Berlin

"I looked out of the window and saw the brilliant fall foliage of Tiergarten with Goldelse high above. Then the wheels hit and held on the runway. I was in Berlin."

Berlin Tegel is not my usual port of entry to the German capital. With the exception of an early morning flight from Istanbul in 2008 and the odd Fokker 70 ride from Vienna a few years before that, Berlin always used to be about trains. With Element of Crime playing in my earphones, I jump on bus X9 to Bahnhof Zoo to restore at least some sense of continuity.

Working on my new co-authored paper on climate realism on the flight down, I realized that for better or worse, I am a Spökenkieker and there is not much I can do about it. It is such a cliché but, over time, the heroes and the villains have indeed got all mixed up. Ten years ago, I would unequivocally have said that Greenpeace was a “force for good”. Today, I see them as one of the biggest obstacles in the fight against climate change. Regardless, that fight is already lost, at least its first round. The question is rather how bad the feedback signal will have to get before meaningful action is taken.