Open letter to the federal government

Dear Mr. Scholz,
Dear Mr. Habeck,
Dear Mr. Lindner,
Dear Federal Government,

There has been no substantive response from you to our urgent concerns in the past few weeks. In the current emergency, we experience this as a tragedy for our country and will therefore consistently continue the disruption through peaceful civil resistance, even if we do so in view of the needs of our fellow human beings, who we know in their everyday lives and on the way to work interrupt, can only be very sorry.

But what are we left with?
We started talking to you, Mr. Scholz, in November; we have tried demonstrations, petitions and all other means of protest provided by the state for decades to avert the emergency we are facing. These attempts failed.

According to the World Climate Council and the most renowned scientists only have a few years left to stop our civilization from collapsing, and only a socially just emergency economy is able to achieve this. Only it is able to avert the economic, social and ecological catastrophe that is looming over us - provided we act immediately. Provided YOU act immediately.

We need appreciation for our country and all fellow human beings, our livelihoods, our food, our farmers so that we do not end up in famine. We need economic stability through a transformation and reduction of transport, the energy sector and building construction. We must massively expand renewable energies through public intervention, insulate buildings and rely on the best available technology, while not losing sight of the goal: a stable world.

The Federal Constitutional Court said in its climate judgment - 1 BvR 2656/18, Rn. 33:
“The further increase in the CO2 concentration in the earth's atmosphere can be limited primarily by reducing further CO2 emissions in the sense that the creation of such greenhouse gas emissions is avoided, for example by refraining from burning fossil fuels.”

In this time in which we have to quickly reset sails and reduce fossil fuels, it is obvious: we simply can least afford to further expand the destructive fossil infrastructure, oil and gas from other bloody dictatorships like Qatar to import or to drill for it in the North Sea. The catastrophes of the last few years, the floods in the Ahr Valley and, last but not least, the war in Ukraine have shown that every euro invested in new fossil fuel projects is a death sentence for us or people close to us in the foreseeable future.

Fossil fuels have led us to this predicament and their expansion will only make the catastrophe worse.

It's not necessary either. Consistent cost-cutting measures such as a speed limit, attractive public transport and rapid insulation of our houses make us independent of Russia and North Sea oil from the national park. This also shows one Energy Watch Group study from 2021, which clearly states that even switching to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030 is possible with efficient planning and savings measures.

We therefore very much welcome the introduction of the 9 euro ticket and can only recommend making local transport permanently free in the spirit of the necessary transformation in order to preserve the livelihoods and mobility needs of poorer families.

These are just individual steps – we now have to tackle the big picture. This may seem difficult at first, but as the window of opportunity is rapidly closing, we see a path out of this crisis into a world in which we can expand our democracy and our prosperity - but our federal government's policies are currently blocking this path.

Last year, randomly selected citizens from all parts of society met in the Climate Citizens' Assembly and were able to very quickly agree on effective measures to limit global heating. This process, a democratic milestone, showed how far the population is willing to go. Now it is up to the federal government, which has also committed itself to citizens' assemblies, to meet these democratic demands.

Instead of just trying to do what seems feasible in the current political climate, we must now dare to do what is necessary in order to preserve what is vital. The destruction of our society is not subject to feasibility considerations - because it is not an option.

We remain willing to peacefully risk everything – our personal safety and even prison time – to lead our society out of this climate emergency. It has been scientifically proven that the window of opportunity in which we can act is closing dramatically quickly, which morally obliges us to choose the most strategically effective path of peaceful civil resistance. In doing so, we appeal to the ideas of justice of our fellow human beings - including you. Of course, we are committed to always acting peacefully and training ourselves in non-violence - even as we become more and more human. Not least because we are aware that otherwise we would have failed in our endeavor.

We are aware that opinions about us also differ within the federal government. While you, Mr. Habeck, recently expressed your “full respect” to us in a personal conversation, you, Mr. Chancellor, presumably compared us with the National Socialists at the Catholic Convention a few days ago. We understand that our disruptions and communication may cause irritation to you. It is therefore important for us to emphasize once again that we criticize the federal government's behavior as irresponsible and do not want to offend individual people.

But what happens next?
In the past few weeks, we have peacefully interrupted the deadly flow of oil by turning off pipelines with our names and faces countless times. While we received great approval from the population, we also had to realize that this means was not able to significantly shape the public discourse or bring about the necessary reaction from those responsible, but instead caused public disruption through the interruption everyday needs.

As a result, from June 18th we will once again disrupt peaceful civil resistance in Berlin with motorway blockades and at the same time we will once again urgently ask you to protect our lives.

We do not take to the streets to disobey the law, but to protect the law, to preserve the constitution and the rule of law. We don't like doing this, but we feel compelled to do so because we see it as the mildest means we have after exhausting all other democratic options. At the same time, as in the past, we continue to be willing to talk at any time.

As a society, we are swimming in stormy waters and the fossil infrastructure is a burden that is already far too heavy. We will therefore peacefully resist the expansion of fossil fuels, but are ready at any time to interrupt the disruption if you as the federal government agree not to press ahead with any new fossil projects such as oil drilling in the North Sea as a simple and logical first step, and to respond flexibly to the political ones at any time react to circumstances.

With friendly urging
Leah Bonasera
Henning Jeschke
Melanie Guttmann
and supporters of the last generation