It all seems normal when you look out the window, let that be in downtown Berlin or in the Montana countryside. Maybe it’s raining, maybe it’s not. The news about the killer flashfloods in Valencia, the heatwaves in the Chennai region or the disastrous mudslides in Libya are distant stories compared to the war in Ukraine or the crisis in the Middle East. You feel sorry for the victims. Maybe you even put your two cents about it on your social feed. You feel angry because the life of children is taken. Because countless lives are lost for nothing. And I do agree. You think that those lives are lost because of politics and politicians and their petty games of global Monopoly. And you are probably right.
But let me tell you about another war we are fighting every day and everywhere on this mudball of a planet. A war which doesn’t really fit into politicians’ agenda. A war which doesn’t even exist for 1 out of 5 people in this world, although they are victims of it too. A war which takes an estimated 400000 lives annually. That’s right, that war is called Climate Change. And the 400K victims are just the beginning. Recent studies show that every 10th death in the world is somehow related to pollution, which would total around 6.5 million victims per year. A war which costs USD 16 million per hour in damages to the global economy… And those numbers are exponentially increasing every day and every year.
You could say that it’s distant, it’s far away, we will manage somehow, you can even tell yourself that there is no imminent danger. And that would be #bullshit. You are affected, you are involved.
When you breathe in, you breathe in the fumes of this war.
When you buy coffee or avocado for double the price compared to last year, you pay the price of this war.
When you say it is not affecting me, you are already the victim of this war.
When you straight out deny it, you are just a prisoner of this war.
But who are we fighting this war against? Surely, there is no clear sight of the enemy for most people in this world. As there is no clear site of who is fighting against that enemy. I know what you are thinking: the United Nations or the EU Climate Pact or the Paris Agreement…they are all there to save us. If you bet on these, I’d bet you double that humanity will face the bitter end. For now, they are more the part of the problem than the solution. Spending billions of dollars on goals which mostly fail to deliver results. Spending millions on events with enormous carbon footprints, where the only headline news is that the delegates did not like the service, the traffic or the food of the hosting city. Letting important decisions get derailed by politicians, lobbyists or big money. Then spending millions again on the PR and marketing of those little or no results. #whatashame
Let’s get back to that unknown enemy: look in the mirror now. Smile or frown, but we are fighting this war against ourselves and we don’t stand a chance without you. Classic but very true in this case: until you are not part of the solution, you are definitely part of the problem. Don’t be! #please
And make no mistake: this planet will survive; the only question is if it survives with or without us. There is no rescue team coming. WE ARE THE RESCUE TEAM. Yes. You too.
