Notices by Wolfgang Lucht (w_lucht@mstdn.social)

Imagine a publishing house with the mission of making knowledge and insights available to everybody for free, while ensuring high standards.

Well, the three universities of Berlin and the Charité have now joined forces to do just that.

They founded "Berlin Universities Publishing". Neither authors not readers pay. The pdf of books are freely available under a Creative Commons licence.

It's called "Diamond Open Access". They're just starting up. Much more to come.

https://www.berlin-universities-publishing.de/en/index.html

An upbeat feature in Nature on the potential to "cool down the planet" through CO2 removal. I disagree with most of it. Cool down? It would be huge to even slow the heating.

At least it quotes me at the end: “We are really trying really hard not to burden the next generation with the enormous impacts of climate change,” says Lucht. “We should also not burden them with having to implement planetary-scale carbon removal.”

Yes. But no: we're not really trying really hard.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01233-6

Do you see anything special in this woody path? Well, it's certain Einstein walked here, more than once. It leads right up to his beloved last house in Germany. I just walked by, after work.

He left for the US on Dec 6, 1932. Hitler took power Jan 30. Mar 10, Einstein declared not to return as liberty & equality were no longer the law. Mar 20, the house was searched. May 10, his writings publicly burned. In July, he lost citizenship. In 1935, the house was confiscated.

Einstein never returned.

It was 80 years today that Potsdam was destroyed. The pleasant city I work in.

It was late in the evening. 490 British bombers unloaded 1700 tons of bombs over the historical city, still held by the nearly defeated Nazis and a supporting population, less than four weeks before the war ended amid enormous destruction. In just 35 minutes, 1593 people were killed, 1000 buildings destroyed, 60.000 left homeless.

Caused by just 12 years of deadly nationalist "Germany first" fascism.
#NeverAgain

Yesterday, I took part in a press conference to talk about the urgency of the climate crisis.

It was at the invitation of @JoergAltSJ , a Jesuit priest and author who is a life-long campaigner for human rights, justice and those in need.

Today, he entered a prison in Bavaria to serve a 25-day sentence. His crime? To have disrupted, for a short while, the flow of traffic. He did it to highlight the lack of sufficient climate action. He refused to pay the fine - so now, jail.

My comments below.

Let history show that there were people in early 2025 who did not call what is happening in the US "controversial" or "accusations of" or "critics claim that". People who do not normalise what isn't normal but who carefully, analytically dissect what's happening: a coordinated, developing attempt at authoritarian power grab in the US, reflecting the early stages of fascism by all definitions of the term. It's something that'll be hard to roll back if it is not fought hard, now.

#StateOfAffairs

Imagine a country in which more than 13.000 scientists come together - to warn an incoming new government of a grave and pertinent danger.

Imagine all they ask is to take it seriously, communicate about it honestly, and base policies on evidence.

And then it gets completely ignored.
By the media, politicians, public discourse.

That's where we're at.

Full text with 13.000 signatures on transparent science-based climate and nature protection:
https://www.bayceer.uni-bayreuth.de/s4f/de/top/5001/Appell_Druckversion_25.03.2025.pdf

@S4F

The huge number of
👉13.726 German scientists 👈
have signed the @S4F appeal to Germany's politicians to now not push aside but greatly strengthen policies for climate and nature protection.

It calls for honest communication of the magnitude of the risks and opportunities of transformation. Sober scientific facts have an important role in democratic decision making.

Picture by the infatigable visual documentarian of the German climate movement @stefanmuelller, himself a scientist.

Interesting moment tonight when the spacecraft returned from the international space station. Soon after splash down several dolphins showed up to check out the strange things happening.

Spacecraft meets intelligent life.

More than 10.000 scientists from or working in Germany have by now signed the Scientists for Future @S4F appeal to politicians, parliament and the next government.

Calling on them to not make the mistake of considering climate and nature protection a side issue; but to communicate about it honestly, and soberly base socially aware environmental politics on facts.

To be handed over next Monday, when our new parliament convenes.

Can still be signed until then:
https://www.bayceer.uni-bayreuth.de/s4f/de/top/o2/?t=36305f9b0a1a3a3a4e15d24a25938f62fc935e

The EU is often portrayed as slightly laughable - just because it's not built on having your partners stare down the barrel of your gun.

It's a peace project, born of the devastation of war. It's not against the nation state, but about the idea of it not mattering all that much which one you're in. It's not about imposing uniformity but about negotiating diversity.

The idea of a peaceful civilization - significant failures notwithstanding - will remain tall after this era of rampage is over.

The paper the 🇩🇪 conservatives agreed with the social dems today as a basis for negotiating a gvmt opens with "historical challenges" we face, but that doesn't include climate, it seems. It also says securing a safe future allows no delay, and again no mention of climate & nature.

The 11 pp. contain only a bland, vague commitment to 🇩🇪 climate goals, renewables; but also CCS, new gas power.

The word "nature" doesn't appear at all. "Environment" only once, indirectly.

https://www.spd.de/fileadmin/Dokumente/Sonstiges/20250308_Sondierungspapier_CDU_CSU_SPD.pdf

My home city of Mainz on the Rhine goes back to Roman foundations - the 22nd legion was stationed there. The mighty cathedral is over 1000 years old.

On Feb. 27, 1945 - 80 years ago - just a month before the war ended in the city - Mainz was totally destroyed by bombing. After this last attack, 80% of it stood in ruins.

It was a consequence of nationalist, racist, fascist government, carried to the end by an adoring population. It took just 12 years from taking power to total devastation.

Sooo ... I was an election helper in our national elections this Sunday. It was a fantastic experience, all told - it moved me in unexpected ways, gave food for thought, changed me somehow, just a bit. Here's a report. Maybe it's interesting.

We were a nice little team charged with setting everything up, then once open I served as a keeper of records: checking that voters are in the lists and eligible.

1/8

Hour upon hour, the folks of this voting district (I was assigned to a place different from where I live) passed by, a steady stream from the first minute to the last. Participation was high. I saw their names and dates of birth: families, singles, young and old, workmen and academics, dressed formally, fancilly, casually. The oldest voter was 90, musing this would be her last time voting, the youngest just eligible for the first time.

2/8

The mood was joyous throughout: people were in a good mood, friendly, thankful, in great spirits. There was a positive flow of energy as the population of the district filtered by my desk, one after the other, received a voting form, went to the booths, and re-emerged to cast their vote into the sealed box.

Only one person of hundreds made a disparaging political statement. Two claimed the election forms were rigged, part of a scam. But that was all.

3/8

What struck me, as I saw the birth dates in my list, were several folks who were born just as World War 2 started, in 1939. Here they were, voting in a democratic election in 2025, and they had still seen, as children, the world war. Others were born in the turmoil after the war, in 1945, 1946. What was that like for their parents? Some had birth places far away, such as in Iran. Some had their toddlers in tow, a generation born after 2020. Some looked their age, worn; some not at all.

4/8

Seeing all these people gave me a really good feeling: these are good, decent people. Population, neighbours, the Germans in 2025. And how amazing: throughout the country, people were flocking to voting places like this, 60.5 million voters, to determine who will be in power next, who will be chancellor, who will govern. Isn't democracy the most amazing thing, that we can change leaders, bestow power - everybody equal?

5/8

The hard, sobering shock came when we opened the box and counted the votes, once voting had closed (any citizen can come and watch; in our case, none did). Form upon form I unfolded said: first vote far-right, second vote far-right. Of course there were lots of other votes. And some really funny combinations. But quickly, the stack of votes to be counted for the far right was very visibly the highest.

6/8

More than one in three of these wonderful, friendly, good-humoured folks that had passed by my desk had voted for the anti-EU, pro-Russian, anti-foreigner, anti-science, anti-inclusion, often neofascist illiberals, sowing hate and division.

My elation at the wonders of democracy I saw in action first hand, and the stream of all of the population coming out, was much tempered. It was not unexpected. But to see it so concretely, hard to fathom. And hard to stomach.

7/8