Americans’ indifference to climate change is too seductive
It wasn’t actually my intention to destroy planet Earth when I flew from Germany to Colorado in July for a two-month stint at The Denver Post. But now, like all those around me, I am leading the life of a climate killer.
“Our house is on fire,” says 16year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg who sailed across the Atlantic on an emissions-free yacht to speak at the U.N. Climate Action Summit. She is, of course, referring to a world that is facing the grave threat of climate change — warming temperatures that are caused by people like myself.
From her perspective, I am the girl playing with matches.
Here in Denver, I drive to work every day in an SUV which is far too big for just one person. Even so, the first thing I did when my husband from Munich came to visit me was to rent a second car. Otherwise, he would have to pick up our son on foot from kindergarten or go shopping by bike. Both are part of our everyday life in Germany but would stand out in America as strange behavior.
This is a big nation with big ideas. But also the land of unlimited possibilities to waste energy and produce waste. America is a country I have always looked up to. The Tesla was invented in California. Colorado just introduced a quota for electric cars and could one day be a leader in developing hemp protein as a meat alternative. If there is a country that can make the world a better place by fighting global warming it is the United States. Nevertheless, people in this country have a massively larger carbon footprint than we do in Germany.
Early on in my stay in Denver, I tried to resist the omnipresent environmental sacrilege in the U.S. I tried to reuse at least one of the plastic bags from the supermarket in the bathroom trashcan. At night I would turn off the air conditioning. After spending hours looking for the off button.
These days, though, I have beguntolosefaiththaticanhelp save humanity with the cloth tote bag I brought from Germany. Indeed, the German plan to protect the climate looks downright absurd when viewed from the other side of the Atlantic. A member of the most conservative party in Germany just proposed taxes on cheap flights to get people to use eco-friendly trains more. The governor of Bavaria, Markus Söder, got lambasted when he posted a picture of his huge steak on Instagram.
Top German politicians are seeking to phase out oil heaters and ban plastic bags while the EU is going after plastic cotton swabs. Which is fine. But all that doesn’t even amount to a drop in the ocean — an ocean that will inevitably change our world. America is the nation that has to lead and can lead.
There are, of course, a lot of Americans who don’t think like President Donald Trump does, people whose brains have room for environmental awareness. But they also have no choice but to buy their organic lettuce at Whole Foods in gigantic plastic boxes to ensure they get home safely. In the car, of course. And for every state in America that has, like California, intro
duced a ban on plastic bags, there is another state that has made it legally impossible to pass such a ban. Environmental protection in this country is proceeding in slow motion even as the polar ice caps are melting in fast-forward.
With human civilization heading toward disaster, I could become a passionate follower of Greta Thunberg and follow her example by walking all the way across the North American continent to New York to call attention to the threats that face us. But I have chosen a different path.
I have now lived in the U.S. for several weeks, and I can see how it has changed me. I tell myself that global warming likely can’t be stopped anyway. And I remind myself that 99% of all species that once existed on Earth are no longer here and humans are likely no exception. I hate to admit it, but it’s so darn easy, so seductive, to be harmful to the climate. Why not just blame the fossil fuel industry which is responsible for 71% of carbon emissions in the U.S. and continue with my extralarge carbon footprint, SUV lifestyle in Denver?
I have dedicated myself to fatalism and realized that it’s actually quite fun. After all, I have the example of a huge number of Americans to follow.
Recently, I drove in a Chevrolet Equinox from Santa Fe to Denver. I was all alone in the vehicle, which seemed at least half as big as my Munich apartment and slurped down as much fuel as a German Leopard-2 tank. Outside was the New Mexican desert, inside the air conditioning was going full blast. In the cupholder was an iced caramel macchiato in a plastic cup with a plastic straw. The Cure was playing on the radio: “Friday, I’m in Love.” And I sang along.