From Berlin to Spain by Train and back. My experience.
Category: Ecology
Ecology, animal communication
How to Limit Carbon Emissions While Traveling
Ready for my next adventure: I will travel more than 2,000 kilometers by train. From Berlin to the North of Spain. About 26 hours on wheels. Three years ago, I’ve committed myself to not flying anymore unless there is a really, really good reason to do so. I want to pave ways for the “new […]
Reviewing Developments in Hambach Forest
Words fail to convey my happiness and joy when I learned that Hambach Forest would not be logged – for now. The court had ruled that before any logging could take place it needed to evaluate whether (1) the forest should be protected under the Fauna Flora Habitat Directive of the EU and (2) if […]
The Good News from Hambach Forest
On Sunday September 30th again thousands of protesters and supporters joined the walk in Hambach Forest. Again thousands broke away from the official demonstration route and went into the forest. Many re-errected barricades and dug ditches to make it more difficult for the machines to evict the remaining tree houses Paragraph11 and GhostTown. Possibly more […]
Hambach Forest: Lies and Nepotism
Most of the information about the currently situation in the Hambacher Forest is in German. I want to make some of the recent events accessible for the international world. To start with I summarized the incidents that astonished me most. Here we go: Deutsche Bahn Supports Coal Nepotism The national train company Deutsche Bahn that […]
Sunday Walks in Hambach Forest
During the last Sunday Walk in Hambacher Forst I saw a transformed forest and civil society. It was sunny and the activists in the tree houses were extremely happy to see hundreds of citizens who had entered the forest despite the police prohibiting it. They came with Michael Zobel’s Sunday Walks which have now become […]
Hacking Live Bullshit Interviews @ Hambi
In a live interview a reporter from Welt24 spoke about riot tourism and said that environmental organizations had called for massive civil disobedience for the weekend. Both is bullshit!! Since I happened to be in the forest, I used the opportunity to jump into the live interview, grab the microphone and correct him on the […]
7 Ways to Create the More Beautiful World
“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” I love this quote by Arundathi Roy, Indian author and political activist. It reflects the experience I made during the past two years when I travelled the world to find future-proof solutions for tomorrow. And […]
Lobbying for Planet Earth at Bundestag
Power to the people! In Germany you can talk to your representatives in the Bundestag. Even as a normal citizen. With the volunteers from the citizens’ climate lobby we do exactly that: We lobby for the needs of the one whose lobby is far too small: Gaia – our planet earth. The Lobby Goal […]
Occupying Hambacher Forst
I spent two days and two nights in the Hambacher Forst, an ancient forest near Cologne that has to give way to the brown coal excavators. Forest occupiers have been living here since 2012. The community wants to save the small remains of the old and beautiful forest. They live in tree houses to make […]
Climate Activism & Police Violence
The Klimacamp Rheinland (climate camp Rhine Land) is a 10-day open camp organized by different groups of climate activism. Thousands of mostly young people gather for education, political action and experimenting with new low-carbon-emitting forms of living. The Klimacamp takes place close to Europe’s largest brown coal surface mines in the Rhineland, North-West of Cologne. Even […]
Back to Germany: Old Country – New Perspective
In the first days and weeks I looked at sceneries I have passed by millions of times and I am awestruck with their beauty as if I perceived them for the very first time. For example when I studied in Mainz I often took the train through the Rhine Valley towards Cologne. Returning from Frankfurt […]
Permaculture Design Course in „Zukunft“
I was back to the Future. “Zukunft” (future) is the nick name of the community “Wir bauen Zukunft” where I recently completed my 100 hours Permaculture Design Course. I was here last August for the first summer work camp and couldn’t wait to come back. It’s a lovely place of wild nature, rare plants and […]
Interview with Change-Maker Jessamijn Miedema, Co-Founder of Eco Femme
Even though they concern half of the world’s population, menstruation topics are a taboo around the globe. We don’t often talk about female hygiene products. However, disposable sanitary napkins and tampons come with tremendous costs for both the female body and the ecosystem. In recent years, re-usable female hygiene products have gained popularity. Jessamijn Miedema co-founded […]
Ecovillage Design Education Video: 5 Weeks in 20 Minutes
36 participants from across the globe – 5 intensive weeks – 1 intentional township striving for human unity. Serena Aurora managed to fit this wealth of information and emotion into a 20 minutes video. Enjoy watching. The Ecovillage Design Education course is recognized by the UNESCO and provides students of all ages with knowledge and practical […]
Sadhana Forest Kenya, Volunteering Experience
I volunteered for two weeks in the reforestation project Sadhana Forest in Kenya in November 2016. The organization originated in Auroville, India about 15 years ago. It later spread to Haiti and Kenya. During my Ecovillage Design Education Course in Auroville I had the chance to talk to the founder and visit the Indian campus. […]
World-Views – Ancient & Contemporary
In World-View Week of the Ecovillage Design Education Course in Auroville, India we explored the dynamics of internal and external influences on the way we see and perceive the world. We also visited an Ashram and the local village Nadukuppan to study different world views and life situations. Other topics included Ayurveda as a holistic […]
Ecological Dimensions of Tomorrow’s World
We challenged conventional ecologic assumptions in the Ecology week of my 5-week Ecovillage Design Education Course (EDE) in Auroville, India. I became aware of the fact that we need to change the narrative of nature to a public responsibility, something like a community project on a global scale. The closed loops that nature presents should […]
Water-Saving Handwashing Station
With some simple tricks and very few items, you can construct a convenient handwashing station. Make a T-shaped wooden construction with some nails and some string. Drill a hole into both a tin and a half coconut shell (or similar containers). Attach both to the horizontal bar with nails. Put a bucket of water with […]
Free Tutorial: Using a Compost Toilet
Always wondered how to use a compost toilet? Here is your tutorial. Completely free of charge! When you use a compost toilet, you have to train your muscles a little bit because #1 and #2 go separately. First you use a little container to pee into. Then you collect the pee in a larger bucket. […]
Water-Saving Shower
Building and using a basic water-saving shower is very easy. All you need is a small metal pot, some string and a place to attach it. Drill some holes in the metal pot. Attach both handles to stable strings. Tie the strings on above-head level to some stable pole or the like. For some privacy […]
Planting Trees. Planting Life.
Trees are life. Trees make life possible. I experience a huge difference between two of the Otepic gardens. Armani garden is very shade thanks to some tall trees, including banana palm trees. Sabwani, on the other hand, is quite hot. Only some of the huts provide some shade. Working on the field under the equatorial […]
Handmade Bricks
Why buy bricks if you can make them at home? The crew of the ecological project Otepic in Kitale, Northwestern Kenya, makes bricks manually. Without using any electricity. Zero-emission footprint. They want to construct a seminar center in Sabwani Garden, the largest of the three gardens they own. It will be a school for permaculture […]
One Day in the Nieklitz Summer Camp
In August, the project “Wir bauen Zukunft” in Northern German Nieklitz invited for a summer work camp. For two weeks, volunteers helped in the 10 hectares biotope, planting, tidying, constructing, repairing… The camp was organized in an open space format. In the morning, after a hearty breakfast in the outdoor kitchen and dining area, the […]
Life & Death in the Animal Kingdom
This week I had the great opportunity to do a Safari in the Masaai Mara and to witness some of the social aspects of herds and packs. I noticed within our little tourist group of 8 Kenyans and Internationals that death and the act of killing arose a strange sensation, a prickling of excitement and […]
Working with a Smile: Summer Work Camp in Nieklitz
I felt like I entered into the enchanted remains of a long forgotten world when I opened the great wooden gates of the biotope park in Nieklitz, 70 km east of Hamburg in Northern Germany. Behind those gates, nature had reclaimed its space in the past three years without any touch of a human hand. […]
Video interview with Ceylan, co-founder of “Wir bauen Zukunft” in Nieklitz
Ceylan Rohrbeck, co-founder of “Wir bauen Zukunft” (we build future) gives insights into this new project in Northern-Germany. The group will not only construct sustainable buildings but use the former biotope as a place for co-working, co-living and as an educational center. In German. (English subtitle will follow)