Coffee Notes from a Fringe Mind
No, history does not repeat itself. But it does rhyme indeed. This is what makes studying history so important. Because we can draw important lessons from the past to tell us something about our present and the future.
I am a big advocate for project-based learning. To combine these two, I let my students do a sustainability project. To plan the project, I used the existing materials about Man and Nature.
Germany’s minister of Economics seems to be in panic mode. Today, the second phase in a three-stage gas emergency program went into effect. This is an admittance, that the situation does not at all look rosy. The situation shows, how dependent Germany is on Russian gas.
In the last couple of weeks, I found it hard to focus. It has been increasingly difficult for me to juggle all my activities. And I found myself lacking time to practice self-care. If my therapy sessions have brought me to one conclusion, it is that this is a warning sign.
Until now, we westerners have relied on an assumption. Western countries will not suffer too much from the effects of climate change. That assumption is wrong. I believed it as well. After all, we have so many possibilities, that other countries don’t have. We have enormous wealth we stole from our former colonies.
You know that this attack on Press Freedom is real. What you also know is that Assange will never face a fair trial. You know that western leaders and pundits tried to shut up about it.
People buy plenty of cars. Not necessarily out of need. But because we bought into the idea of owning a car. It is a symbol of freedom and self-realization.
Electric Vehicles will not change that.
We do need to become minimalist. Minimalist in the sense that we only buy things, if they solve a real problem for us. Like having a real bed. But we cannot buy into the bullshit consumption.
It likely has not escaped anyone’s attention. Fuel prices have taken a sharp turn upwards recently. In Germany, you can rarely get any fuel for less than 2 Euros per liter anywhere. The sanctions on Russia are restricting supply.
However, Fossil fuel might do a bit of price gouging as well.
If you are in doubt, whether fossil fuel companies were playing dirty, the proof came this week.
