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Patio heater should be allowed again: At the corona campfire - Column

2020-09-11T16:01:47.706Z


The mushroom heater ban in many cities is shaky. It is remarkable how quickly pragmatism triumphs over eco-dogmatism when the situation is serious.


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Mario Hommes / Eibner / imago images

After the ravioli can and drive-in cinema, the next artifact from ecologically carefree times reappears due to the corona: the patio heater.

Many cities and municipalities are thinking about lifting their ban on patio heaters for outdoor catering as long as there is a risk of aerosols in the taproom.

Virus protection beats climate protection, even with some Greens: "The survival of restaurateurs is more important than energy consumption," says Tübingen's Mayor Boris Palmer.

His colleague Fritz Kuhn in Stuttgart sees it similarly.

Green parliamentary group leader Anton Hofreiter speaks of a "special exceptional situation".

The symbolic benefit of a ban on patio heaters for the global climate is likely to be greater than its actual significance.

Still, I find it remarkable how quickly pragmatism triumphs over dogmatism when the situation is serious.

The patio heater comeback symbolizes the compromises that the crisis is forcing us.

And of "Extinction Rebellion" you haven't heard that much recently either.

I also have to admit that I missed the patio heaters.

In its glowing red glow, those often very interesting people who had been sent outside to smoke came together.

So you stood close to the stainless steel fire, noticed how the blood was flowing from your hot head into your cold feet, and felt like you were in Paris, where every decent bistro had been on the "terrasse chauffée" for over a hundred years Winter is fueled.

But isn't it a crazy waste to warm the open air?

In fact, a patio heater fired with propane gas is not exactly energy efficiency class A +++.

However, if you take into account that propane is actually a by-product of oil and gas production, which used to be flared very often at the production facility, things look different.

According to this, the radiant heaters are not an example of inefficient waste, but downright efficient recycling.

Propane used to be flared.

From this point of view, patio heaters are an efficient way of recycling leftovers.

A sentence that I have often heard from proponents of the patio heater ban is: "There used to be no such thing."

If you want to sit outside in the cold, you should wrap yourself up in one of the blankets that many cafés now hold.

Now I don't know to what extent a blanket would have to be disinfected after use in Corona times before the next guest wraps themselves in it.

The research situation on this is thin.

However, in the 18th century they wanted to exterminate the North American indigenous population using virus-contaminated blankets, so one should be careful.

My hope is that climate-political activism such as the ban on heating mushrooms will be superfluous anyway if a reasonable CO² price is due for all fuels and heating materials from next year, including bottles with liquefied gas.

Drinking beer on a heated outdoor terrace will probably be more expensive.

But before our favorite bar closes because of the pandemic and the nightlife culture in the cities is destroyed, it should be worth the money to us.

Icon: The mirror

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-09-11

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