But walk the walk? And give up one of my many annual vacations, say?
Thanks, but we’ll just stick to the talking, if you don’t mind.
This, folks, is “saving the planet” rhetoric in a nutshell.
Germans Want Climate Policy – Just Not in Their Homes. A new law about home heating reveals political constraints on the energy transition.
Polls show that Germans are earnestly worried about the climate crisis and in favor of more climate action. The fallout of global warming is one of their most pressing concerns, indeed as it is across Europe. And yet, when it comes to modifying their lifestyles or paying higher prices to curb emissions, most say they’re not willing, or only as much as it doesn’t sting.
Most Germans ready to make sacrifices for planet — survey – Germans said they were prepared to cut their heat use and fly less to help tackle climate change. But most are reluctant to give up meat and their cars, according to a YouGov poll.
Two-thirds of Germans are willing to make a personal sacrifice to protect the planet against climate change, a new survey published Sunday suggested.
The YouGov survey on behalf of Welt am Sonntag newspaper also found 43% were willing to fly less often, while 40% were prepared to use less heat.
The participants, however, said they were reluctant to accept curbs on what they could eat. Less than a third (27%) said they were prepared to change their diet.
Ukraine updates: Germans see arming Ukraine as involvement.
A poll conducted by Germany’s DPA news agency suggests many Germans disapprove of arming Ukraine in its war against Russia. Meanwhile, Russia’s Medvedev denied the country was running out of missiles.
Fifty-one percent of the respondents thought arming Ukraine meant being part of the war, an argument that Russia has been pushing. Meanwhile, 37% disagreed with the statement.
Germany has approved some €2.6 billion ($2.75 billion) worth of weapons and armaments since the start of the war.
Forty percent of those polled considered the amount of weapons support from Germany to be too much, 22% thought it was too little, and 23% thought it was just the right amount.
Over 60% of Germans are Dissatisfied with the Work of Chancellor Olaf Scholz – Currently, only 25% of Germans are satisfied with Scholz’s performance as chancellor, and as many as 62% are dissatisfied – a record low during his tenure.
If the chancellor had been elected directly, Scholz would have taken only third place. According to the survey, 25 percent would choose current Economy Minister Robert Habeck as Germany’s chancellor, 19 percent would choose CDU leader Friedrich Merz and only 18 percent would choose Scholz of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
Germany on cusp of recession, says ifo, after business sentiment falls – German business morale fell more than expected in July as high energy prices and impending gas shortages push Europe’s largest economy to the cusp of recession, a survey showed on Monday.
The Ifo institute said its business climax index was 88.6, its lowest level in more than two years. June had also seen an unexpected drop to a downwardly revised reading of 92.2.
These Germans. They’re all worried about some horrible war just a few miles down the road and ever-growing inflation that looks as though it might be spiralling out of control.
They should worry about real problems, like they used to. You know, like their plans for this year’s third vacation, their next second car, finally starting that diet, which weekend demonstration to take part in, etc.
Germans worry about war and inflation – The German government is supporting Ukraine, battling inflation, and combatting climate change. A monthly survey has asked voters how they rate the efforts.
The war is driving up energy prices, but food prices have also risen significantly. Almost half of all respondents said they already have to cut back significantly because of this. Among low-income earners, 77% say they are beginning to struggle…
But you can bet that’s only because the pollsters didn’t bother to ask any Germans.
Woke Germans (the only ones who count) love to hate Germany more than woke Americans love to hate US-Amerika (AKA The Banana Republic), if you can imagine that.
Soft Power: Germany Gets Record-High Approval From World – The world’s approval of Germany’s leadership during Chancellor Angela Merkel’s last full year in office in 2020 hit a new record high, not only for Germany, but for any global leader in more than a decade. The 52% median approval rating for Germany’s leadership in 2020 towered above ratings for Russia (34%), China (30%) and the U.S. (30%).
Not really. They’re just saving up their Angst for a rainy day. Oh, my. Look at those dark clouds over there…
German Inflation Hysteria Mysteriously Missing Before Vote – Germany’s sudden spike in pandemic-induced inflation is prompting a noticeably less hysterical response than the country is used to.
That marks a shift from traditional fears of lax southern European-style economics, infused with worries of 1920s Weimar-Republic hyperinflation, that caused alarm during the euro-zone debt crisis in the previous decade, according to academics including Ferdinand Fichtner of Berlin’s University of Applied Sciences.
“It’s surprisingly quiet compared to what you would have expected 10 years ago,” he said. “The outcry could have been louder. As far as the election is concerned, the topic may even be over because there’ll be no new inflation numbers.”
An annual study has again asked people what they fear the most. After almost two years of COVID pandemic, somewhat surprisingly, health issues do not top the list.
For years, there was no new public debt in Germany. This gave citizens the reassuring feeling of living in a fiscally sound country — until the coronavirus pandemic came rolling over our world like a tsunami.
“People like to push thoughts of illness away, we all know that. But when it comes to money, then, also in my experience, the fears are always very large.”
Germans may feel the least free of all Europeans when it comes to the pandemic…
But to compensate for this they pay the highest taxes, have the highest energy and water costs, earn some of the lowest wages, get the lowest retirement pay, fight through the worst bureaucracy, have the most difficult time acquiring property of all Europeans and there’s more of course but I’ll stop here because I’m running out of breath.
Germans ‘feel least free’ of all Europeans during pandemic – Nowhere in Europe have people felt more inhibited by 18 months of Covid-19 restrictions than in Germany, a new study by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) finds.
Just one in ten Germans currently ‘feel free’ in their everyday life, while almost half say that they ‘don’t feel free’, the study published on Wednesday found.
The results put Germany at the bottom of a table of Europeans in 12 EU member states who were asked about their level of freedom now compared to since the pre-pandemic days.
Observing Hermann 