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Climate and federal elections: when will the election campaign come to an end?

2021-08-07T11:28:02.090Z


Apart from book passages there was nothing - the relevant ecological topics have hardly been mentioned in the race for the Chancellery so far. Here are a few suggestions. This and more in a weekly overview of the climate crisis.


Dear readers,

a new Bundestag will be elected in seven weeks.

The time we are in right now is called “election campaigns”, I'll mention that here again because I'm not the only one who still feels next to nothing about it.

So far it has only become noticeably controversial when a dispute arose about the real authorship of book passages, otherwise it is so leisurely that the CDU candidate Armin Laschet is accused of even wanting to go to the Chancellery "in a sleeping car".

Is this perhaps due to the outdated tradition of the German summer slump or is there simply a lack of topics that demand answers from applicants?

Certainly not the latter - in fact quite the opposite, as this current selection of examples shows:

  • This week, researchers published a disturbing finding in the journal PNAS: Measurements suggest that the thawing permafrost soil in northern Siberia releases the extremely climate-damaging methane.

    If the development is confirmed, it could accelerate climate change even more.

    The permafrost soils worldwide are a gigantic carbon reservoir, around 20 percent of the earth's land area is covered by it - and threaten to thaw, as researchers repeatedly report.

  • The melt on the Greenland ice sheet is already advancing rapidly, as scientists reported a few days ago. The ice shrinkage is "massive", last weekend it was said that there are days on which up to eight billion tons of ice disappear, that is twice the usual value in summer. According to a European study published in January, sea levels will rise ten to 18 centimeters by 2100 - or 60 percent faster than previously thought - if the Greenland ice sheet melts as quickly as it does now.

  • The severe fires in Greece and Turkey, but also the still precarious situation in the west of the USA, are making those affected on the ground difficult. The "Dixie Fire" in California alone has meanwhile burned down an area larger than the Saarland. Since extreme weather such as droughts increase with advancing climate change and the risk of fire increases, the current situation can be interpreted as a loud warning signal: The earth has "only" warmed up by a global average of around 1.1 degrees, but it will not stop there.

The weather is currently going crazy in several parts of the world at the same time - and the effects are mutually reinforcing.

If forests burn, bound CO₂ is released, which increases warming, the Arctic permafrost thaws and releases methane, the atmosphere is further heated, which drives the melt.

Enlarge image

Photo: DER SPIEGEL

From a certain point onwards, tipping points in the climate system can shake, from then on irreversible processes can be set in motion (how far this process has already started is the subject of the cover story of the new SPIEGEL, which I would particularly like to recommend to you).

A separate climate protection ministry is not convincing

In the federal election campaign, none of these developments have so far been an issue. Not even the heavy flood in Germany has meant that the climate crisis has taken on a bigger role in the candidate race for the Chancellery (we discussed why this is the case and whether that will change this week in the climate podcast).

Only the proposal of the Greens, in the event of an election victory, to found their own climate protection ministry with the right to veto, succeeded.

A suggestion, however, that is not convincing.

The party makes the same mistake as many politicians before: settling climate protection in a single department has long been out of date, rather all departments - from the foreign ministry to economics to transport and health - must feel responsible for compliance with the Paris goals, if climate neutrality is to be achieved by 2045.

First of all the Chancellery.

A separate ministry for this cross-cutting task is therefore sending the wrong signal.

If the rest of the government puts their feet up, even an upgraded climate ministry won't make much difference.

The accusation against the parties that they hardly raise relevant issues is quickly made.

But do the voters even demand it?

There is still a few weeks left for this.

If you like, we will inform you once a week about the most important things about the climate crisis - stories, research results and the latest developments on the biggest topic of our time.

You can subscribe to the newsletter here.

The topics of the week

Worldwide droughts and floods: Where the climate changes - and where we still have a chance


The best scientists on the planet have calculated the specific consequences of global warming: from the Eifel to Siberia.

The SPIEGEL cover story.

Careers: "Last warning"


Arnold Schwarzenegger was Mr. Universe, actor and Governor of California.

Now, as a climate activist, he wants to save the world from a catastrophe with a donkey and an electric SUV.

A home visit in Los Angeles.

»Climate report« podcast: where is the climate election campaign?


Even several weeks after the heavy floods, a debate about the climate crisis in Germany does not want to pick up speed.

Why is that?

Hear the analysis in our new podcast »Climate Report«.

Outrage over Erdoğan over forest fires: "I will cry with rage"


Devastating fires put President Erdoğan in distress, many Turks accuse the government of inaction: it does not have a single functioning fire-fighting aircraft.

And the head of state?

Throws tea bags at passers-by.

Thawing permafrost soil in Russia: Researchers discover danger from underground methane stores


In Siberia, researchers have found increased concentrations of methane in the air.

The gas emissions presumably do not come from microbes, but from underground caves - and could exacerbate climate change.

Temperatures of more than 20 degrees: Greenland ice sheet melts massively


Because it is unusually warm in Greenland, according to polar researchers, eight billion tons of ice melt there every day - that would be enough to put the whole of Florida five centimeters under water.

Flood protection: Germany can learn from Bangladesh


Monsoons, cyclones, floods: Bangladesh regularly experiences extreme weather and has adjusted its disaster control accordingly.

Climatologist Saleemul Huq explains what Germany could do with it.

Climate protection: Research Minister Karliczek brings the end of domestic German flights into play


Environmentalists have long been calling for short-haul flights within Germany to be abolished.

In the meantime, this position is no longer considered absurd even in the CDU.

With old infrastructure in the area: this woman wants to turn the Ruhr area into Germany's hydrogen factory


The RWE manager Sopna Sury wants to transform the Ruhr area into a showcase region for ecological hydrogen.

Of all things, the remnants of the fossil fuel age are supposed to help her.

Stay confident

Your Kurt Stukenberg

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-08-07

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