Despite the hype, Extinction Rebellion a non-event in Berlin

Many will remember Carola Rackete, the seafaring captain of the migrant-taxi Sea-Watch 3. A few months ago Rackete attempted a run into the Italian blockade at Lampedusa, ramming a patrol boat in the process.

Former Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini had her arrested and her vessel was impounded. However, a judge later ordered the release of both and Salvini’s efforts were thus thwarted by the actions of the leftwing judiciary.

Since then Rackete has moved on and she is currently busy “saving the climate”, and plans to help Extinction Rebellion.

According to Rackete, to bring about changes within government, “signing petitions isn’t enough”.

She recently told an audience at a meeting of Menschenrechte in der Klimakrise [Human rights in the climate crisis]: “Participation in demonstrations isn’t enough. We need protests that really cause discomfort for the government. That would be the economy.

“If we want to achieve something we need to be efficient. This means that Extinction Rebellion will set up blockades where it will hurt the most. That means large cities, because that’s where those working in the government are.

“As well as the large media companies and the elites. The strikes will be long-term. We are planning major events in Germany, and in neighbouring countries beginning October 7 in Berlin. We have definitive plans for a blockade that will last one week in Berlin.”

This week, on Monday around noon, the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin filled up with protesters, previously so-called “climate activists” of the organisation “Extinction Rebellion”. They had gathered to paralyze the traffic, reported journalist Hermann Rössler for Junge Freiheit.

“It’s five past twelve, this is the beginning of the rebellion on Potsdamer Platz,” a blonde girl shouted into a megaphone. The streets were painted with chalk colours, and the circled hourglass, the symbol of the climate rebels, could be seen everywhere. The audience was mostly young.

One woman arrived naked, standing on a small podium, her body painted with the slogan: “I am Nature”. Between guitar playing and “creative” workshops, crowds shouted: “What do we want? Climate justice now!”

They also demanded “no border, no nation, stop deportation”.

Although every effort was made to make the demonstration interactive, the construction of a stage, on which Carola Rackete would later speak, was very slow and most participants looked extremely bored. Luisa Neubauer was the first speaker on the stage but was barely audible suggesting that the erected solar cells delivered too little power.

Not even a flashmob could alleviate the boredom in Berlin. Photo: Twitter

Neubauer did not say anything new. “If we do not meet the climate goals, we will die.” It would now take masses who go out on the streets to change politics and society. In 2020, a “game changer” will be launched. What that really means is not clear however.

Neubauer is one of the main organizers of the school strike movement, inspired by Greta Thunberg. She supports the implementation of Agenda 2030 in Germany and a climate policy that is in line with the Paris Agreement.

Then Carola Rackete appeared. She gave the same speech she had at the lunch break at the Victory Column which is about all her personal experiences with climate change as well as that of her nomadic friend.

Rackete’s insights were rather limited despite her training background: “I myself am a nature conservation ecologist by profession and it is a disaster for me to see the federal government do nothing to prevent the climate crisis and to prevent the loss of biodiversity on this planet. These things bring humanity into crisis,” she said.

“I’m glad that we’ll be blocking Berlin day and night,” Rackete declared at the end of her speech. Then she went and sat in the crowd with her friends while eating from a plastic Tupperware.

In the large mall, which is only a few hundred meters away from the Berlin demonstration, the fast food shops were brimming with shoppers. The climate crisis was not a burning issue to them obviously. And those travelling by means of public transport or on foot might not have noticed anything that the “climate rebels” had promised.

Demonstrators across Europe and worldwide have demanded climate measures from their governments. In London and Amsterdam some arrests marked the beginning of Extinction Rebellion’s two weeks of disruptive action.

The call to protest for two weeks in 60 cities worldwide, included a series of “mass participation direct actions” with a three-day shutdown of London City Airport.  In Amsterdam police announced on Monday that they had arrested 90 protesters in the city centre for blocking a major street.

In Rome meanwhile, the prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for aggravated threats after the discovery of the effigy of the environmental activist Greta Thunberg hanging under a bridge.

As Vatican hosts gathering of bishops on the Amazon region to discuss evangelization and the environment, a puppet resembling teen climate activist Greta Thunberg was hanged from a bridge in Rome.

The sign hanging from the puppet reads “Greta is your God.” pic.twitter.com/4ovKWsB9dF

— Claire Giangrave (@ClaireGiangrave) October 7, 2019

The figure in the image of Greta Thunberg was found hanging under a bridge in Rome on Monday, on October 7, reported French magazine l’Express. Attached to the parapet of the bridge, a sign that reads “Greta is your god” in English could be seen as if the two braids of the model were not enough to guess who had been symbolically hanged.

The public prosecutor’s office in Rome immediately opened an investigation for aggravated threats. The mayor of the Italian capital, Virginia Raggi, expressed in a tweet the “solidarity” of Rome with the family of the young activist.

For her part, Nicole Zingaretti, leader of the Democratic Party, lambasted “macabre violence”, a sign that the perpetrators did not “respect ideas they do not share”.

The young environmental activist suffering from Asperger’s autism regularly arouses international indignation. Recently, she addressed the leaders of the world on a UN platform screaming: “How dare you? You stole my dreams and my childhood!”

The young teenager is at the service of an “essentially subversive ecologist-internationalist ideology erected as a true religion by the globalized elites,” noted French journalist Alexandre Del Valle.