As of: February 28, 2024, 4:21 p.m
By: Bettina Menzel
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Electric cars charge at a station.
© IMAGO/Michael Gstettenbauer
Electromobility plays a major role in the fight against climate change.
From the perspective of a mobility researcher, the approach is unrealistic.
At least in rural areas, other solutions would have to be found.
Berlin – From the perspective of scientist and mobility researcher Stephan Rammler, it is high time to do something about climate change.
The topic is not adequately addressed in the public debate.
However, politicians are currently taking the wrong approach.
On the one hand, the researcher accuses Germany of “resource imperialism”, but on the other hand, politics is not doing enough to initiate the fastest possible transformation, said the expert in an interview with the
Tagesspiegel
- and gave concrete suggestions for solutions.
People overwhelmed by the transformation to electromobility: “Car as an expression of an attitude”
Future and mobility researcher Stephan Rammler does not see a rapid transformation to electromobility in Germany.
People are overwhelmed and capitulate.
“They then turn backwards into thinking that 'everything used to be better',” says the researcher.
Driving is once again celebrated as a “symbolic expression of an attitude”.
“Christian Lindner embodies this in an ideal way: He has a Porsche and supports it, he celebrates on Sylt, where you can fly to.
He is also trying to score points in terms of power politics.
The AfD does the same thing, only more radically,” analyzes Rammler.
You need electromobility as an innovation across all modes of transport, a system innovation.
“That means that in the end we would have a greater shift to public transport, much less mass motorization and only a few smaller, electrified individual vehicles,” describes the expert.
Cars should actually become smaller in terms of the environment, but they are becoming larger and larger - also thanks to technical progress.
The German industry is rooted in the culture of combustion, which is why it is so difficult for it to let go.
Mobility researchers accuse Germany of “resource imperialism” – and name concrete solutions
In addition, there is “a kind of green resource imperialism,” criticizes Rammler, referring to the “unhealthy global division of labor” in which Germany continues to use the world’s resources.
“The way we show the world that we are the good guys is not wise.
It’s bigoted,” says Rammler.
The motto with which the Greens would also run is: Everything can stay as it is, it will only be green and sustainable.
“Don’t move less, move differently,” is the motto of the federal government on the topic of sustainable mobility.
Germany has “first and foremost a moral obligation” to reduce emissions as quickly as possible.
Because “the regions of the world that have so far secured our prosperity with their resources, for example in Africa and South America, are now the places that are most affected by climate change,” says the researcher.
What is actually needed is “a much more controlling policy because it is about a major transformation that is as quick as possible.” But speed is particularly difficult for democratic cultures.
The only thing left is a policy that works more closely with the circumstances.
In the foreseeable future, it is unrealistic to believe that “we can expand public transport to be functionally equivalent to automobility in rural regions,” said Rammler.
“In terms of climate policy, it would therefore make more sense to optimize small vehicles with low-consumption combustion engines and to develop two-liter cars for rural commuters.
And in urban areas I would continue to rely on public transport, cycling and e-mobility.”
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Traffic is a “mirror of society”: Why things are becoming more and more aggressive on German roads
Regardless of the topic of e-mobility, according to the mobility researcher, drivers and cyclists are becoming increasingly negligent and aggressive, explained mobility researcher Rammler in an interview with the
Tagesspiegel
.
A study by insurers' accident researchers recently came to this conclusion.
The high level of aggressiveness is an expression of increasingly unforgiving milieus, and it is also about questioning lifestyles, Rammler explained the background.
In addition, “from a psychological point of view, large, powerful vehicles that act like a safe space would tempt people to drive faster and more aggressively,” said the researcher and added, referring to the sociologist Dieter Claessens: “Traffic is a mirror of society. “
The aggressiveness on German streets “has developed for various reasons, but also because it is fueled by the media and also by parts of politics.
“You could do it differently, by moderating, mediating, cooperatively,” says Rammler.
The scientist Steffen Mau also recently blamed politics for the current perceived division in society in the political podcast “The State of the Nation”.
Germany is fundamentally not so divided, but a division is “created from above by political actors”.
The background is the declining party loyalty and thus the attempt to persuade people to vote for a party using emotionalization.