Max Jack

Developing into an epicenter for activism in Germany, an array of movements have galvanized in Berlin which have positioned themselves in opposition to the state and EU’s role in perpetuating an accelerating climate crisis. The very attitude that “soon it will be too late to save the planet and maybe the time has already passed” (Hardt 2012) is long gone in the eyes of climate activists, who have begun adopting increasingly radical strategies of protest and direct action. As street blockades become a favored tactic of civil disobedience, a sense of apocalypse permeates amongst participants—that which radiates past fears of impending natural disaster into anxieties around the resultant geo-political conflicts spurred by climate change and forced migration, extending into commentary over the ways in which actionable governmental solutions are delimited by economic constraints and the logics of financial markets (Abélès 2010). Spurred by fears of apocalyptic futures and a disillusion with liberal democracy, activists employ an array of tactics in hopes of grabbing the attention of politicians, news-media, and the German government. If the efficacy of such tactics is unclear, I explore my interlocutors’ moral commitment to taking action “when apparently nothing can be done” but “doing nothing is not an option” (Taylor 2022).