1) The Air Berlin & Niki bankruptcy: There is a lot to say about this as a sustainability advocate: Subsidising airlines is a prime example of the state providing subsidies which have adverse effects on sustainability. No surprise Germany is now officialy scraping the 2020 climate goals. Subsidising airlines and regional airports is the main…

»Autozug« bedeutet in Frankreich: ein Zug nur für die Autos der Kunden. Die Kunden selbst reisen mit TGV, IC oder Nachtzug voraus oder hinterher. Die SNCF will jetzt aber die Kundenautos auf der Straße transportieren – und zwar nicht unbedingt im LKW, sondern auf eigenen Reifen per Chauffeur (!!!). So much about reducing carbon dioxide…

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/club-of-rome-was-ist-wichtiger-wohlstand-oder-umweltschutz-1.3792401 We have to look at our consumption: the rich countries have enormous ecological footprints. Now the poorer countries are catching up quickly. That is in principle great. But if the 7.5 billion people on the planet lived like US-Americans (or for that matter, Europeans) we would need 5 planets. It could sound as if…

I am taking the night train (ÖBB nightjet) from Vienna to Zurich today. So let us take this as an opportunity to compare the carbon footprint (all numbers for the one-way trip!): Driving from Vienna to Zurich takes 7h 30min, costs 80-120 Euro, and produces 122kg of CO2. Flying from Vienna to Zurich takes 4h…

Every year in December a new train schedule  becomes valid in Europe. And of course, as every year, a lot of night trains are cut. This year in particular in Eastern Europe, which for a long time had had a very stable and dense night train network. The European policy of subsidising air travel is…

While in Germany, Italy, Austria and Switzerland a rudimentary night train network continues to exist, there is no possibility anymore to get from Germany, Switzerland or Italy to Spain in a comfortable, fast, and environment-friendly way. That used to be different! The Trenhotel nighttrains with the ‘Elipsos’ brand use to cover Madrid-Paris, Barcelona-Paris, Barcelona-Milan and…

„Für jede in Deutschland durch den Biodiesel eingesparte Tonne Kohlendioxid werden in Indonesien bis zu 30 Tonnen freigesetzt. “ „For every ton of carbon dioxide saved in Germany by using bio-fuel (biodiesel made from vegetable oils) there are 30 tons of CO2 produced in Indonesia.“ This is because Germany needs so much fuel, that it…

According to Rome2Rio (all numbers for the round trip): Driving from Vienna to Munich takes 4h 11min, costs 45-65 Euro, and produces 136kg of CO2. Flying from Vienna to Munich takes 4h 1 min, costs 69-287 Euro, and produces 216kg of CO2. Compensating this amount of CO2 on atmosfair costs 10 Euro. Taking the train…

German Energy Consumption 2017 is 1% over the 2016 Energy Consumption Why? Particularly important contributions are: a 2.1% increase in the use of Lignite (brown coal) for electricity production 3.1% increase in Diesel use 2.4% increase in gasoline use 5% increase in heating oil use 6% increase in jet fuel use Now while we all…

97% of all Germans agree that we have to do something about our environment. 70% declare that they would be willing to take the bike more often. So how comes that the number of SUVs is exploding? How comes a third of all citizens never uses any form of public transportation? How comes we fly…