a little paint

On the way to work I stopped by the Brandenburger Gate to check out the recent paint job. The Last Generation restarted their protest after a summer break by spraying paint on the landmark. Unsurprisingly the reaction from politicians was shrill. The Brandenburger Gate will get cleaned (see extra) and fixed just like the damage somebody recently caused by running their car into one of the pillars. Dealing with the CO2 that we have released into the atmosphere in the last century or so is more tricky. There are some low hanging fruit. The German state heavily subsidises car use but struggles to find money for the Deutschland Ticket which is valid for all regional public transport. Another easy win would be to introduce a general speed limit on German motorways and reduce the speed limit in towns. Inland flights, especially private flights should not be a thing. Next on the list is dealing with ever increasing car sizes. Trickier because of longer time frames is dealing with domestic heating. Dealing with industrial emissions is still trickier. There are solutions like using hydrogen to produce steel. Strangely enough a general speed limit and a 9 Euro public transport ticket were on the Last Generation's original list of demands. They have upped them now and are demanding to end fossil fuels. 

All this has to happen. We are already witnessing the effects of global change: draughts, floods, storms and spread of diseases. We might think that we can just spend our way out of it. Some might, most (including many in the global North) won't be able to afford to. In any case environmental conditions are getting worse in the global South and are a driver for mass migration (along the effects of colonisation). We have to either live with migration or accept militarisation of our borders and the countless deaths in the Mediterranean Sea and elsewhere. 

I take the paint and have huge respect for the protesters glueing themselves to the streets. It is the politicians who are failing us by ignoring these crises. I think I will need to put a book on the suffragettes on my reading list to see how they managed. I gather glue and paint wasn't sufficient.