Gesellschaft / Society Archives – Page 4 of 7

Climate change won’t affect us. So why strike?

The Trump generation – including me – won’t be around when London and Houston sink. Along with Jakarta, Manila, Shanghai and half of the Netherlands. Nor when the last wild polar bear and Atlantic puffin has died because of habitat loss.

And the Greta generation have time to adapt to the changing climate without too much inconvenience: relocate to higher ground, stop holidaying in the Canary Isles, consume less meat, wear thick pullovers in winter and drive electric cars. In fact they will even benefit from new developments in sustainable energy sources and environment-friendly technology.

So what’s the fuss?

Winter of the World by Ken Follett

Another masterpiece of passion and insight!

We experience the suspense and tragedy of WWII through the eyes of the offspring of the people we came to know in Fall of Giants, the first book in the Century Trilogy. These children grow up into realistic, passionate characters who travel the world, engage in devious pursuits and fall in love.

No Longers Strangers? by Javed Masih

If you want the salutary facts – necessarily subjective but certainly typical – about what a refugee family experiences after arriving in Europe from a vastly different geographic and cultural background, this will fill you in.

These kids I like, who climate strike!

#ClimateStrike #Zürich Was that a nod from heaven that it rained … and rained in Zürich yesterday? It didn’t discourage 12,000 people – mainly school kids and young people, joining hundreds of thousands worldwide – to take to the streets. They protested against the thoughtless pollution which is disrupting the world’s climate and provoking extreme weather conditions. It’s especially the developing nations that suffer, although they aren’t even the ones who are primarily responsible.

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

This is one of the best of Dickens’ works, in my opinion.

True, it starts off heavy and bleak, but Mr. Squeers and Dotheboys Hall do play a significant rôle throughout the book. If anything, the digression involving Mr. Crummles and his performing troupe could have been omitted without loss to the story.

Build a new world!

Do you know Avaaz? Avaaz – meaning “voice” in several European, Middle Eastern and Asian languages – is a global web movement to bring people-powered politics to decision-making everywhere. Avaaz empowers people from all walks of life to take action on pressing global, regional and national issues, from corruption and poverty to conflict and climate change.

Some of you readers may have received the same message I did today. Here is an extract and my thoughts about it.

Der Klimawandel geht uns allen an!

Eindrücke aus der #StopArmut Konferenz über #Klimagerechtigkeit vom 17. November 2018

Unsere Heizungen, Klimaanlagen, Privatautos, Fleischkonsum usw. verursachen grosse CO₂-Emissionen. Diese sind wichtige Faktoren bei der Klimaerwärmung. Wir im Westen erleben zwar ausserordentliche Hitzewellen, Überschwemmungen und verheerende Waldbrände. Aber es sind in erster Linie die ärmeren Länder, die unter den Folgen leiden: Dürre, Stürme, Ernteausfälle.

Sergei and Hans by Dennis Santaniello

This is a very unusual book – both as regards the theme and the style. Two WWI soldiers experience the horrors of war, slaughtering mercilessly and seeing their comrades slaughtered. Each one finds himself alone in the most devastating conditions on a mountainside in the Romanian Carpathians. All of their respective companions have died – accidentally, by suicide or in the relentless gunfire while attempting to push a cannon up the hillside. Neither of them has any real hope or wish to survive. They are starving, bitterly cold, and totally lost among the snow-covered boulders.

The Road to Nowhere by Catherine M. Byrne

Isa and her young family emigrate from the tiny Orkney island of Raumsey to Alberta, where her parents are already living. An unfortunate young English girl, Sarah, happens to arrive at the same time, destined to marry a friend of her father’s, who is much older than she. The vastness of the prairie environment and the harsh climate prove enormously challenging for the newcomers. Hard work, tight finances and cruel weather strain Isa and Davie’s marriage and he spends months up north working on the paddle steamers.

Mary Rosie’s War by Catherine Byrne

This book, number 5 in the Raumsey series, not only portrays the horrors of WWII through the eyes of simple, ordinary participants, but sheds a sidelong glance at the morality of a war initiated at some high level, far away from those who are forced to carry it out without understanding why.