Abitur Hessen Politik und Wirtschaft 2021 · GK · bilingual Englisch

The media and democracy

Material

Georg Diez: Post-Truth Germany – The Chemnitz Attacks and the Crisis for German Democracy (2018)

And if it never happened? Then, of course, nobody is to blame. There is no responsibility, and there are no consequences. The end of a common understanding of what happened is in many ways the end of politics, because to define problems and work on solutions requires common ground. Germany, like the United States, has entered this post-truth hall of mirrors 1. The stakes are particularly high, because a violent far-right is rising, in a country still troubled by its racist and murderous past. The embrace of a discourse of “alternative facts” signals that Germany has moved far from the role it played during the early days of the refugee crisis […].

How did we get here? At the end of August, following the alleged murder of a German citizen by two refugees, a right-wing mob of several thousand people took to the streets in the eastern city of Chemnitz, shouting racist slogans, threatening and chasing refugees (or just about anybody who looked different), and fighting an overwhelmed and outnumbered local police force. The images quickly spread on social media. One video showed a group of few men first shouting at, and then running after, a man who is seen fleeing across a busy street, avoiding several cars as he speeds along. The German media used the term Hetzjagd, normally applied to the hunting of animals, to describe this scene and others captured during the riots. German Chancellor Angela Merkel used this word, too, in her public statement condemning the violence.

But then something strange happened. When the minister president of the German state of Saxonia, Michael Kretschmer of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), addressed the events in Chemnitz in the state parliament a few days later, he claimed that “there was no mob, there was no chase, there was no pogrom” – directly contradicting not only Merkel but also nearly all of the mainstream press that had reported on the events. The violence, the racist epithets 2, and the people chanting “We want to kill” were all well documented, not only by eye-witnesses but also on video, as were the scenes of people being threatened and chased. But following Kretschmer’s remarks, a public debate over the use of the word Hetzjagd diverted 3 attention from the clashes in Chemnitz to the way the news was produced and, according to those critical of the term, politicized.

Like “fake news” in the United States, the German word Lügenpresse, or lying press, challenges the authority of the media as a democratic institution. Right-wing politicians and protesters use the term to discredit the work of journalists covering the most controversial subject of all – migration and refugees – but also any other topic related to what the right calls the “system Merkel”. The attraction of formerly mainstream figures to this rhetoric is likely political. With the right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) breathing down its neck 4 (and more popular by four percent, according to a recent poll), Kretschmer’s party, the CDU, has been driven rightward. […]

Not long ago, any of these incidents – a neo-Nazi mob sporting 5 Hitler salutes, an attack on a Jewish restaurant, attacks on left-wing demonstrators, attacks on refugees – would have been enough to spark an emotional political debate in Germany. But something fundamental seems to have changed, and the fact of conservative politicians showing open sympathy for right-wing positions is just part of this.

Perhaps even more troubling is the structural attack on the very notion of rational discourse governed by rules held in common – among them, that even ideological opponents accept the existence of a verifiable 6 truth, that the press is a respected fourth pillar of democracy, and that there is room for disagreement but not for obvious lies and falsehoods. In the United States, all of these assumptions have been tested since the election of President Donald Trump in 2016. In Europe, this brazen 7 version of politics is reactionary in more than one sense, perpetrated 8 by politicians copying Trump’s tactics but without his open ruthlessness.

Georg Diez: Post-Truth Germany – The Chemnitz Attacks and the Crisis of German Democracy, in: Foreign Affairs, 19.09.2018, URL: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/germany/2018-09-19/post-truth-germany (abgerufen am 29.05.2020).

Annotations

1 hall of mirrors – Spiegellabyrinth

2 racist epithets – rassistische Schimpfwörter

3 to divert – ablenken

4 to breathe down someone’s neck – to stay close to someone, watching everything they do (in a disapproving way)

5 to sport – here: show proudly

6 verifiable – nachprüfbar

7 brazen – open and without shame, usually about sth. that people find shocking (disapproving); shameless

8 perpetrated by – verübt von

1

Summarize the text. (Material) (30 BE)

2

Examine the influence of new political forms of communication on the Internet (like Twitter) on the role of classic media forms (such as printed newspapers, radio and television) in the democratic system in Germany. (40 BE)

Internationale Konflikte und Friedenssicherung

Material

Georg Diez: Post-Truth Germany – The Chemnitz Attacks and the Crisis for German Democracy (2018)

And if it never happened? Then, of course, nobody is to blame. There is no responsibility, and there are no consequences. The end of a common understanding of what happened is in many ways the end of politics, because to define problems and work on solutions requires common ground. Germany, like the United States, has entered this post-truth hall of mirrors 1. The stakes are particularly high, because a violent far-right is rising, in a country still troubled by its racist and murderous past. The embrace of a discourse of “alternative facts” signals that Germany has moved far from the role it played during the early days of the refugee crisis […].

How did we get here? At the end of August, following the alleged murder of a German citizen by two refugees, a right-wing mob of several thousand people took to the streets in the eastern city of Chemnitz, shouting racist slogans, threatening and chasing refugees (or just about anybody who looked different), and fighting an overwhelmed and outnumbered local police force. The images quickly spread on social media. One video showed a group of few men first shouting at, and then running after, a man who is seen fleeing across a busy street, avoiding several cars as he speeds along. The German media used the term Hetzjagd, normally applied to the hunting of animals, to describe this scene and others captured during the riots. German Chancellor Angela Merkel used this word, too, in her public statement condemning the violence.

But then something strange happened. When the minister president of the German state of Saxonia, Michael Kretschmer of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), addressed the events in Chemnitz in the state parliament a few days later, he claimed that “there was no mob, there was no chase, there was no pogrom” – directly contradicting not only Merkel but also nearly all of the mainstream press that had reported on the events. The violence, the racist epithets 2, and the people chanting “We want to kill” were all well documented, not only by eye-witnesses but also on video, as were the scenes of people being threatened and chased. But following Kretschmer’s remarks, a public debate over the use of the word Hetzjagd diverted 3 attention from the clashes in Chemnitz to the way the news was produced and, according to those critical of the term, politicized.

Like “fake news” in the United States, the German word Lügenpresse, or lying press, challenges the authority of the media as a democratic institution. Right-wing politicians and protesters use the term to discredit the work of journalists covering the most controversial subject of all – migration and refugees – but also any other topic related to what the right calls the “system Merkel”. The attraction of formerly mainstream figures to this rhetoric is likely political. With the right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) breathing down its neck 4 (and more popular by four percent, according to a recent poll), Kretschmer’s party, the CDU, has been driven rightward. […]

Not long ago, any of these incidents – a neo-Nazi mob sporting 5 Hitler salutes, an attack on a Jewish restaurant, attacks on left-wing demonstrators, attacks on refugees – would have been enough to spark an emotional political debate in Germany. But something fundamental seems to have changed, and the fact of conservative politicians showing open sympathy for right-wing positions is just part of this.

Perhaps even more troubling is the structural attack on the very notion of rational discourse governed by rules held in common – among them, that even ideological opponents accept the existence of a verifiable 6 truth, that the press is a respected fourth pillar of democracy, and that there is room for disagreement but not for obvious lies and falsehoods. In the United States, all of these assumptions have been tested since the election of President Donald Trump in 2016. In Europe, this brazen 7 version of politics is reactionary in more than one sense, perpetrated 8 by politicians copying Trump’s tactics but without his open ruthlessness.

Georg Diez: Post-Truth Germany – The Chemnitz Attacks and the Crisis of German Democracy, in: Foreign Affairs, 19.09.2018, URL: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/germany/2018-09-19/post-truth-germany (abgerufen am 29.05.2020).

Annotations

1 hall of mirrors – Spiegellabyrinth

2 racist epithets – rassistische Schimpfwörter

3 to divert – ablenken

4 to breathe down someone’s neck – to stay close to someone, watching everything they do (in a disapproving way)

5 to sport – here: show proudly

6 verifiable – nachprüfbar

7 brazen – open and without shame, usually about sth. that people find shocking (disapproving); shameless

8 perpetrated by – verübt von

One goal of the German government's refugee policy is "to combat the root causes of displacement, not refugees, working with the international community, including the EU". (Bundesregierung, 2019)

3

Discuss ways in order to fight the causes for displacement. (30 BE)

Material

Jack Ewing: Germany Nears Recession and Chinese Factories Slow in Trade War Fallout (2019)

In ominous signs of the damage being done by the trade war between China and the United States,

data released on Wednesday indicated that the German economy was hurtling toward recession and

that growth at Chinese factories was slowing at a pace not seen in nearly two decades. [...]

It is not surprising that China and Germany are stumbling under the weight of the trade pressures.

5 China is the world’s largest exporter of goods and services, just ahead of the United States. Germany

is No. 3, and exports account for almost half of its gross domestic product. Both countries have been

hit directly by Mr. Trump’s tariffs¹, and more broadly by the disruption to the global economy that the

trade conflict has caused.

Germany is also under stress from Britain’s chaotic attempts to leave the European Union, while

10 tensions in the Persian Gulf have unnerved² company executives about sales prospects in that

important region. As a result, they are reluctant to invest in new buildings or factory space in

Germany.

United States tariffs have mostly been directed at China, but the Trump administration has also

imposed levies³ on European steel and aluminum. Mr. Trump has often threatened to impose tariffs on

15 German cars.

The data [from] Wednesday suggested that the German auto industry was hurting plenty.

Automobiles, Germany’s biggest export product, are a prime example of how the country has been

caught in the trade crossfire between the United States and China. [...]

Germany’s economic performance was the worst of any eurozone country during the second quarter,

20 separate data from the European Union statistics agency indicated. Even Italy, the economic

laughingstock⁴ of the eurozone, did slightly better than Germany – its growth in the quarter was zero.

That is a humbling experience for Germany, which has long lectured other countries on how to

manage their economies and scolded⁵ them for having too much debt.

Germany was among the first European countries to bounce back from the debt crisis that struck the

25 eurozone in 2010, and its unemployment rate, at 3.1 percent, is still the lowest in the zone.

Any schadenfreude elsewhere in Europe is likely to be short-lived. German automakers and other

manufacturers buy many of their components from countries like Italy, the Netherlands or Poland.

Germany accounts for more than a quarter of the European Union economy. It is virtually impossible

for the region to thrive⁶ when Germany is ailing.

30 The slumping growth will probably increase calls for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to

increase spending to stimulate the economy. That will be politically tricky. Germans pride themselves

on fiscal prudence⁷, and the government has recorded budget surpluses for the last five years.

Economists say the country should take advantage of record low interest rates to invest in

infrastructure such as its aging rail network, in education and in research and development. German

35 government 10-year bonds⁸ were commanding a yield⁹ of minus 0.65 percent Wednesday, meaning

investors are effectively willing to pay Berlin to keep their money safe.

The decline in economic output and the weak outlook “increasingly add to the economic case for a

dose of fiscal stimulus,” Oliver Rakau, chief German economist at Oxford Economics, said in a report

Wednesday.

Jack Ewing: Germany Nears Recession and Chinese Factories Slow in Trade War Fallout, in: New York Times, 14.08.2019, URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/business/german-economy.html (abgerufen am 22.02.2020).

¹ tariff – tax on exports or imports

² to unnerve – to make someone lose courage or confidence

³ levy – Abgabe, Steuer

⁴ laughingstock – figure of fun

⁵ to scold – to rebuke, to reprimand

⁶ to thrive – to boom, to grow

⁷ prudence – here: austerity

⁸ bond – Anleihe

⁹ to command a yield – Rendite abwerfen

German fiscal policy

1

Summarize the article. (Material)

[30 BE]

2

Analyze economic and social effects of German “fiscal prudence” (Material) in times of low economic growth.

[45 BE]

Material

Jack Ewing: Germany Nears Recession and Chinese Factories Slow in Trade War Fallout (2019)

In ominous signs of the damage being done by the trade war between China and the United States,

data released on Wednesday indicated that the German economy was hurtling toward recession and

that growth at Chinese factories was slowing at a pace not seen in nearly two decades. [...]

It is not surprising that China and Germany are stumbling under the weight of the trade pressures.

5 China is the world’s largest exporter of goods and services, just ahead of the United States. Germany

is No. 3, and exports account for almost half of its gross domestic product. Both countries have been

hit directly by Mr. Trump’s tariffs¹, and more broadly by the disruption to the global economy that the

trade conflict has caused.

Germany is also under stress from Britain’s chaotic attempts to leave the European Union, while

10 tensions in the Persian Gulf have unnerved² company executives about sales prospects in that

important region. As a result, they are reluctant to invest in new buildings or factory space in

Germany.

United States tariffs have mostly been directed at China, but the Trump administration has also

imposed levies³ on European steel and aluminum. Mr. Trump has often threatened to impose tariffs on

15 German cars.

The data [from] Wednesday suggested that the German auto industry was hurting plenty.

Automobiles, Germany’s biggest export product, are a prime example of how the country has been

caught in the trade crossfire between the United States and China. [...]

Germany’s economic performance was the worst of any eurozone country during the second quarter,

20 separate data from the European Union statistics agency indicated. Even Italy, the economic

laughingstock⁴ of the eurozone, did slightly better than Germany – its growth in the quarter was zero.

That is a humbling experience for Germany, which has long lectured other countries on how to

manage their economies and scolded⁵ them for having too much debt.

Germany was among the first European countries to bounce back from the debt crisis that struck the

25 eurozone in 2010, and its unemployment rate, at 3.1 percent, is still the lowest in the zone.

Any schadenfreude elsewhere in Europe is likely to be short-lived. German automakers and other

manufacturers buy many of their components from countries like Italy, the Netherlands or Poland.

Germany accounts for more than a quarter of the European Union economy. It is virtually impossible

for the region to thrive⁶ when Germany is ailing.

30 The slumping growth will probably increase calls for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to

increase spending to stimulate the economy. That will be politically tricky. Germans pride themselves

on fiscal prudence⁷, and the government has recorded budget surpluses for the last five years.

Economists say the country should take advantage of record low interest rates to invest in

infrastructure such as its aging rail network, in education and in research and development. German

35 government 10-year bonds⁸ were commanding a yield⁹ of minus 0.65 percent Wednesday, meaning

investors are effectively willing to pay Berlin to keep their money safe.

The decline in economic output and the weak outlook “increasingly add to the economic case for a

dose of fiscal stimulus,” Oliver Rakau, chief German economist at Oxford Economics, said in a report

Wednesday.

Jack Ewing: Germany Nears Recession and Chinese Factories Slow in Trade War Fallout, in: New York Times, 14.08.2019, URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/business/german-economy.html (abgerufen am 22.02.2020).

¹ tariff – tax on exports or imports

² to unnerve – to make someone lose courage or confidence

³ levy – Abgabe, Steuer

⁴ laughingstock – figure of fun

⁵ to scold – to rebuke, to reprimand

⁶ to thrive – to boom, to grow

⁷ prudence – here: austerity

⁸ bond – Anleihe

⁹ to command a yield – Rendite abwerfen

German fiscal policy

3

Assess the effects of the tariffs imposed by US president Donald Trump on the global economy.

[25 BE]

The role of the UN

Material

Martti Ahtisaari: I believe in the UN, but it needs to examine its conscience over Syria (2018)

The ongoing tragedy in Syria has weighed particularly heavily on my mind over the past days. Seven years of war. At least half a million dead. More than 5 million refugees. Whichever way you look at it, the war in Syria has gone on far too long.

The alarming events of the past week 1 have reminded us of the severe costs of inaction 2. Suspicion of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, along with the escalation of fighting on several fronts, needs to be taken seriously. Not only because the international community agrees on the prohibition of chemical weapons, but most of all, because of the extensive suffering the attacks and years of warfare have inflicted on Syrian civilians.

At the same time, tough talk and threats coming from Washington and Moscow have raised the spectre of global confrontation.

The present situation is especially alarming because it is avoidable. It is the result of a serious lack of political will among major powers to address a crisis they have played a large role in fuelling. It is high time that the international community owned up to its responsibility to help fix this mess.

For better and for worse, the UN reflects the political will of the international community and bears the responsibility to protect peace. In Syria it has failed its task.

For external powers, Syria is viewed as an arena to push their own interests, adding to the complexity of the conflict. The focus on geopolitical interests sidelines the humanitarian tragedy caused by the war.

The five permanent members of the UN security council need to take a long, hard look in the mirror. Throughout the war, the security council has failed to act. Veto power has been used in an irresponsible manner to obstruct 3 and obfuscate 4. Permanent members have focused on scoring political points at home and with their allies, rather than building common ground and demonstrating leadership.

In 2015, Russia dramatically stepped up its involvement in Syria to save its ally. Much of the death and destruction in the country is also a direct result of this. Russia cannot escape its responsibility for the doings of the Syrian regime.

Even if building workable solutions is difficult, it is no excuse to not try. On Friday night, the US chose a forceful response. With the dust now settling, I cannot help thinking what it intends to do to revive peace talks in Syria. Military action has never produced sustainable peace. Therefore, the US and Russia, along with other external powers involved in the conflict, should engage in serious efforts to reach a common agreement on Syria without further delay. Until they do, Syria remains a reminder of the shameful inaction of the international community in the face of another crisis that could have been prevented.

Syria is a tragic mess, and the current crisis reminds us of the critical need for the UN as a forum for dialogue and peace. Accidents do happen, and with stakes as high as they are, the costs can be unimaginable. The US and Russia play an essential role in finding a way out. There is common ground to build on. No one benefits from the prospect of Syria becoming a failed state in the heart of the Middle East.

At its core, the war pits 5 Syrians against Syrians over their shared future. No lasting agreement can be reached without involving a wide range of Syrian voices in any political process to determine their shared future. However, external players are so deeply involved in the conflict that an overarching understanding between major powers is required before an intra-Syrian political process can take place and the country can move towards peace and stability. As permanent members of the security council and as allies of the opposing camps, Russia and the US are responsible for leading this process.

I firmly believe that all conflicts can be resolved. However, without political will and the maturity to see beyond immediate gains, this cannot happen.

It is easy to agree that the use of chemical weapons is abhorrent 6. This agreement should not override the fact that death, destruction and misery are also delivered through bombings, starvation and sieges 7. It is civilians who suffer primarily as the war drags on. Ending the worst humanitarian crisis of our time needs to be the first priority for the security council.

I am a firm believer in the UN. That is why I know we can do better, for us and for Syria.

Martti Ahtisaari: I believe in the UN, but it needs to examine its conscience over Syria, in: The Guardian, 20.04.2018, URL: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/20/un-conscience-syria-security-council-humanitarian-crisis (abgerufen am 20.06.2020).

Hinweis: Martti Ahtisaari is a UN diplomat and a former president of Finland. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008.

1 The US, the UK and France launched over 100 missiles on 14 April 2018 against what they said were Syrian chemical weapon facilities...

2 inaction – non-intervention

3 to obstruct – to prevent, to restrict

4 to obfuscate – verschleiern

5 to pit – to put in opposition to

6 abhorrent – disgusting

7 siege – the act or process of surrounding and attacking a place by an armed force

1

Summarize the text. (Material) [30 BE]

2

Analyse the role of the United Nations referring to at least one international conflict of your choice. Refer to the Charta of the UN. [40 BE]

3

Discuss the military intervention of German troops in international conflict regions and possible impacts in light of the German constitution. [30 BE]

Material

Damian Carrington: Greta Thunberg tells world leaders to end fossil fuel ‘madness’ (2020)

Greta Thunberg and fellow youth climate campaigners are demanding that global leaders immediately end the “madness” of huge ongoing investments in fossil fuel exploration and enormous subsidies for coal, oil and gas use.

The 21 young activists are also calling on the political and business leaders who will be attending the World Economic Forum in Davos to ensure investment funds dump their holdings in fossil fuel companies.

“Anything less would be a betrayal against life itself,” said Thunberg and colleagues in an article in the Guardian. “Today’s business as usual is turning into a crime against humanity. We demand that you play your part in putting an end to this madness.”

The burning of fossil fuels is the biggest driver of the climate emergency. Scientists predict catastrophic impacts unless deep cuts in emissions are made rapidly, but global emissions are still rising.

“Young people are being let down by older generations and those in power,” the climate strikers said. “To some it may seem like we are asking for a lot. But this is just the very minimum effort needed to start the rapid sustainable transition.”

Much of the world’s existing coal, oil and gas reserves must be kept in the ground to avoid the worst impacts of global heating. But investment in fossil fuel exploration and extraction remains high.

Since the Paris climate agreement in 2015, the world’s largest investment banks have provided more than $700bn (£535bn) to fossil fuel companies to develop new projects, with the total investment estimated to be trillions of dollars. Fossil fuel companies argue that their products will be used for many years to come and that they have a pivotal 1 role in shifting the energy system to zero emissions. But their investments in green energy are tiny compared with those in fossil fuels.

Subsidies for fossil fuels also remain high despite a G20 pledge in 2009 to eliminate them. The IMF estimates such subsidies run at $10m a minute, or$5.2tn a year. “The fact that [ending investment and subsidies] hasn’t been done already is, quite frankly, a disgrace,” said Thunberg and colleagues.

Investors managing funds totalling $12tn have already divested from 2 coal, oil and gas, but the climate activists demand that “all companies, banks, institutions and governments immediately and completely divest from fossil fuels”.

Mark Carney 3, the governor of the Bank of England, said in December that the financial sector was not cutting investments in oil and gas companies rapidly enough and warned that assets in the sector could end up “worthless”. He said in October that companies and industries not moving towards zero-carbon emissions would be punished by investors and go bankrupt.

“It ought to be in every company and stakeholder’s interest to make sure that the planet they live on will thrive,” said the climate strikers, who come from nations across the world, including the US, Australia, Brazil, Russia, India and Nigeria. “But history has not shown the corporate world’s willingness to hold themselves accountable. So it falls on us, the children, to do that.”

The agenda for the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, which begins on 20 January in Switzerland, lists four “urgent and important” global issues. The first is “how to address the urgent climate and environmental challenges that are harming our ecology and economy”.

The climate strikers said: “The world’s leaders should invest their money in existing sustainable technologies, research and in restoring nature. Short-term profit should not trump long-term stability of life.”

1 pivotal – important

2 to divest from – the opposite of to invest

3 Mark Carney served as the Governor of the Bank of England from July 2013 to March 2020.

Damian Carrington: Greta Thunberg tells world leaders to end fossil fuel ‘madness’, in: The Guardian, 10.01.2020, URL: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/10/greta-thunberg-tells-world-leaders-to-end-fossil-fuel-madness (abgerufen am 14.04.2020).

Fridays For Future

1

Summarize the text. (Material)

(25 BE)

2

Illustrate possible positive and negative effects on the global economy of Greta Thunberg’s demand that governments must end the “huge ongoing investments in fossil fuel exploration and enormous subsidies for coal, oil and gas use.” (Material)

(45 BE)

Material

Damian Carrington: Greta Thunberg tells world leaders to end fossil fuel ‘madness’ (2020)

Greta Thunberg and fellow youth climate campaigners are demanding that global leaders immediately end the “madness” of huge ongoing investments in fossil fuel exploration and enormous subsidies for coal, oil and gas use.

The 21 young activists are also calling on the political and business leaders who will be attending the World Economic Forum in Davos to ensure investment funds dump their holdings in fossil fuel companies.

“Anything less would be a betrayal against life itself,” said Thunberg and colleagues in an article in the Guardian. “Today’s business as usual is turning into a crime against humanity. We demand that you play your part in putting an end to this madness.”

The burning of fossil fuels is the biggest driver of the climate emergency. Scientists predict catastrophic impacts unless deep cuts in emissions are made rapidly, but global emissions are still rising.

“Young people are being let down by older generations and those in power,” the climate strikers said. “To some it may seem like we are asking for a lot. But this is just the very minimum effort needed to start the rapid sustainable transition.”

Much of the world’s existing coal, oil and gas reserves must be kept in the ground to avoid the worst impacts of global heating. But investment in fossil fuel exploration and extraction remains high.

Since the Paris climate agreement in 2015, the world’s largest investment banks have provided more than $700bn (£535bn) to fossil fuel companies to develop new projects, with the total investment estimated to be trillions of dollars. Fossil fuel companies argue that their products will be used for many years to come and that they have a pivotal 1 role in shifting the energy system to zero emissions. But their investments in green energy are tiny compared with those in fossil fuels.

Subsidies for fossil fuels also remain high despite a G20 pledge in 2009 to eliminate them. The IMF estimates such subsidies run at $10m a minute, or$5.2tn a year. “The fact that [ending investment and subsidies] hasn’t been done already is, quite frankly, a disgrace,” said Thunberg and colleagues.

Investors managing funds totalling $12tn have already divested from 2 coal, oil and gas, but the climate activists demand that “all companies, banks, institutions and governments immediately and completely divest from fossil fuels”.

Mark Carney 3, the governor of the Bank of England, said in December that the financial sector was not cutting investments in oil and gas companies rapidly enough and warned that assets in the sector could end up “worthless”. He said in October that companies and industries not moving towards zero-carbon emissions would be punished by investors and go bankrupt.

“It ought to be in every company and stakeholder’s interest to make sure that the planet they live on will thrive,” said the climate strikers, who come from nations across the world, including the US, Australia, Brazil, Russia, India and Nigeria. “But history has not shown the corporate world’s willingness to hold themselves accountable. So it falls on us, the children, to do that.”

The agenda for the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, which begins on 20 January in Switzerland, lists four “urgent and important” global issues. The first is “how to address the urgent climate and environmental challenges that are harming our ecology and economy”.

The climate strikers said: “The world’s leaders should invest their money in existing sustainable technologies, research and in restoring nature. Short-term profit should not trump long-term stability of life.”

1 pivotal – important

2 to divest from – the opposite of to invest

3 Mark Carney served as the Governor of the Bank of England from July 2013 to March 2020.

Damian Carrington: Greta Thunberg tells world leaders to end fossil fuel ‘madness’, in: The Guardian, 10.01.2020, URL: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/10/greta-thunberg-tells-world-leaders-to-end-fossil-fuel-madness (abgerufen am 14.04.2020).

Fridays For Future

3

Greta Thunberg is the Swedish teenager who skipped school and inspired an international movement to fight climate change. She has become a leading voice, inspiring millions to join protests around the world.

Evaluate the effectiveness of different forms of political participation in Germany taking protests as a starting point.

(30 BE)