In mid-December, five young women were arrested in Berlin for painting slogans on the facade of the Chancellery. “Save Food, Agricultural Transformation (Ge) setz now” was there to read in coarse font. They were climate activists from the “Last Generation Rebellion” group. In the fall, the members already received even greater media attention: during the federal election campaign, they set up a tent camp near the Reichstag. Some went on hunger strike to raise awareness of climate change and to hold talks with the candidate for chancellor.
I ran with the group by chance on a balmy evening. My friends and I went to the “Festival of Lights”, a large, colorful spectacle in which the TV tower, Brandenburg Gate and other landmarks were lit up with moving pictures in the dark. We were early and wasted time not far from climate camp. A group of earnest, emaciated young men passed in front of us toward the camp. They had a cardboard sign that read “Funging Strike”. Parallel lines were drawn under it – one for each day they starved.
In Storks Spezialfutter, environmental journalist Ralph Stork gets to the heart of these questions once a month.
For me it was an encounter that had a lasting effect: while I just wanted to spend a nice evening with friends, they were putting their health, and perhaps even their lives, on the line — driven by the belief that they should save the world at least try. The fleeting encounter stirred up in me a whole series of feelings: fear for the health of the youth; they dread that they saw no other way out; Also respect. At the same time, I felt guilty that despite my sympathies with the climate movement, in everyday family life I was still far from committed to protecting the climate with all my might. And there was a feeling of rejection, because trying to implement the demands of a hunger strike always meant extorting others.
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