“Markus Lanz” talks about the misconduct in the construction industry in his show. An expert warns against overexploitation of our forests.
Hamburg – The heating engineer Viessmann has just sold its heat pump business to the USA for 12 billion euros. To start the energy debate, Markus Lanz wants to know how Klara Geywitz thinks about this trade. The SPD politician believes that this conclusion is entirely understandable, since it secured jobs. This statement reaps incomprehension from the ZDF moderator. After all, Viessmann can look back on a record year thanks to the boom in heat pumps.
Julia Löhr justified the sale with the company’s fear of competition from Asia. According to the business editor, those responsible believe that they simply do not have enough capacity for the growing market.
“Did you oversleep the mega-market?” – Markus Lanz digs deeper into the Viessmann deal
“Could it be that we once again overslept a mega market?” Lanz asks afterwards. Geywitz has to admit with regard to the entire energy transition: “We are very, very late.” She does not want to blame her predecessors for this, but in an international comparison we would lag behind, for example with heat pumps.
The moderator then sharply criticized the government. “Lobbyism was more important,” is his verdict, referring to photovoltaics, wind turbines and electric cars, where lobby groups also blocked progress.
With heat pumps, however, Löhr sees the advantage that the manufacturers – in contrast to photovoltaic technology, for example – come from different countries. In their eyes, the resulting competition should ensure falling prices.
Förster raises the alarm with “Markus Lanz”.
Peter Wohlleben is less optimistic when it comes to burning wood. The forester first does away with the prejudice that wood processing is climate-neutral and sustainable. For example, more carbon dioxide is released during combustion than with coal. Trees also cool and ensure water cycles. “And we destroy everything. That’s not smart,” says Wohlleben.
The expert reports that the forest in Germany is no longer growing, even if the statistics say otherwise. There, cleared forests would also be listed as forests. The reforestation also fails due to the enormous heat that is recorded in clearing areas. Wohlleben speaks of over 60 degrees in summer. “You can bake fried eggs there, but hardly ever grow trees.”
Geywitz still considers wood as a raw material to be essential for housing construction, but wants to use dead wood for the most part, which is left behind after a forest fire, for example. Wohlleben contradicts this rigorously. “If you get the dead wood out of the national park, it’s biomass,” explains the bestselling author. A dead forest still cools down its surroundings significantly compared to a clear-cut forest.
Incidentally, according to Wohlleben, the overexploitation of German forests will have serious consequences. In this context, he looks at the Harz Mountains, where there are already steppe-like conditions in some areas. “Nothing grows back there.”
Discussion at “Markus Lanz”: Geywitz wants to save the construction industry from collapsing
But Klara Geywitz is not only facing a Herculean task because of the heated raw material debates. In a Spiegel interview, the Federal Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Building described herself as the “face of the current construction crisis”. In her view, she must now eradicate the mistakes of the past.
“Markus Lanz” – these were his guests on April 26th
- Klara Geywitz, Federal Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Building (SPD)
- Julia Löhr, business editor (“FAZ”)
- Peter Wohlleben, author
- Tim von Winning, Ulm’s building mayor
The current misery is the result of a reform backlog and high capital costs. “This leads to a collapse in the number of building applications,” says Geywitz, who speaks of a decline of 20 to 25 percent. She wants to prevent building orders from building up and companies from laying off workers as a result.
The politician draws a comparison to the catering industry in the pandemic and warns: “Employees who have left will not come back.” With state support, the government will therefore try to boost demand and the 400,000 apartments per week promised by Chancellor Olaf Scholz year to realize. According to Geywitz, the truth is that this mark has not yet been broken. You are much more likely to expect 290,000 apartments per year.
Journalist at “Markus Lanz”: The pressure on cities is increasing
Since living space in the cities is becoming increasingly limited, Geywitz has recently advocated moving to the countryside. There would be enough vacancies there. Löhr points out in “Markus Lanz” that the majority of Germans live in urban centers. “The pressure on the cities will continue to increase,” predicts the journalist.
Geywitz replies that the use of the empty houses in addition to the construction of new properties only reflects one possible solution. The Federal Minister also wants to advance digitization in the construction industry in order to speed up processes. Löhr supports this measure and adds that the costs of bureaucracy in this line of business have recently quadrupled.
Peter Wohlleben conjures up horror scenarios in “Markus Lanz”.
At the end of his program, the moderator comes back to the use of wood in the construction industry and asks Peter Wohlleben for his opinion. “Wood is a wonderful raw material,” admits the forester. He just wonders where all the material is supposed to come from, since Germany was already dependent on imports before the hot summers.
The author then paints a frightening picture. The “failed forest policy” means that half of our forests will be lost in the next ten years. “The available wood will decrease rapidly. We’re running into a huge gap in the wood,” Wohlleben fears, assuming a global crisis.
Geywitz tries again to reassure the previous speaker by saying that dead wood will increasingly be used in the future. Wohlleben, however, steps in between again. He wants to make it clear to the top SPD politician and the rest of the group how devastating this way of thinking is.
At some point, wood will simply no longer be available to the extent it is today, because the trees need 50-100 years to grow back. Finally, Wohlleben compares the current overexploitation with the procedure in the Middle Ages and judges accordingly: “It can’t be the 21st century.”
“Markus Lanz” – The conclusion of the show
Politicians have to initiate numerous and serious changes in the construction industry in order to meet the requirements of the industry. There should also be a rethink of the use of raw materials. The forest will not provide us with unlimited resources. (Kevin Richau)
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