War in Europe, week ten

The war continues, with more atrocities coming to light every day.

I can only assume that the Tsar wants to reestablish the Iron Curtain and shutter his country off from the world.

There is slight movement from our government; we have agreed to send at least light tanks, and also, we no longer oppose a ban on oil imports. Having said this, a ban on gas imports is still not on the table.

Last week also was Take Our Kids to Work Day, so we decided to showcase the work that climate activists do – we had 30 pupils attending, and we covered several topics, such as organizing a rally or creating banners. We were pretty happy with the event and will do it again next year!

The Covid-19 incidence rate in Cologne is further down; it’s at 480.

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(Take our kids to work day, Alte Feuerwache, 4/28/22)

War in Europe, week nine

The war in Europe continues to ravage Ukraine, and our government is still not doing even remotely enough to support the people and fight the tsarist autocracy.

Same for the other two crises: If RWE gets to use all the lignite at the Garzweiler mine, we’ll be right on our path to 3 degrees warming. It’s not very likely that we as a species will survive that.

The Covid-19 incidence rate in Cologne is again slightly lower, at 530. By now, almost everybody I know has had Covid-19 at least once. And we do know that every infection depletes the immune system. Do the math.

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(Opening rally, Immenrath, 4/23/22)

War in Europe, week eight

This week was utterly frustrating – Ukraine is under heavy attack, and our government is doing almost nothing to support them.

There was a good analysis by Anders Östlund on Twitter, pointing out the four old white men in our governing party (Olaf Scholz, Gerhard Schröder, Sigmar Gabriel,  and Walter Steinmeier). They do not want to acknowledge that their policy toward Russia has failed. The approach that worked well with the former Soviet Union now fails with the Tsarist autocracy and leads to bloodshed and murder.

Also, we should not underestimate the role of fossil fuels and greed in this.

On Covid, the incidence figures in Cologne have remained stable at 600. Nevertheless, I got my recommended second booster this week, four months after the first.

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(Ferris wheel and bridge, Cologne, 4/12/22)

War in Europe, week four

Actions speak – as Jakub Janda points out on Twitter. So true!

Germany has done almost nothing to support Ukraine against the murderous attacks from Russia; instead, it continues to fund the war through massive imports of oil, coal, and gas.

The actions of our government are shameful, at best.

As with Afghanistan, the lesson to the world is that Germany will only look after its interests and betray you in a blink of an eye.

The German inaction will be an issue during the next global climate strike; in Cologne, it will be on Friday, March 25, at noon in Rheinpark.

Regarding Covid, the incidence has gone back down to 1670 in Cologne.

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(Burning Kangaroo, Cologne, 3/19/22)

War in Europe, week three

We’re in the third week of the war and the seventy-first week of the second Covid-19 shutdown.

The Czar is continuing to murder for his personal gain, and Covid-19 is killing people, too; the incidence in Cologne is at 2525 right now. And I haven’t talked about the climate emergency yet.

Our government is too afraid to take decisive action against Russia and stop all energy imports – I’m not proud of them right now. At least we’re taking in refugees this time.

I’ve turned off our heating to minimize energy consumption and not fund Putin’s murders.

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(Gira Smart Home, Cologne, 3/13/22)

Shutdown two, week sixty-eight

Omicron is diminishing slightly; the incidence is at 1285 in Cologne right now. These numbers do not reflect the new BA.2 variant, though.

There was some backlash against my last post, mostly from people far down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. Still, some people confuse acts of solidarity with infringement on personal liberties.

The only way to stop the pandemic is to prevent the spread of the virus.

Likewise, the only way to stop the impact of the climate emergency is to stop the proliferation of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

So simple.

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(No-Schwurbel rally, Cologne, 2/14/22)

Shutdown two, week sixty-three

The incidence in Cologne is rising again with Omicron; it’s at 454 today.

Irregardless of the massive spread of the disease and the ever-climbing figure of related deaths, there is still a loud minority protesting against Covid-19. As if a virus would care about a protest.

Even worse, these people (Schwurbler, as we fondly call them) have joined forces with the far-right and other conspiracy theorists.

Yesterday we finally had a counter-protest to show that most people believe in science and solidarity.

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(Escort, Neumarkt, 1/17/22)

Shutdown two, week sixty-two

The incidence in Cologne is rising again with Omicron; it’s at 312 today.

So far, it’s been a slow week, with a fantastic hybrid protest against RWE yesterday, though.

In our new office, I’m in the process of connecting the KNX bus to Google Assistant, using a Thinka gateway. Sometimes IT knowledge helps when dealing with IoT devices, and sometimes it doesn’t.

Veganuary is also coming along nicely.

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(Veganuary, Cologne, 1/9/22)

Shutdown two, week fifty-five

The fourth wave is in full swing, and the incidence in Cologne is at 290. We have introduced a new trigger measure based on hospitalization; with the delay between infection and becoming ill, this amounts to sounding the fire alarm when the building is already engulfed in flames.

On the bright side, we might get a new government in early December. At the moment, our handling of both emergencies, Covid-19 and climate change, is abysmal at best.

Walking through Cologne, I came across this blast from the past: Did men ever fall for this kind of imagery?

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(Advertising from a bygone era, Cologne, 11/21/21)