A few days ago, the time had come. The biggest terrorist attack in the history of Germany was carried out. What had happened? A few climate activists had cut through the fences at Frankfurt Airport and glued themselves to the tarmac. The consequences were devastating: 170 flights were canceled, thousands of holidaymakers could only fly to their vacation destinations with delays. Fortunately, there were no fatalities.

If you read the media reports, the comments on social media or listen to the demands of politicians and the companies concerned for long prison sentences = – unfortunately, the death penalty no longer exists – then the climate gluers are the worst criminals of all time who should be hit by the full force of the law. In any case, climate change activists are all good-for-nothings who should first do some proper work and who would benefit from a good spanking, not to spoil the hard-working people’s well-earned – and it is always a well-earned – vacation.

Where does this hatred come from and is it justified? Because when I look at other disruptions of daily life in the near and distant past, I am somewhat surprised at the proportionality of the public reaction.

RAF-Terror

In the 1970s and 1980s, Germany was kept in suspense by RAF terror. Bomb attacks, kidnappings, murders and bank robberies by several generations of RAF terrorists were the order of the day. The state had no choice but to set up highway barriers with checkpoints and introduce strict controls that restricted the daily lives of all German citizens. Some of the terrorists are still on the run.

Strikes

In the recent past, and I’m talking about the last few months, life in Germany has come to a standstill because train drivers, pilots, airport security staff, farmers and postal workers have gone on strike. And they did so several times, sometimes with a lot of violence and destruction. The farmers’ protests in particular regularly leave chaos in their wake. Air, rail and road traffic are regularly paralyzed. Millions of citizens are unable to go to work, school, hospital, surgery or buy essentials because these professional groups are blocking everything.

I don’t want to know how many people died because ambulances couldn’t get through or because someone didn’t get an operation or treatment in time. People never talk about that.

And: these occupational groups are not underprivileged or starving. No, compared to many other professions, they earn a lot or receive high subsidies.

Just recently, millions of computers were paralyzed by a software bug that affected a number of airlines, which had to cancel their flights.

The public accepts all this, if not with a shrug, then with a certain lethargy. There are no calls for prison sentences from the media or politicians, no commentators berate the farmers and pilots. Quite the opposite: people even understand them and sympathize with them. And: they tuck tail and give in to their demands.

Climate Actvists

Climate activists, on the other hand, which draw attention to a problem that affects all of our futures? Hate is being sprayed, people are foaming at the mouth and there are almost calls for the reintroduction of the death penalty.

This is about much more than a small strike. It’s about the threat to our lifestyle, which is defined, for example, by combustion engines and flying on vacation. Train drivers or farmers do not threaten this, at least not directly.

Not so with climate activists. The fact that the prominent people behind the climate protection movement are often women makes matters worse. The fact that Greta Thunberg in particular is the target of online threats of violence and hate has less to do with the fact that men hate Swedish girls with pigtails or Hamburg mobility experts and more to do with what they stand for. They represent the threat to their lifestyle and attitude to life made possible by petrol and thus to their heterosexual masculine identity.

Because, it must be added, the majority of climate haters are men. And this phenomenon is even being studied scientifically. Here is an excerpt from my book CYBERF*CKED:

Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden is home to the world’s first institute dedicated to researching the phenomenon of climate change denial. At this point, it will come as no surprise that masculinity in connection with climate change denial is one of the focal points of research. And indeed, the first study results show that men are more likely than women to deny the severity of climate change and feel more threatened by the climate protection movement. Let that melt in your mouth: These men feel less threatened by climate change than by the initiatives that want to stop and reverse climate change. For them, their masculinity feels like the last straw they can clutch at in a rapidly changing world, and now it is to be snatched out of their hands. There is nothing to suggest that men with electric cars or electric heating are less masculine.

Climate change is therefore not only a threat to our existence, a challenge for technology, politics and our behavior, but is also massively linked to our understanding of gender roles.

In other words: this is about more than just a strike, it is about the fear of having one’s own lifestyle questioned and having a mirror held up to one’s own behavior. And this causes a much more intense and, above all, irrational reaction to protest actions by climate activists and climate campaigners.

That is the real problem, not the climate activists, and that should be addressed. Climate protection should be a concern for all of us.