Usually shunned by the German mainstream media, today moderate, rational voices on the issue of climate change are beginning to be heard on the air waves once again. This may be temporary. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Leading German climate science critic Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt. Image: Die kalte Sonne
For example, just days ago, leading climate science critic Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt was interviewed by NDR German public radio’s Anke Harnack on the topic of climate change. As protests by yellow vests in France and angry farmers in the Netherlands intensify, perhaps the establishment in Germany is having second thoughts about going down the hysterical climate rescue path that has been forcefully advocated in Germany over the recent months.
Prosperity based on “reliable energy supplies”
In the interview Vahrenholt, a leading founder of Germany’s modern environmental movement, tells the NDR that following the demands made by Greta Thunberg would put global prosperity at risk and exacerbate world hunger. He says the amazing improvement human society has seen over the last 100 years is thanks to “reliable energy supplies”.
“Huge, huge difficulties”
“Shutting these down in 12 years would indeed throw us into huge, huge difficulties.”
Vahrenholt says all the recent “panic is leading policymakers into making errors and will lead to disappointment for the youth because it is not doable.” He adds changing over the green energies is needed ultimately, but this cannot be done over a short time period of a decade or two. He says “we need two generations” to get off fossil fuels and that it’s going to require “more innovation and research in order to get CO2 emissions down to acceptable levels by the end of the century.”
Vahrenholt, the former director of renewable energies company Innogy, says he is also puzzled over why Germany refuses to do research on fusion and remains so fixated on unstable sun and wind. Vahrenholt was one for the 500 scientists who recently signed a letter to the UN declaring that the planet was not facing a climate crisis.
97% consensus claim distorted
On the claim 97% agree that man is behind global warming, Vahrenholt says this figure has been completely misrepresented, and that it is in fact “only a handful of scientists” who say that man is 100% responsible. Many scientists say that man is only partly responsible.
Chinese are laughing
The outspoken German professor of chemistry says giving in to the demands of the radical greens would lead to a deindustrialized Germany: “In the end what’s left is a deindustrialized Germany, and the Chinese are laughing their heads off.”
Leaders lack courage
On the large Fridays for Future protests, Vahrenholt says: “It’s not surprising because currently hardly a teacher, hardly a journalist, hardly a scientist has the courage to say: ‘Dear millions of people, we find it nice that you’re concerned about the climate, but let’s really discuss among each other what really needs to be done, and how much time we have.’ This really annoys me. I may not always be right, but I’m pretty sure that the alarmists are not right.”
