Environment
Activists on the climate hunger strike appeal to Scholz
Activist Wolfgang Metzeler-Kick has been on hunger strike since March 7th. photo
© Sebastian Gollnow/dpa
Climate activists believe that there is not enough talk about the facts and consequences of global warming. Two of them are on hunger strike at the Chancellery. One says: “I am ready to die.”
After 30 days of hunger strike, an activist in Berlin has once again appealed to the Chancellor Olaf Scholz appeals to publicly commit to a radical climate change. If necessary, he would be prepared to die, said 49-year-old engineer Wolfgang Metzeler-Kick, who has not eaten anything since March 7th.
A second activist joined him twelve days ago. They live in a tent camp in the Spreebogenpark in the Berlin government district between the Bundestag and the Chancellery.
“Starve until you’re honest”
With the campaign “Hunger until you are honest” they want to ensure that Chancellor Scholz makes a government statement on the climate crisis. In it, the SPD politician should say that the “continuance of human civilization is extremely endangered by the climate crisis.” In addition, Scholz should commit to the goal: “We have to radically change course now, even if it is years late.”
“I’m hungry for honesty and I’m willing to die so that the truth can be revealed,” Metzeler-Kick said at a news conference on Friday. He was prepared to escalate the hunger strike “to the extreme.”
A possible next step would be to cut out the juice that the two activists still consume. If he died, the facts about global warming and its consequences – including storms, droughts, floods and famines – would be “torn out of repression,” said the environmental engineer. “It’s a fucking big sacrifice.”
According to a doctor who looks after the hunger strikers, both are in stable health. In extreme cases, people could survive a hunger strike for 50 to 70 days. The climate group Scientist Rebellion called on sympathizers to also go without food for one or two days in solidarity.