Short stories

Chapter Three #NoPlanetB

Dear people.

This is not a story.

This is an appeal.

An appeal to everyone.

" Our house is on fire ! "

Right at the moment, while I am writing this, the girl I am quoting is sitting on a small sailing boat, heading towards the United States, with two skippers and her father.
The journey will last about 2 weeks.
And despite the option of taking an
8-hour-flight from Sweden to New York, Greta Thunberg decided on the nearly emissionfree boat with very little space and a tough route across the Atlantic Ocean.
She decided on taking the stress and strains in order to being able to attend the UN Climate summit and to tell politicians, adults from all over the world:
Our house is on fire.

She's brave.
She's admirable.
I really admire her for her strength, her persistence, her courage to tell the people exactly what they don't want to hear.
I could write a whole chapter about that, but I don't want to praise her now.
I want to appeal.
To you.

I know there are lots of problems and challenges in the world these days:
Famine, poverty, terrorism, homophobia, dictators, migration, Brexit, plastic.
Only to name a few of them.

One problem however is the most pestering:
Climate change.

Melting polar ice,
the destruction of the rainforests,
the increase of natural catastrophes, islands that disappear beyond the rising sea level,
and so on.
I won't name all of the facts.
Too frustrating. 

The worst thing is:
N o t h i n g  changes.

Despite the FridaysforFuture - movement,
despite insistent warnings by professionals, the scientists,
despite so many people who fear the impact of the failure of the 2 degree target, who fear the destruction of their safety, the destruction of their home.

The politicians, all the people who could influence lots of people, they all aren't  changing anything.
Little steps like the ban of plastic straws in the European Union or an elevation of gas prices - by ridicoulous 3 cents - are celebrated as important steps forward.
And don't misunderstand me, these little successes are very important, they are essential to reach something.

But we need more of the big steps like the phasing out of coal and nuclear energy,
a tax on kerosene/ flying,
a prohibition of not only plastic straws, but of plastic in general.

We need more sustainability in all parts of the daily life.
And we need it now, we need all of these big steps now!

Because we are running out of time.

" Our house is on fire ! "

And we've only got about 11 years.

To save our planet.
To save a comfortable life for our children, our grand-children, even for ourselves. 

To save our future.

~

Congratulations to everybody who made it until here. :'D
And thank you for your interest and your patience.
But this topic is one I care a lot about.
Which makes me talk about it emotionally and excessively from time to time.

So finally here comes the part with the appeal in it:

~ What  Y O U  can do to save the climate

• Reduce plastic waste and waste in general.
Reuse packages, ice spoons, milk bottles, ... and don't throw them away immediately.

• Buy organic & regional food.
And NOT the apples from Argentina or South Africa.
What is important aswell:
Buy seasonal food.
I'm sorry, but winter is absolutely not the time to buy strawberries or asparagus.

• Reduce your meat consumption.
You don't have to become vegetarian or vegan. But please think of all the downsides of farting cows, not only for the air...

• Change your traffic habits. 
Use the tram, the bus or the bike instead of your car.
This is possible, my familiy doesn't possess a car and we are doing perfectly well.

And for your holidays, try to avoid flying.
I know Deutsche Bahn seems not attractive at all nowadays.
It often annoys me aswell, to be honest...
Still I wouldn't stop travelling by train.
Just give it a chance.

• Save paper.
Save water.
Save energy.

• Be smart. And abandon a laissez-faire- and I-don't-give-a-fuck-attitude.
Because it'll lead to nothing.
And sooner or later we are all concerned. Everyone.

• And last but not least:
Appeal to other people.
Please.
We have to change something and we can do it.
If we are many people.
The more we are, the better.

So start by tagging other people in this chaper to make them read it.
Or make them read a book with a similar content.
For they are informed and alerted aswell.
I don't care how.
I just care THAT!

~

I know lots of people fear changing their habits.
Or they're just too lazy to do so.

But as bitter as it may sound:
Saving our earth means to renounce.

If everyone lived like us Germans, we would be in need of 3 earths.
But we only have one.
There’s no planet B.
And trust me, nobody of us would like to live in a world that is 2°C hotter than at the beginning of Industrialization.
No. One. Would.

And to all those people who praise the deferral of the phasing out of brown coal forwards to 2038 (Germany):
This is far too late.

We don't have time anymore.

All we have to do, and we really have to do it now, is acting.

Change yourself!
Tell others to change themselves.

And remember:

"We don't need a few people doing zero waste perfectly.
We need 7 billion people to do it imperfectly."

~

Thank you for reading this chapter.

I got inspired by traumaustinte who wrote a chapter on this topic in her book "Menschen".
Thank you for the kick in my ass, I needed it to finally writing this chapter aswell.

[ Published on 24 September 2019 ]