Germany is turning 62 Cold War military bases into sanctuaries for wildlife
Wildlife in Germany will get a quarter more land to roam over, as the country’s government has decided to turn 62 unused military bases into sanctuaries for rare birds and other animals. Serving once as military bases at the center of the Cold War, the green areas just west of the Iron Curtain Read More...
This Canadian didn’t want to fly from Germany to Canada—so he took a cargo ship
When Will Vibert’s European work visa was closing in on its expiration date, the Canadian was reluctant to travel back to Vancouver via plane. Vibert had been confronted by the flight shaming campaigns that had shone a harsh light on the climate impact of air travel, and like so many of his Read More...
Germany will invest $95 billion in making its railway network greener
Rail travel emits less CO2 pollution than air or road traffic and Germany is well aware of this. Last week, the country’s railway operator Deutsche Bahn made a commendable move to slash its long-distance rail fares in order to get more people on its tracks and away from fossil-fuel heavy modes of Read More...
This geothermal-powered community will feature connected public roof gardens
Of all the “sustainable” communities that global cities are planning to build in the coming years, the blueprints for a new net-zero community in Hamburg are particularly striking. One main reason is that the community, which will be built in the formerly industrial borough Harbugh, will be Read More...
Germany prepares ambitious action plan to protect its declining bug populations
In 2017, researchers in Germany reported a dramatic loss of insects in the country’s nature reserve: 76 percent less biomass over three decades. This is an alarming statistic that, with things left unchanged, could have devastating effects on nature’s ecosystems and our food chains. Now, Read More...
Germans are falling in love with the electric cargo bike
Germany, that well-known powerhouse of the automotive industry, is apparently falling very much in love with electric bikes. Specifically, electric ‘cargo bikes’ that are typically being used by companies to transport goods around cities and deliver them to customers. The bikes are basically Read More...
Coal generation collapsed in Europe over the first six months of 2019
Sometimes when you fall, you fall really hard. That’s how it’s going for coal at the moment, the former king when it came to energy production. According to a new report from climate think-tank Sandbag, coal generation in the European Union collapsed by 19 percent in the first half of 2019, Read More...
The case for banning domestic flights altogether in Germany
We all know flights are terrible for the environment, but if you need to travel across the world and you don’t have a couple of months to spare, then a flight seems like the most sensible option to make it to your destination. But if you need to get somewhere within your own country, then Read More...
Thousands of climate activists just stormed a coal mine in Germany
After school kids woke up the world to the immediacy of the climate crisis with their Fridays4Future school strikes this year, the stage was set for a new wave of civil disobedience protests to urge stronger climate action. A prime example of this happened in Germany this week as thousands of Read More...
Circus in Germany replaced all of its performing animals with realistic holograms
Animal abuse in the circus may be hidden from public eyes, but the truth is that elephants, tigers, lions, and other animals are trained with the most appalling cruelty to perform dangerous and uncomfortable tricks for their captors’ profits. Taking a stand against animal abuse in this Read More...