Ten steps to climate neutrality Part 2

Saturday  28th September 2024.

Ten steps to climate neutrality Part 2

100 multinational corporations emit around 80% of the world’s CO₂. Thinking seriously about your own individual carbon footprint is an important part of solving the climate crisis on our planet. Of course, we must also finally find a transnational exit strategy for the big climate cheats: the end for BP, Shell and Exxon-Mobil, the end for Gazprom, Aramco, China-Coal and Rio Tinto and the other 93 multinational corporations that do business with fossil fuels and the extraction of minerals and ores, to the detriment of humanity, at the expense of the habitability of our beautiful, unique blue planet and its fragile atmosphere. Nature conservation and climate protection have become so important that they ensure the survival of us all. There is a binding resolution from the 2015 Paris Climate Conference not to allow global warming to exceed 1.5º Celsius. Nothing has changed since then. Nothing. Instead, CO₂ emissions have even increased. And we are still beating about the bush.

100 multinational corporations emit around 80% of the world’s CO₂ and we, the more than eight billion consumers, burn these fossil fuels – gas, coal and petrol/diesel – every day. The fact is: if we stop burning fossil fuels, we will significantly slow down the climate catastrophe. We just have to get off our backsides and ditch our old habits. Let’s finally become climate-neutral! Let’s stop buying fuel for our dirty petrol and diesel-powered cars. That would be a serious start to a new era. Let’s finally start thinking seriously about becoming climate-neutral. Let’s free ourselves from these constraints.

And we should also take a very close look at the State and its subsidy and tax policies and scrutinise them. Why, for example, is one single company allowed to plant ten per cent of Portugal’s land area with highly flammable eucalyptus? They are using the forests as a source of resources for the paper industry, which is ruining our groundwater reserves. All of this must be scrutinised.

And, of course, my own individual CO₂ footprint. After all, I must start by cleaning up my own backyard. Where I live and where I am responsible for everything I do. I don’t point the finger at others and say, “let me leave it to them to start reducing their CO₂ emissions.” This also means that I must make myself transparent. How do you yourself see it? Isn’t it finally time to start thinking about phasing out fossil fuels? The age of renewable energies has begun.

Last week, I outlined my first five steps, describing how I’ve been managing my exit and moving towards carbon neutrality. This week, I shall present my other five steps. Almost 100% of modern global warming is caused by humans, by you and by me. I am Uwe Heitkamp, a journalist and the publisher of ECO123.

Step 6: Reduce the volume of waste and packaging scrap

This will be a crucial step in my life. No longer separating my so-called rubbish, but, instead, no longer producing rubbish. Because the question of waste separation is a false one. It’s really all about taking responsibility for not producing any more waste. This is an explosive topic. If you live in a family group, you have to convince the others. I’ve started to do that now, but haven’t quite managed it yet. Nonetheless, I’m working on it, and I’m not satisfied with going to the bins only once every four weeks, because my volume of waste has become so small that it’s beginning to vanish almost completely.

Zero waste is the supreme discipline – just like zero CO₂ emissions. I have given myself 15 years, always taking two steps forward, and sometimes one step back. Small, steady steps that are carefully prepared are important. In 2025, the time will finally have come. Then I intend to stop producing waste altogether. That will be an important step in my life. I was inspired many years ago by a woman from Bonn. She refused to pay her rubbish charges to the city council because, as she said, she no longer had any rubbish. So, the editors of MONITOR at WDR sent me to Bonn to have a good look around the woman’s house. My boss Klaus Bednarz didn’t want to believe it himself. So, I came back to Cologne with my film, but it was never broadcast because I was asked what the woman was doing with her sanitary towels and hygiene products. Unbelievable but true; they didn’t believe me either. It’s worth a try, though, when you consider that a cream cheese in plastic packaging is only packaged for that one occasion and then disappears for a few hundred years into a landfill site – or into a waste incineration plant… And the first thing I ask myself with every purchase is: do I even need the product…? Because, in this world, we live in abundance and live wastefully. In Portugal, thousands of tons of food are thrown away every year; huge amounts of energy, arable land and raw materials are wasted every year. Let’s become humble. Let’s start with ourselves.

Step 7: Install a sprinkler system against forest fires

Become resilient. The forest fires raged in Monchique in 1991, 2003, 2004, 2016 and 2018. The fire brigades can no longer extinguish a eucalyptus forest once it has really started burning. It will be a long time before the government issues a ban, and then, after that, even longer until the eucalyptus is cleared. What to plant instead of this poisonous tree? I asked myself this question every day and came up with the idea of creating a botanical forest garden. That was after the last forest fire in this region, for the time being, which devastated 280 square kilometres of land, forest, houses, etc. What should I do? Play Dom Quixote and fight windmills? Tear out the eucalyptus trees again?

In 2021, I installed a powerful sprinkler system and inspired hundreds of people to follow my example and use crowdfunding to selflessly finance a project dedicated to the general public. We installed eight large sprinklers in the forest against the main northerly wind direction, and each sprinkler sprays water over a distance of 25 to 30 metres into the forest, drenching it in this way. Don’t give fire a chance!

Every first weekend of the month, I organise a free workshop, at which I explain the system, together with the technician. We store water in several cisterns, which is channelled there via the roof of the editorial office and the gutters. We collect rainwater in winter, which we can then use, in the event of a forest fire in summer, to bring any forest fires under control immediately. If you would like to copy the system, please do. Come along for a visit – every workshop is free – always on the first weekend of each month. At this workshop, we also give instructions on how to finance such a system.

Step 8: Plant a Miyawaki forest

You need one hectare of land, which is about the size of a traffic island, or, in any case, no more than 250m². You select only native trees, around 200 in number and at least 40 different species. Perhaps you can convince your neighbour, or a class at school, your teacher or the school head. Then draw the new forest on a sheet of paper or on the blackboard, perhaps in the form of a labyrinth or maze, and start with the small trees and bushes, no bigger than 30 to 50cm tall. After that, you work the soil, which is the most important preparation for its later planting, with chicken or goat manure, or with compost and Terra Preta. In twenty years, these trees will grow into a remarkable forest. Five times faster than normal large forests. Akira Miyawaki was the botanist who created this form of small forest. For every tree you plant, you award yourself a CO₂ bonus of 10kg. So, you can easily offset a few hundred kg of CO₂ per year. And many new forests are a stone in the mosaic of climate change, slowing down the process. Bringing life back into balance, giving and taking … After the forest fires in Monchique, I decided to transform a formerly diverse forest into a botanical garden planted in an area of just under two hectares and founded an environmental cooperative. Anyone can join us and plant one or more trees and thus reduce their CO₂ footprint.

Step 9: Get a city council involved

Get a municipality on board, find yourself some allies. All over Portugal, climate action plans are currently being drawn up by the 308 municipalities. The EU Commission have asked for this. Because only through the municipalities will our 27 countries be able to achieve climate neutrality. No matter whether we are talking about Portugal or Germany, the rest of Europe, or the rest of the world. The goal of zero emissions starts with each and every one of us, with the municipalities, in the different countries, and this is also where the claim of no longer being a ‘climate pig’ ends. Incentives are needed. Read my interview with Laura Rodrigues, the mayor of Torres Vedras, a municipality in the centre of Portugal, with 83,000 inhabitants. You can find it at https://eco123.info/en/portugal-en/interviews-en/this-is-everyones-jobthe-first-municipality-in-portugal-to-develop-a-serious-climate-action-plan/

Step 10: Help create a fair and socially balanced tax system

What if you received a “climate bonus” from the State for climate-neutral living, i.e. what if you were rewarded for climate-friendly behaviour? Give this question some serious thought and write to me with your ideas, and I will write back to you with mine. Shall we exchange ideas? You tell me what you think, and I’ll tell you what solutions I have in mind for Europe. Let me inspire you. Dream and never let anyone discourage you. Have courage. You are the sovereign, and I am one of you. Don’t give populists and fascists a chance in your life. Don’t grumble, but create. That is the only solution.

And why don’t I write anything about climate deniers? I’m not a fan of dead ends and conspiracy theories. How can a sailor who has had the experience of travelling cleanly across the sea, in a boat powered by the wind, suddenly be convinced about flying in an aeroplane powered through the burning of dirty paraffin? Anyone who has said “goodbye” to fossil-fuelled cars will never take that step back into the dead end again.

Uwe Heitkamp (64)

trained TV journalist, book author and hobby botanist, father of two grown-up children, knows Portugal for 30 years, founder of ECO123. Translations: Dina Adão, John Elliot,  Patrícia Lara
Photos: Uwe Heitkamp