It was a beautiful early sunday morning. Even earlier as normal, because the clock was set back. The energy company Vattenfall organised a big marathon in Berlin, to polish up its image.
With the Berlin based activist group "Gegenstrom" we planned to protest against their greenwash. I was on the tallbike, pulling the rollerbladers with the banner. Everybody cheered because we looked so funny. Then we made it till the finish and even got medalls!!
The banners read, "Vattenfall will carbonize us! - Socialise energy companies."
Christina Eichberger of Gegenstrom Berlin explains:
"Vattenfall is using the Berlin Half Marathon to green-wash their image, trying to appear greener and more humane. At the same time, Vattenfall and other energy monopolies in Germany heavily invest in the construction of new coal-fired power plants.
24 of these CO2-blowers are currently planned or under construction in Germany. Vattenfall is strongly involved in this, for example,
with their lignite mining in Lausitz, which also poses a threat to Berlin groundwater. "
Gegenstrom Berlin carried out the action to highlight Vattenfall's investment in coal polluting industry, preventing a power supply with 100% renewable energy for decades to come. Social and political interests, not corporate interests, need to set the course for our future energy production. We therefore ask for a socialization and decentralization of energy production and supply.
Energy concepts like that of Vattenfall and other energy companies are building for the next few decades on coal and nuclear energy. Renewable energies and coal simply do not fit together. When Vattenfall build coal plants now, they block our path to a renewable future.
