Ten Commandments for the climate
In Christianity and Judaism, the Ten Commandments are of fundamental importance for theological ethics. Franz Alt has formulated ten commandments for ecological ethics here. They are more offers than prohibitions:
1. By 2035 at the latest, greenhouse gas emissions should be reduced to zero worldwide. The most effective way to protect the climate is to phase out coal-fired power generation quickly. Slovakia plans to phase out coal by 2030, Greece by 2028 and England, traditionally a coal-producing country, by 2025. Why does Germany not plan to phase out coal until 2038?
2. Everything that is newly built should be emission-free. For example, by building more wooden structures. Aluminium as a building material is 128 times more harmful to the climate than wood. More and more Europeans are already building with wood.
3. From now on, the construction of power plants should only be allowed if they use renewable energies. Abolish today’s billions in subsidies for dirty, greenhouse gas-emitting plants.
4. From 2035, only electric cars or cars with other CO2-free engines may be newly registered. California proved as early as the 1990s that this is possible by introducing quotas for electric cars. China, the world’s largest car market, introduced such quotas from 2019. Today, 90 per cent of all newly purchased cars in China are electric. All other countries should follow this example. In California, combustion engines will be banned from 2035.
5. We need to greatly expand public transport. More Skype conferences instead of face-to-face meetings. More home offices. And we need to build less space for houses, roads and industry, but build higher and densify more intelligently. Ecological building does not mean building new, but primarily refurbishing and renovating. From 2025, new industrial plants should be free of CO2 emissions. A timetable for when only emission-free technologies may be sold will drive the necessary innovations globally.
6. About 25% of annual greenhouse gas emissions are due to food production – especially meat products. Did you know that producing a beef soup generates ten times as much greenhouse gas as a vegetable soup? Does meat soup really taste ten times as good as vegetable soup? That is why everyone should follow the rules of the German Nutrition Society (DGE). They suggest halving meat consumption first and then dividing it by three. This also helps to prevent obesity and high blood pressure, slows down climate change and reduces the nitrogen load on groundwater. Climate change must also be understood as a medical emergency. The connection between the climate crisis and our health has been given far too little attention so far. Global warming is the greatest threat to our health in the 21st century, says the World Medical Association. And particulate matter increases the risk of asthma, heart attacks, strokes and diabetes. The way we eat today is making us sick. Today, diet-related illnesses are one of the leading causes of death.
In addition to eight billion people, there are 280 million pigs, 1.6 billion cattle and 33 billion chickens living on our planet today. And this disparity is growing daily. In Germany, more than half of the grain harvest is fed to animals. Worldwide, 70 percent of the agriculturally usable area is used for meat production. The ‘red meat’ of cattle, lambs and pigs is particularly hazardous to health because it is carcinogenic.
Experts agree: there is only one way out of this health and ecological dilemma: eat less meat!
7. We need to reforest the world and turn deserts into green spaces, as the children’s and youth organisation ‘Plant for the Planet’ has been doing in an exemplary fashion for many years. They have already planted 14 billion trees. Their goal is 1,000 billion trees. Young saplings don’t help overnight. But at least something is germinating. Poor Pakistan has announced that it will plant ten billion trees by 2030. The desperately poor Ethiopia holds the world record for planting trees: in July 2019, over 350 million young tree seedlings were planted in just 12 hours! How about the Pope and bishops and all religious leaders calling on their followers to plant trees all over the world? On the day I am writing these lines, the city of Rome decides to plant a hundred thousand trees.
8. We should only vote for politicians who really represent our interests and not the interests of the old fossil-nuclear energy industry or the fossil car industry. Democracy instead of autocracy and sun and wind instead of coal and nuclear.
9. Solar development in poor countries is the best way to prevent unchecked population growth, to overcome poverty and to protect the climate. The rich countries should provide money for this, because they have caused climate change. Climate justice is a human right.
10. We can all buy and throw away less, cycle and walk more, party greener, switch to green electricity, invest money green and fairly. We should finally do what we think is right. Live more simply so that others can survive. Think more and resist stupidity and short-sightedness. We can free ourselves from abundance. This promotes the solar world revolution. The solar age begins and the sun wins.
Realising these commandments requires a great effort. But in the end we will have a better world that is more worth living in for everyone. The fruit of climate justice is peace.
Source
Franz Alt 2024 | Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
