NEW GERMAN WEBSITE HELPS CONSUMERS MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICES
BY TORSTEN MUELLER
Consumer organizations in Germany have come together to put up a user-friendly unique website on climate change that not only busts myths but is also helping the average consumer understand where he is going wrong.
"The climate crisis can be solved. Here's how to start." The idea Al Gore tried to put across two years ago in his movie "An inconvenient truth" – of teaching the end-consumer how to be environmentally conscious and friendly – seems to have reached Germany.
On the 14th of August this year, a website titled ‘For me. For you. For the climate' (Für mich.Für dich.Für's klima.) was started by an alliance of independent German consumer protection forums. ("Verbraucherschutzorganisationen").
Change already perceptible
What will happen if the sea level rises more than 2 meters within the next 50 years?
It will be inconvenient indeed, says the website on one of its main pages. Climate change is already perceptible but what can we, as consumers, do to prevent this from happening?
As part of a nationwide climate protection initiative of many cooperating consumer organizations, this site is a spin-off, gathering information on numerous projects, such as roadshows, table talks or presentations, which were implemented in the previous months in many cities in Germany.
Knowledge platform
It serves as a general knowledge platform, where consumers receive inspiration about how they can individually contribute to mitigate climate change.
Additionally, consumers can ask direct questions via telephone or email and get individual consulting.
In order to fulfil these purposes, the page is divided into three main sectors: food, goods and transportation.
According to the initiative, these are the most important sectors in which every citizen can take immediate action.
Helping understand climate change
The initiative claims that consumers have increasing problems understanding the climate issues being addressed in the global conferences, for the corresponding statements and discussions get too abstract.
The campaign therefore tries to reduce the complexity and connect the issue of Greenland's melting glaciers to the everyday life of German citizens.
The official logo of the consumer organisations' climate initiative.
How you move, eat or buy
Thus, the message is simple: be more aware about how you move, eat or buy. The site encourages citizens to use more efficient ways of transportation, buy environmentally friendly produced food and buy sustainable goods.
Furthermore, Verbraucherfürsklima.org uses tools such as slideshows in order to support the arguments in the texts and illustrate the consequences of climate change.
Therefore, the shows contain a high percentage of pictures taken in Germany, for example of the flood catastrophe in 2005.
Excerpts from different surveys and reports are given and connected with national and global incidents to come, such as more flood catastrophes, spread of disease or epidemics.
All information is backed up by weblinks to important surveys, articles or interviews with politicians such as the German environmental minister Sigmar Gabriel.
Know your footprint
Every visitor is given the oppurtunity to calculate his own CO2-emissions with the help of the CO2-calculator.
By answering questions in ten steps, this little tool illustrates the CO2-emissions caused in every specific category of the given household.
The average for German households with four persons is at about 43 tons of CO2 per year, which makes Germany one of the top-polluting countries in the world.
Climate encyclopedia
A climate encyclopedia gives short explanations of the most important issues and keywords, while a special section "kills" prejudices and false assumptions about climate issues, for instance by unveiling critical details in the argument about whether a car, train or aircraft is the most environmentally friendly means of transportation.
Let alone the fact that people visiting this site start to reflect on their behaviour, one main goal is already achieved.
Browsing through the site, anyone can quickly discover his climate frauds and thus the site encourages personal responsibility of every citizen.
And as Sigmal Gabriel, German Minister of Environment, states, there is a huge potential with regard to the CO2-emissions resting with the private households.
According to him, climate protection pays off for consumers and for the industry as well, which would profit from the demand for new eco-friendly technologies.
Torsten Mueller, 26, is a journalist from Germany, currently studying in the Erasmus Mundus Masters programme "Journalism & Media within Globalization" in Aarhus, Denmark.
