To the society, to its citizens,

We call for vivid participation in the upcoming protests of the August RiseUp in Berlin 2021. Policy makers must take immediate and strict action to address the ever more fastening ecological and climate crisis.

More than 50 °C in North America. 40°C inside the arctic circle. A tornado in the Czech Republic that hurls cars through the air like feathers. The global north has been responsible for the biggest share of climate heating. In mid-July ytd, Germany’s west was hit by unprecedented flooding. This weather event, which claimed over 180 lives, once again brought the climate crisis very close to home. The links between increasing severity and frequency of weather extremes, due to man-made climate heating, are scientifically undisputed and observable for everyone. Furthermore, the federal government has recently worked out a water allocation plan: We will have to expect a shortage of drinking water in our country. Our forest’s health is heavily affected by the immense droughts that came over Germany in the last years, and there is no indications that this trend will begin to slow down anytime soon.

Germany is scarred by the corona pandemic, the emergence of which, according to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, is highly likely to be linked to the heating of the climate. The probability of further pandemics breaking out is high, and the damage to society and the economy is immeasurable. This is shown to us by the consequences and effects of the corona pandemic which we have just experienced and which are still far from being overcome.

Every tenth of a degree of warming leads to further irreversible consequences. Recently, a draft report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned again of these consequences. If the climate warms by 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial level, 350 million people will be affected by drinking water shortages. If the climate heats up by 2°C, up to half a billion people will suffer from extreme heat by 2050. Many millions will suffer hunger, lose their homes and livelihoods, incomprehensible amounts of people will die, many people are already dying daily. Extreme weather events with incalculable damage, as now in Germany, will also become more frequent and lead to further suffering, deaths, and heavy economical damage.

Too many politicians have still don’t want to understand the seriousness of the situation. The countries of the world have declared in the Paris Climate Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees with appropriate climate protection measures – but they are not acting accordingly. As things stand, we are heading for a warming of at least 3 degrees. The 1.5 degree target would only be achievable with the greatest possible efforts, for example in Germany with net zero CO2 emissions by 2025, even with a probability of 66 percent. Even this rise, however, means siginificant changes for the climate, biodiversity and human health. At 3 degrees warming, we face wide-reaching famines, drinking water shortages, pandemics, and distribution wars that could lead to the final collapse of our democracies.

We are in the midst of the sixth global mass extinction – about 150 species go extinct every day. In Germany this year, we have already used up our share of natural resources, that the earth can renew within a year on May 5th.

The german Federal Constitutional Court (BVerG) spoke law this spring: The lack of action against the consequences of climate heating and ecosystem destruction is a violation of Article 20a of our consitutional order. There it says: „The state, in responsibility for future generations, must protect the foundations of human life and their ecological environment within the framework of the constitutional order by legislation and in accordance with law and justice by executive power and the administration of justice.“ Thus, the BVerG has once again emphasized that the government is obliged to protect the foundations of life and the freedom not only of those living now but also of the future generations.

The first representatives of our country are guilty of ignoring this precautionary principle in their policies. Instead to act accordingly, not acknowledgeing that limitless economic growth is not possible on a planet with finite resources and the continuation in subsizing climate-harming industries instead of sustainable alternatives and plan trade agreements such as the one with the Mercosur countries that would contribute to the criminal destruction of the Amazon in Brazil.

By failing to fulfill their responsibility to protect us citizens from harm and to secure the future of coming generations, it is the moral duty for us, the citiziens, to respond to their uncovered mishandling of their citizens crisis,
Thus, we recognize the long tradition of public rebellion against the inaction of political representatives and consider this a necessary means to draw attention to the endangerment of our livelihoods, especially of those who are already affected by disadvantage and discrimination in this society.
Therefore, we are speaking out open support for those involved in the disobedient protests during the „August RiseUp“, which will start on August 16, 2021 in Berlin.