3,000 heat-related deaths in Germany every year
In Germany, 3,000 people already die every year as a result of increasing heat. Over 12 million people in this country are at risk of life-threatening extreme heat.
That is why the German Environmental Aid Association (Deutsche Umwelthilfe) is calling for immediate action in 31 of the 120 German cities surveyed in a heat check, including Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Worms in southern Germany, as well as Kiel, Wilhelmshafen and Flensburg in northern Germany. Citizens themselves should call on their cities to do more for climate protection and urban greening. This can be done at www.duh.de/hitze-check. This could cool the cities by three to five degrees.
What can each of us do?
It’s simple: work with the sun. Just do it. Stop talking, complaining or nagging. Just start on your own roof or balcony – alone or together with others. Or, as they say in Swabia: ‘Schaffe statt schwätze’ (work instead of talk). It’s as simple as solar power itself, photovoltaics, or solar heat: sun in – electricity out. Or: sun in – heat out. What will we say to our grandchildren when they ask us, ‘Grandpa, you knew it all along.’
What else can be done? Build with wood, green cities and villages, put trees on roofs, forests in cities, use bioenergy, wind power, hydropower, geothermal energy, tidal and wave energy, save water and protect water, eat less meat, no monocultures and switch to organic farming, and expand public transport. This has nothing to do with sacrifice, but is a win-win for everyone.
Our future therefore does not depend on where the wind blows, but on how we set our sails.
There have long been many useful and helpful ideas for a sustainable Germany and Europe. It has long been proven that every roof, every window, every tile and every façade can produce solar energy. But also that solar panels can be installed along railways and motorways and solar panels can be used for agri-photovoltaics on farmland.
‘Trees on roofs and forests in cities’ is not a utopia, but a feasible vision. Fewer and smaller electric cars, soon to be self-driving, will bring more peace and quiet to cities. And in the future, fewer animals will be kept in cramped stables if we eat healthier. This is not a sacrifice, but a gain for our health.
Your roof deserves to earn money
The energy-plus houses that the ingenious solar architect Rolf Disch has been building in Freiburg and elsewhere for 30 years produce three times more electricity than their residents need and no longer require fossil fuels for heating. Your roof can earn money. Farmers are also becoming energy producers. In the Rhein-Hunsrück district, around 400 wind turbines are in operation, producing approximately three times as much electricity as the 100,000 residents consume. And Munich’s public utility company already produces over 90 per cent of the clean green electricity for the city of two million inhabitants. In just three years, this figure should and can reach 100 per cent.
Source
Franz Alt 2025 | Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
