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Green with envy

by Andrew Whittaker
December 10th, 2009

If only we were more like the Germans. There’s a phrase little heard, in Britain at least. What would granddad say?

But as COP15, the climate summit in Copenhagen gathers pace, we should all be looking to the Germans for lessons in cutting carbon emissions. Between 1990 and 2005, whilst the rest of the world was still getting clammy about low-energy light bulbs, Germany cuts its greenhouse gas emissions by 18 percent. The United States’ output rose by 16 percent in the same period.

In Germany, being green has become part of the culture. The government took the initiative, implementing green taxes and offering subsidies to citizens who produce their own energy from renewable sources, but the German people themselves have done much of the hard work. They’re hugely nerdy about recycling. They’re anally retentive about turning off lights. And all power to them (renewable or otherwise) – they’ve shown what can be achieved, even in a highly industrialised society.

Environmentalism has become ingrained in German culture in a way that it hasn’t elsewhere. There are several factors at work: the Greens’ role in mainstream politics (so much greater here than elsewhere); first hand experience of environmental catastrophe (acid rain and the Chernobyl fall out); and a long held affinity with nature – a concept they call heimat, a connection to roots, landscape and fertility often (but not quite adequately) translated as ‘homeland’.

Perhaps other countries – Britain comes to mind – have become culturally detached from their environment. What do natural landscapes, particularly those in foreign climes, mean to people who spend their lives immersed in towns and cities?

Comments (3)

Brilliant blog Andrew, and just as thought provoking as Jerry’s previous blog on the bankers.

We like a laugh; in fact we used to be a nation famed for its sense of irony. Now we make boring, profoundly, terminally dull people like James Sodding May and Jeremy Bleeding Clarkson millionaires, multi-millionaires, even. Fatuous people who still, like A A Gill, call environmentalists names that went out of date in the 60s. Weirdos. Hippies.

It’s the admiration these lacklustre twerps inspire that I find astonishing as well as depressing. Their books sell in millions and they don’t give a toss.
It just goes to show that maybe our fabled wit and deprecating charm has actually led us up a bit of a blind alley.

This to-and-fro politics is another symptom of our stupidity, and our inability to want to be informed. Of course there should be proportional representation and we wouldn’t be sniggering at the leaderless Green Party. They would have a voice, and it wouldn’t be the plummy tones of ‘charismatic’ Zak Goldsmith. The thought of him makes me want to vomit bone marrow.

Isn’t there the terrifying possibility that the poor, efficient Germans and their dreadful lack of humour, actually have the last laugh as they start to appreciate the real world and get on and enjoy their life and not just laugh at it?

Posted by johnny bull • 11 December 2009, 01:06

Thanks Johnny - a persuasive reply. Hmm, the Clarkson phenomena. He seems alright some of the time, if massively over egoed. A lot of devotees seem to miss what I suspect is his rather dull, repetitive irony - the 'I'm buying a land rover to kill the planet' line.

Posted by Andrew • 11 December 2009, 08:33

‘Vomit bone marrow’. Excessive?. I understand Great Britain (an BTW we should take off the Great) is a ‘what can I get for nothing’ place now. Simply our Society and our happiness is not based on anything but spending and our inane belief in the Government, the Press and X-Factor. But still we still built the Spitfire [Full stop.]

Posted by Matthew • 3 January 2010, 06:41