The facts have been on the table for more than 30 years: The climate crisis is man-made, it won't go away on its own and only we can stop the planet from heating up.
But far too little is still being done for effective climate protection.
The decision-makers in the Bundestag are shirking effective climate protection measures, and some politicians are still applying the brakes today, for example when it comes to phasing out coal power.
Even individual changes in behavior - that is, what the citizens could do personally - politicians hardly ever demand. Nobody likes to be dictated to and no party wants to scare off the electorate. That is why climate protection with personal recommendations for action remains a politically taboo subject. Although we have long known what needs to be done - in politics and in everyday life: for example, eat less meat, avoid air travel or even cut subsidies for fossil fuels.
"Dealing with the fact that we have put ourselves in this terrible position with our lifestyle and continue to contribute to it is a very unpleasant thought," says cognitive psychologist and SPIEGEL columnist Christian Stöcker, "then there is a whole Lots of mechanisms to protect yourself from this unpleasant thought. «At the same time, industry and politics have developed mechanisms to put established facts in a worse light.
“Sowing doubts about something that should actually force me to act is a very effective strategy,” says Stöcker, “when it comes to a risk that lies somewhere in the future and there is only a hint of doubt as to whether it will If the risk is really there, the willingness to act is particularly low, ”says Stöcker.
So the individualization of the climate crisis is ultimately counterproductive, because if the laudable renunciation of air travel is in the foreground, the larger problem of a lack of government action fades in the background: “The big boards that we have to tackle are to detach our energy supply from coal and To create framework conditions under which business models that generate CO₂ are no longer lucrative. "
Why is it so easy for us to suppress the climate crisis?
Does it really depend on the individual to do without?
Or isn't that rather a social and political task?
You can hear the answer to the question of why we are downplaying the real dangers of climate change instead of acting quickly in this episode of the »Climate Report«, the weekly SPIEGEL podcast on the state of the planet.
Curious? Then you will now hear our »Climate Report«.