[LFG] direct democracy, brexit, populism, sciecne, air traffic

[Valia Kordoni]

Dir einen schönen Tag noch, Stefan!

http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/berlin/berliner-haben-entschieden-jetzt-geht-der-streit-um-tegel-erst-richtig-los-28479908

Viele Grüße aus dem Büro nebenan
Valia

On Sat, September 16, 2017 05:33, Stefan Müller wrote:
> Dear colleagues, dear friends,
>
> Sorry for writing to you on topic that is not immediately relevant to
> linguistics. But it is a matter of life and death, it affects climate
> change and hence a large number of people, post factual argumentation
> affects us as scientists, our budgets our reputation.
>
> So, here is the problem. Berlin has a referendum next week. The
> Berliners are asked whether they want to keep the old airport TXL even
> after the new one has opened. This referendum will take place at the
> same time as the elections of the German government take place. the
> referendum is - in principle - completely pointless since Berlin is only
> one of the three partners who decide about the airport (the state
> Germany, the country Brandenburg and Berlin). The decisions have to be
> unanimous and Germany and Brandenburg are for closing. So the whole
> referendum is misused by populists like the party FDP, who initiated the
> referendum, and the extreme right wing party AfD.
>
> The airport is in the middle of the city as many of you may know. It was
> built during the cold war when West-Berlin was surrounded by the wall.
> Like the Hong Kong city airport it is not needed anymore and should be
> closed now. The airport is number one airport in Germany as far as noise
> emission is concerned (Bundesamt für Statistik). Over 300.000 people are
> affected (city of the size of Mannheim). The FDP ignores the right of
> health, which is constitutional right in Germany.
>
> They propagate unlimited growth especially for the air industry
> (especially low cost airlines like Ryanair, who payed the FDP). They
> estimate 60Mio-90Mio passengers (now about 30) and they call the
> connection between weather extremes and climate change "fake news". All
> of this is very dangerous for everybody on this planet and for us
> scientists in particular.
>
> All this is documented in a 75 page paper, that I would like you to
> circulate (the URL, not the paper itself):
>
> http://bit.ly/TXL-zu
>
> If you have connections to media, please tell them about the crazy
> Berliners. Maybe they want to report about this.
>
> If you are on twitter, please share:
> https://twitter.com/TXL_facts/status/907521046689001472
>
> On FB please share (it is a fun challenge for the opponents, fully
> documented in my paper):
> https://www.facebook.com/255521414619332/photos/a.808539525984182.1073741847.255521414619332/811097762395025/?type=3&theater
>
> Maybe share it with a little comment explaining what is going on.
>
> Thank you for sharing and thank you for not flying.
>
> Tired
>
> 	Stefan
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>


----------------------------------------
PD Dr. Valia Kordoni
Institut  für  Anglistik  und  Amerikanistik
Humboldt-Universität Berlin
Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin
Raum: 2108
Tel.:  +49/302093-2421    Fax: -2244
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