Climate control gets out of hand: leaders offer people to hitchhike

German minister to fight climate change by banning driving

Ideas related to climate protection seem to be increasingly going beyond common sense. Volker Wissing, Germany's Federal Minister for Digital Affairs and Transport, says he has the perfect weapon to curb climate change. He proposes hitchhiking and banning cars altogether on weekends.

Although Germany has already met its climate change targets for increasing electricity generation from renewable sources and has a good chance of staying on track, politicians are still worried. It is argued that Germany urgently needs to reduce the carbon dioxide equivalent of its transport sector by as much as 22 million tonnes^[1].

But this "cannot be achieved by speed limits and similar measures, [so] the only way to significantly reduce [emissions] is not to use cars or trucks". Wissing is therefore convinced that a new ban is needed, which would make it impossible to drive vehicles at weekends at all.

No detailed study has yet been drawn up on what those who would have to sit behind four walls in the future would have to do once such plans are implemented. After all, without their own transport and suffering poor public transport links, they would certainly have to forget not only going to the hairdresser's or the shop but also to look after their animals or mowing their fields.

In the future, we may be treated to images of unmown meadows where ticks breed

It is worth noting that sooner or later, even lawn care can become an illegal activity for which fines will be issued. People are used to grassland owners receiving warnings and fines for unattended grassland. However, as the world becomes more vocal about endangered bees, one can already hear crazy suggestions to stop mowing fields.

So in the future, it is quite realistic that we will face the opposite - fines for neat, short grass cuts. While bees would benefit from free meadows, we would also have to endure huge mite breeding colonies, an unmanaged landscape, and livestock without hay for the winter.

Some have already seen what meadows that are not mowed in time look like and what kind of trouble they cause. Tall grasses not only can become a breeding ground for ticks and look unsightly but also cause emergencies. In other words, out of an overwhelming desire to dive as far as possible into the green course, it ended up being overdone and created additional problems.

But German politicians are even more insistent, and their crazy ideas seem to have no limits. The German Minister who is enthusiastically trying to propose a ban on driving vehicles and to opt for hitchhiking instead of owning a car is also a bee-lover. He also supports proposals not to mow meadows.

Banning polluting vehicles could boost the nascent electric car trade

However, the Minister's proposals on changes to the country's transport system will certainly have to be refined, otherwise even owners of electric cars would not be able to drive on German roads. And if the new bans are properly designed, Germany could kill two birds with one stone.

On the one hand, politicians will argue that banning polluting vehicles will make the air cleaner. On the other hand, they may boost sales of electric cars, which fell by around 5% in the first quarter of this year. Thus, under the pretext of climate change, the business of electric cars would again be successfully promoted.

The big question, however, is what the Germans themselves think about all this. So far, they continue to acquiesce to all the proposals of climate change enthusiasts without showing much resistance. If this trend continues, in the future, we will indeed see wild meadows in Germany and many hitchhiking misfits who are forbidden to get behind the wheel of their diesel or petrol vehicles.