Thermal radicalization and fear of fuel shortages feed the specter of a ‘martial law’ that controls the use of heating
The extreme heat wave meets the planned route and advances on Germany this Wednesday after leaving a trail of forest fires and burning homes in France and England, as well as Greece and Italy. Thermal radicalization is no longer expressed only in record highs, but in hectares of burned forests or crops -19,000 in Gironde, on the French Atlantic coast-. That is, in regions that are not used to suffering these ravages.
The German meteorological service (DWD) had been warning that Berlin could exceed 40 degrees, something remarkable in a country whose historical record is 41.2 registered in Duisburg, in the west, in 2019. The two or three days of Extreme heat is frightening in Germany not so much because of the rigor of unusual temperatures for the country, but because in the last two decades summers with torrid days have ceased to be the exception. The most extreme in memory was in 2003, when high temperatures lasted for weeks and throughout the country. It is to be expected that exceeding the 40 degree barrier will cease to be something exceptional, warned the DWD.
In the first European economy, with 11.4 million hectares of forest, drought is worrying. A fear that, from the perspective of southern Europe, may seem exaggerated, but it is not so much according to the data handled by the European Commission: 46% of the community territory is at “risk” of suffering from drought. Germany is no exception.
limit heating
These fears coexist with the panic in the face of a ‘Ceaucescu winter’. ‘Der Spiegel’, the leading political weekly, attributed these days to the Economy Minister, the green Robert Habeck, the purpose of putting private consumption under a kind of martial law.
“Will a temperature police patrol Germany soon?” this publication wondered. ‘Der Spiegel’ thus alluded to the possibility of limiting by law the use of heating in the home. And he remembered how Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu forced his citizens to shiver at home.
Habeck is, today, the best valued politician in the country. Above all, he is recognized for his efforts to reduce Russia’s heavy dependence on energy, a mortgage inherited from previous governments. Also his ability to communicate to the citizen, with sincerity and without triumphalism, the rigors derived from the energy crisis, the climate crisis and the war in Ukraine.
He is perceived as a good manager in the face of the emergency derived from these great global crises. If in February, 55% of the gas imported by Germany came from Russia, now it has dropped to 26%. In return, they demand savings in private consumption, short showers and lower heating temperatures.
The ‘Spiegel’ comment raised a wave of outrage on social networks. But, aside from the inopportune comparison, in Germany the alarm is spreading before the winter severity that is approaching and the proposals, be they from Brussels or Berlin, to reduce consumption. That torrid summer days befall the country will not exempt it from the usual hardness of its winters.
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