We are eco hypocrites

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People in the affluence zone make food, live, travel, and I remember something of a high moral deed. But at the same time they are hypocritical that the beams bend. Everyone complains about the negative impact of flying on the environment – but they travel endlessly. Everyone deplores the negative impact of fine dining on CO emissions.₂balance – but star restaurants are growing like mushrooms after rain. Everyone condemns oil and gas heating – but the living space per wealthy citizen is growing inexorably.

We wealthy citizens are masters of self-deception. We embellish the luxury life by eating vegan, Colorado.₂-Buy certificates and plant (or plant) some trees anywhere in the world. We are pardoners, more modern: greenwashers who don’t admit it to themselves. Why

Freedom becomes frivolous, cynicism turns into moralism

Peter Sloterdijk, a prominent thinker from Germany, tells our story in a new booklet (“Prometheus’ Repentance”). It happens like this – in fast forward. Phase 1: Humans exploit humans, dominate serfs first, muscle power becomes available. The economic departure of a very few begins. Phase 2: Slaves are replaced by workers who work for the capital owners. Some continue to grow. Phase 3: The exploitation of nature replaces the exploitation of man by man. People use fossil energy, fire and flame in connection with engineering become the driving forces of modernity – mass prosperity arises. Phase 4, present: Few still hard working, enterprising people, but the crowd of consumptive and leisure maximizing refuseniks is growing. Freedom becomes frivolous, cynicism turns into moralism. And everyone denies that all modern luxury life is based on the burning of underground forests, which are guaranteed not to do one thing: not grow back.

Let’s stop the greenwashing madness first

After Sloterdijk we came to the border. Dangerous eco-terrorists dream of a return to a harmonious coexistence with nature that never happened. Also hopeless are the fugitives who dream of civilizations beyond planet Earth that will never be. There are representatives of the ecological intelligentsia. They rely on the ingenuity of the human spirit, which develops new, sustainable, technologically advanced models of life in today’s environmental stress.

So let’s stop this madness first. And then, in the words of Sloterdijk: Firefighters of all countries, contain the fires!

René Scheuil is a philosopher and director of the Swiss Institute for Economic Policy (IWP) in Lucerne. He writes to Blick every second Monday.

Source: Blick