I think for many people it's a kind of
bewilder in future because there is not
a day when you can't pick up a newspaper
and find an article that tells you about
some new corporate commitment some new
national initiatives on new technology
which might help us and then the next
day you open the newspapers and it's
Australian bushfires and it's Donald
Trump and and it's really hard to kind
of see where this is overall whether you
should hope I'm gonna interest in where
you think it's poised and what will
determine whether or not below beliee we
do the things that we need to do I'll
start with you Jonathan the big thing
for me I was having to change the last
year's there was received wisdom which
is if you hit people with the reality of
it it's too big people will get scared
they'll disengage they'll be apathetic
so we can't do anything about it and
Along Came extinction rebellion and the
school strikers and Greta and said
planets burning what you're gonna do and
that just changed the whole debate I
think now it is this massive massive
thing and now I think next Kings
rebellion one of the articles of faith
is to tell the truth there first demand
and we are telling the truth about it
and I am really worried I want to give
hope and I believe that what people need
more than anything right now is hope and
a vision but the scale of transformation
that is going to be needed in order to
do what we need to do to stop
cataclysmic climate events is huge and
when we came up with this manifesto for
this election we were talking about
borrowing a hundred billion pounds a
year for ten years to have this huge
shift and we were making the links which
i think is really important in people's
minds about why we need to radically
transform the welfare state to provide
the security for people as we make this
transition because if we're going to
make these huge changes you're going to
have to make sure that people are secure
and therefore we need to reform and
reimagine the welfare state as an
empowering tool we have to get away from
this blind addiction to credit fuel
growth we have to tackle the fact that
the economy is now three times bigger we
have three times more wealth than when I
was born we have the wealth the
alternative to just going on growing and
growing and going is to redistribute
that wealth now you can call it
left-wing but that is what we have to do
you know if we're going to make the
change
and we feel like we're telling the truth
and there's a bigger stake you know we
can have all the electoral success we
like and compromise as much as you like
but if we don't avoid the climate
catastrophe then what's the bloody point
he came elected to a government if you
aren't actually making the difference so
we have to say it and and shifting the
agenda for us in this country has been
as important as getting the electoral
success but it's interesting I'm it's
very interesting because there's always
been this debate hasn't there do you
focus on the harms do you focus on the
despair the the panic and fear or do you
focus on the upside you focus on well
actually no a green economy would be a
happier economy that well-being would be
better you know technology can you know
be used to make real progress it feels
as though partly cause of the extinction
rebellion and and and the school
children's action that the emphasis and
also what's happening in the world has
moved more to the negative as a way of
mobilizing people and I noticed that
Donald Trump who whatever he is is not
stupid when it comes to understanding
where to try to draw lines the line he
wanted to draw at Davos was about this
he wanted to say this isn't you know
forget all this it's Optimus versus
pessimists it's me cheerful old all of
us is that rather miserable a girl from
Sweden is there a danger there even
though it may be in the short term that
people are mobilized by fear it's not
enough one of the things you said
positively about your part of Germany is
that it's been won by the greens for ten
years and you had strong economic growth
why no no but it depends on what kind of
economic grocery you have and and I
firmly believe that you know if we go on
this apocalypse storytelling
we also disappear and the living means
emission emitting co2 the only time we
don't emit co2 as if we're dead so if
you go at all the way to the radical
then your life opposing and we are
firmly loving life and trying to make it
a better life and one of the our oldest
slogans of the Green Party in Germany is
with Gounod Ian Schwarz a challenge
which means taking green ideas and
making writing you know getting to black
numbers
of the month so to have economic success
so we have always been in proposing a
new definition of gross and making it
more inclusive of environmental
questions but also social questions and
caring like care work etc and that has
been so strong in our party that now we
do as German greens for the last five
years in an alternative Rose Index for
Germany and it's become as you know
publicly known and broad in the media as
the German national gross index
even though we're not in government it's
not you know but we have done it with
scientists etc and I feel like when I'm
locally in you know in my Heidelberg
constituency and I'm telling people look
imagine the city we just take out the
cars we take that space for our kids you
know we gain it take the idea we could
have energy you you know on our roofs
and on our windows we can just you know
live in a different place it gives you
so much more energy and I really think
that in the end if you want to have that
positive change you have to go by ideas
that are quick easy to implement and
that are socially inclusive and that's
why of course you need money you need
funding for it and I always say you know
what does it help me locally in
baden-württemberg to stay there if I
tell people not to use the car and I
don't have a running train system I
don't want to cut on mobility
I'm lived on four continents I love
traveling and I want to be in touch with
my friends in New York and I want us our
system to get me to New York without
producing co2 it's not to get everybody
to become better human beings to stop
being in touch and I'm convinced that we
can get there if we put in the resources
if we put the legal constraints
necessary for that and I think you know
that's what we've been doing in
baden-württemberg we have been investing
in lot in these new technologies and new
ways of running also transport mobility
systems etc and I think it's very
worthwhile and maybe on what you said
hope you know one of my dearest quotes
that I always have in my pockets it's
let's laugh Havel who said I try to make
it in English it's like hope it's not
the conviction that something ends well
but the
firm belief that what you're doing is
the right thing to do
[Applause]
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