The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Greta Thunberg arrives in New York: Interview with Boris Herrmann

2019-08-28T17:02:17.872Z


The CO2 balance of Greta Thunberg's Atlantic crossing was sharply criticized. Skipper Boris Herrmann tells in an interview how Thunberg and his crew deal with it.



The United Nations has announced a brilliant welcome with 17 sailing ships: For 14 days Greta Thunberg, her father and the crew of the racing yacht Malizia II were on the Atlantic Ocean. This Wednesday, they are to arrive in New York, where Thunberg wants to attend a climate conference and later travel to the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

In advance, Thunberg had been sharply criticized for having announced her crossing as emission-free. She specifically decided against traveling by plane - but then it turned out that crew members have to fly to the US to sail back the Mailizia II.

Der Spiegel came to Herrmann on the evening before arriving in New York aboard the Malizia II.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Herrmann, you are only a few nautical miles away from your destination. How was the trip?

Boris Herrmann: The atmosphere on board is good, today we have calm seas and a light breeze, we are making good progress. In the past days, the weather was very volatile, we needed gloves and hat on one day, and then the bathing trunks again. But right now is really a nice moment. Besides, we just had lunch.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What was there?

Herrmann: We eat astronaut food on board, you open the bag and pour warm water over it. That sometimes tastes quite good.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How did you experience Greta Thunberg during the crossing?

Herrmann: We are very exposed to nature here, but Greta has been very brave and efficient during this journey. She never complained and had no signs of seasickness, which is absolutely amazing. We are very proud of her.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: In the run-up to the trip, journalists recalculated the carbon footprint of Thunberg's journey - with the result that a flight to New York would have been more climate-friendly overall. How did you deal with this criticism on board?

Herrmann: We can simply switch off our satellite phones here on the boat, then we are cut off from the rest of the world. Sometimes that works quite well. Of course we got told by our team that there was some criticism. The discussion about the flights of the crew is very limited to Germany. There is not much talk about it in other countries.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The passage with the sailboat should be a sign that emission-free travel is possible. Instead, critics now accuse you of causing more climate-damaging flights for the crew than if Greta Thunberg had boarded a plane alone.

Herrmann: Oh, these are basically old chimneys, that's all there is to it. There are two things getting mixed up. For one, there is Greta's journey from England to New York, which is CO2-free. And then there's the crew of Malizia II, a professional racing team. We can not operate completely emission-free. We have to fly and make no compromises. But Greta is not Team Malizia, she has no responsibility for what we do.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Many people see exactly that differently - in the eyes of their critics Greta bears the responsibility.

Herrmann: We did not notice this criticism here. We think it's good that the topic is being discussed. This discussion also shows how difficult it is for people to live emission-free. Of course I can not speak for Greta. But their point is not to tell other people how to behave. She wants to make an example, to send a political message. Of course, the world does not change, because Greta Thunberg sails across the Atlantic, which she sees relatively realistically.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You say, Greta does not change the world. Nevertheless, you have embarked on this journey. Critics speak of a PR coup.

Herrmann: No, that's not the point at all. I believe that the influence that Greta Thunberg and the movement behind her have on our awareness of climate protection is enormous. Same for me. That we are going on this journey is incredible. If someone had asked me two years ago, "Do you make a politically motivated journey to climate protection?", I would have answered: "No, we are a racing team, that's very far away." Greta is an incredible catalyst for these ideas. This political movement has a strength that has not existed in recent years.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: In retrospect, would you like to have done something different, changed your PR strategy?

Herrmann: No, we have no PR strategy, we are just a racing team. We help Greta, we want to carry on her message. But we do not want to gloss over anything, but honestly say how it is. For many people, the climate movement is a whole new topic, they must first decide how they rate the thing. That's why it's important to talk to each other.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2019-08-28

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.