Protest #10 on Saturday, 2019-06-15, Stockholm Arlanda Airport

I protested again against climate breakdown, especially caused by high-emission air travel, at Stockholm Arlanda Airport between 13:20 to 15:20 on Saturday 2019-06-15 outside the arrival area of Terminal 5 after I had received a re-newed police permission on Thursday. I presented a poster with basic information on average annual personal emissions in Sweden (2016), ie 10.1 tons CO2e, sustainable annual personal budget, ie 2.3 tons CO2e, and the carbon emissions of a flight Stockholm-Bangkok-Stockholm, ie 4.2 tons CO2e. I also distributed stickers displaying the Keeling curve and a link to the latest IPCC report.

Highlights:

  • I raised climate awareness to climate breakdown in an estimated number of a few hundred air travellers, who passed by me.
  • I distributed  20-30 stickers (which is much fewer than at my previous location at the departure zone, see discussion of potential reasons before)
  • A bunch of young Australian guys sharing their concern about the opening of the new giant Adani coal mine.
  • A young (12 year old?), coloured boy shyly staring at me for 20-30 seconds, before he came over and snatched a sticker out of my hand, eagerly reading it.
  • Some critical, mocking remarks (“Greta har fel!”, “Eat carbon, it is good for stomach problems!”, “Why don’t you go swimming in this nice weather!”)

However, the real highlight was when I arrived by at Uppsala Centralstation and saw a booth of the Islamic community in Uppsala and started talking to one of the guys distributing flyers, what the muslim world thought about the climate crisis and mass extinction. In a few seconds a small crowd of 3 guys from Pakistan, India, and Tschad (and me from Germany) gathered to seriously and openly discuss the role of Islam and the muslim community in the context of climate breakdown and the general ecological crisis.

  • I learned …
    • that there are some muslim groups dealing with these problems, however, there does not seem to be a general awareness.
    • Islam argues strongly against wasting the resources (ie “waste is a gift to the devil”).
    • Islam argues strongly for the protection of human life (ie “save a life, save the world”).
    • In Islam planting a tree earns you a better life after death (sorry, for my laymen’s terminology).
    • Muslims have easy access to fossil fuels and are stuck in their habits of using it.
  • I proposed …
    • making the core idea of Islam of overcoming egotistical drives (including greed) relevant again since the greed of the capitalist system is currently driving humankind and the biosphere in general towards destruction.
    • there are similar structural problems in the western world and the muslim world, in terms of a powerful elite gathering wealth based on a fossil-fuel based system to the disadvantage of humankind, especially the poor, and the natural world.
    • challenge their religious teachers, e.g. imams, regarding the stance of Islam regarding the current climate crisis and ecological crisis
    • use the dedication and courage, which I often see in Muslims, to challenge their fellow believers, for example, I pointed out that muslim countries, like Kuwait and Saudi-Arabia are one of the highest consuming countries (in terms of average consumption per individual) in the world.

After some boring two hours at Stockholm Arlanda Airport, I immensely enjoyed this serious and open discussion with three nice guys (Thanks for the tea, BTW :-)).

In addition, when I treated myself to a cappucino at the Espresso House at Forumtorget, Uppsala, I asked the shop assistants about the company’s strategy about reducing single-use plastic and paper cups. I found out that the company has actually I scheme for people who bring along their own cup, which is based on stamp collecting (double the amount of stamps as company cup), but the scheme is rarely used, and I argued that this scheme seems like “green-washing” to me, since it looks good for marketing purposes but does not make a difference. I suggested a directly rewarding system, for example, by selling coffee 1SEK cheaper to customers with their own cup.

So finally, I hope, I used every chance to make a difference today 🙂 …

Damn’ it, I almost forgot the selfie:

PS:

I later found out there are actually some environmental movements in Islam:

https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/how-islam-can-represent-model-environmental-stewardship

https://unfccc.int/news/islamic-declaration-on-climate-change

https://www.islamic-relief.org/climatechange

http://www.ifees.org.uk

http://wilmarigl.de

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