Thread by @wblau

A group of young people (age 18-27) is now in the third week of a hunger strike, in tents right next to the German parliament. They hope to force the three candidates for the German Chancellery to discuss the climate crisis with them. One of the group collapsed today and was…

taken to a hospital. The green candidate and member of Parliament, Baerbock, spoke with the group via phone and urged them to not risk their health. The SPD candidate and current Vice Chancellor/Minister of Finance, Scholz, sent a similar message. The CDU candidate and current..

Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia has not ruled out to still speak with the group.
The group also demands the establishment of a citizens‘ climate assembly to discuss emergency climate protection measures.
I went to their camp today and briefly spoke with one of..

their supporters, a young woman. Their idea for a climate assembly has similarities with both France‘s ‚Citizens Convention for Climate‘
( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_… ) and the UK‘s ‚Citizens Climate Assembly ( parliament.uk/get-involved/c… ).
For the three politicians, the ethical..

dilemma this hunger strike poses is an obvious one, while the situation of these young people is also getting more dangerous by the day.
Personally, I strongly hope that they will end their hunger strike immediately. For reporters who cover this strike, though, I also hope they…

see this situation in the context of the now often fundamental fear and desperation that especially (but not only) young people experience in the face of this accelerating climate crisis, as shown in this new global study here:
google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.…

A question for another day is how to communicate and inform about the climate crisis in ways that are truthful and instructive but not completely disempowering, especially for young people and children.
Hanna Ritchie, Head of Research at @OurWorldInData, has the study’s charts:

https://twitter.com/_HannahRitchie/status/1437791860983058433