It is in the nature of the future that it gets ever closer until it finally has the audacity to become the past. 1984 was still a long way off when George Orwell wrote the book; also the year 2001, when Stanley Kubrick and Arthur Clarke wrote the screenplay and novel for the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the meantime, 1984 is already further back than it was from the perspective of the future when the book was published in 1949… admittedly, this is where it gets confusing.
The year 2030 may have seemed pleasantly far away to some people when the federal government drafted the Climate Protection Act (KSG) in 2021 and increased the savings targets for 2030. Emissions should then be two thirds less than in 1990. But how time flies: whoosh, nine years (a little, if you’re honest) will have turned into six (very little) by 2030.
It can hardly be denied that things will be tight, at least in the transport sector, if something doesn’t happen soon. Practically speaking, with the amendment to the KSG that the Bundestag passed on Friday, other areas are allowed to step in; only the overall result counts. Many experts are critical of the abolition of these sector goals. The focus is now more on the future; what matters more than before is whether the forecasts up to 2040 are in line with the goals.
Unfortunately, it is fundamentally difficult for people to really think about the future, as my colleague Christoph von Eichhorn describes in an essay worth reading. It is illustrated with works by photographers Giulia Piermartiri and Edoardo Delille, who project climate change onto everyday images.
Maybe that will help make the matter more tangible. Because one thing is unfortunately clear: If we don’t like the future so much that we don’t want to deal with it, how do we find it when it is present?
I wish you a weekend that you first look forward to, then enjoy and then remember fondly. Hopefully this will also work in 2030 – feel free to write me your thoughts on [email protected].
(This text comes from the weekly Newsletter Climate Friday that you here free of charge can order.)