Hitler: the green movement's German shepherd?
Ever wondered why it is that Germany (a country that generates more renewable energy than Britain hopes to make in ten years and is hell-bent on becoming the first country to run on 100% green energy by 2050) is so far ahead of the rest of the world in the race to be green?
According to Lord Anthony Giddens' latest book, 'The Politics of Climate Change' and a number of respected historians, Hitler may have given Germany a head-start. Not only did he pass the most stringent and comprehensive environmental protection law in the world at that time, but he also had a soft spot for vegetarianism, organic nibbles and animal welfare (up until the point when he poisoned his doting German Shepherd, Blondi, that is).
'The Nazi "ecologists" promoted conservation and organic farming, and practised vegetarianism', writes Lord Giddens on page 51 of his book. 'The Reich Nature Protection Law, passed in 1935, together with other legislation, had the aim of preventing damage to the environment in undeveloped areas, protecting forests and animals and reducing air pollution.'
If you're toying with the idea that the Nazis weren't such a rotten bunch after all (just a couple of misunderstood hippies who lost their way?) then nip that thought in the bud, says Peter Staudenmaier, co-author of the book 'Ecofascism'. They were 'not a group of innocents, confused and manipulated idealists, or reformers from within', he says, but 'conscious promoters and executors of a vile program explicitly dedicated to inhuman racist violence, massive political repression and worldwide military domination. Their "ecological" involvements, far from offsetting these fundamental commitments, deepened and radicalized them'.
Either way, the Reichstag's imminent transformation into the greenest parliament in the world, powered entirely by renewable energy, has clearly been a long time coming.
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~38~RS~)
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Huge areas of Germany, particularly in the East, are covered in ugly windfarms that ruin the appearance of the countryside. I think this is because there is a big artificial government subsidy for wind-produced electricity.
Certainly Germany has been very 'green' since at least the 70's but it's an interesting and rather controversial idea that it started with the Nazi's!
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"OK, doctor, I know I've got cancer so I'm going to cut my smoking down to its 1980s level over the next 40 years."
If anyone really believed this stuff they would want everyone to stop in their tracks right now. Scrap all cars, scrap home heating, industry, jobs, tractors, planes, switch off the internet, close down the BBC, close down power stations, no holidays, no meat, no cooked food.
Back to the middle ages. Yippee....
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It may be possible that the Nazis promoted various green ethics, for whatever reason, though attributing them as the main reason for Germany's head start in the renewables race is probably a little far fetched.
Could the nature of the post war government, being mixed member proportional representation, have had more influence in this area? Germany is one of very few countries in Europe and the World that represents marginal political parties (i.e. green groups) because of the structure of their electoral system.
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