you're on. Someone possibly died due to it, sad, but numerically insignificant. Yesterday Der Spiegel ran an article (https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/berliner-radfahrerin-nach-unfall-hirntot-druck-auf-klima-aktivisten-steigt-a-1e33ffee-ecd4-47f0-8683-e5c8c696ff79) in which they reported on the event as is, quoting politicians who decry the protest as excessive but also emphasizing that it was the truck that killed the cyclist and that it was unseemly or politically motivated for anyone to jump to conclusions about any causal link between the protests and the cyclist's death.
On the other hand, saving the climate seems to be synonymous with destroying our economy. I don't have the hard numbers here, but banning all energy sources other than renewables and banning combustion engines while promoting electric cars seems like a recipe for disaster in general, and honestly the best recipe I can imagine for accelerated and total disaster in a country the economy of which depends in large parts on exporting cars that foreigners actually want to drive.
This event gives me a glimmer of hope that the public discourse becomes more likely to identify the destructive effects of environmentalism. But by tomorrow it may just as well be gone in a puff of forgettable outrage. Ultimately only two people were hurt here, and most of the country is still comfortable, and our wealth will sustain our comforts for a while yet before things become undone that cannot be ignored.
Or maybe I'm a doomer and the ecos are right; they sure have lots of people agreeing with them. It used to be crackpots and students, then it was housewives and teachers, now it's just about anyone who's not inordinately attached to economic security, and now you even get gems like the FDP (supposedly classical liberal party, often maligned as neoliberal lobbyists) arguing that we need fracking and nuclear power - but not for economic reasons, but to save the climate! Climate ideology has permeated public discourse, and as far as I can see it's impossible to tell fact from fancy in an environment where everyone chants a litany against climate change every time they consider economic questions.
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