Suddenly we look around. For the first time, many people are thinking about how to heat their homes and how to get around. However, this is due to the currently drastically rising prices for petrol, gas and crude oil and not because it would be necessary anyway in times of climate change.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine shows us how dependent we are and that a despot with the resources can’t just raid a much smaller country when he feels like it. He can also turn off the gas tap if he wants, and then it might get cold at home or the economy might collapse.
Whether Russia will really stop gas exports is questionable. Just the fact that it’s possible should make us think.
Of course, one cannot solve global political problems at home. But what seems necessary on a large scale, to position oneself more broadly in terms of energy policy, to diversify and to make oneself less dependent on cartels and precarious states, also applies on a small scale. Anyone who owns an apartment or lives in a detached house has long thought about how the gas burner can be supplemented with photovoltaics, thermal solar energy, heat pumps or pellet burners. Tenants should also be interested in this, after all, they too have to pay energy costs. Nobody prevents them from dealing with the topic, making suggestions to landlords and choosing the next apartment after the energy supply.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck said on Tuesday that anyone who becomes independent is making a contribution to national security. You can also say it less pathetically, but the time of full supply, when you didn’t have to think about such things, is definitely over. Regardless of the situation in Ukraine.