The Zurich municipal council dealt with an approach to fears about the climate. The parliamentarians talked past each other.
Drought on the Horn of Africa: Concerns about climate change were the subject of a debate in Zurich’s city parliament that probably left most people at a loss.
It is the argumentative low point of a debate when those involved no longer seem to know what they are arguing about. This could be observed on Wednesday in the Zurich city parliament. The municipal council spoke about a push by the Greens on the subject of climate anxiety. It was a constellation that overwhelmed Parliament. “Somehow weird” this discussion was summed up by municipal councilor Julia Hofstetter, who had introduced the interpellation.
anger and guilt
Psychologists use the term “climate anxiety” to summarize feelings related to knowledge and perception of climate change – fear, feelings of guilt or anger that climate policy is not progressing quickly enough. Hofstetter had wanted to know from the city council how the city council wanted to strengthen the “internal resilience of society”.
It was based on a study in which 10,000 young people in ten countries around the world were interviewed. Almost half of the teenagers said that climate anxiety was having a major impact on their daily lives.
The city council replied that other fears were more important at school, such as fear of exams or social anxiety. It does little for those affected to pathologize fear of climate change. He saw no need for action.
This, in turn, did not suit Hofstetter. She herself was affected by climate fears, she said in parliament. “The worry is choking me. Does this feeling have no place in Zurich?” It is not possible to simply get used to the climate crisis. “The courage to fear must have a place in Zurich.”
By that Hofstetter meant self-help groups and the like. However, since it was an interpellation that the city council had already answered, there was no specific demand, which made the discussion difficult.
The SVP insinuated that the Greens were deliberately stirring up fear of climate change – and used the steep pass for a tour d’horizon about past cases of “scaremongering”, from the bark beetle to the dying forests to the ozone hole.
The accusation of populism
FDP city parliamentarian Jehuda Spielman paused briefly and smashed the Greens: “First you stir up fear, and then you manage it.” This is nothing but populism. Even Patrick Hässig (GLP) thought the Greens were spreading panic. There is also a need for optimistic approaches in politics, “positive suggestions”.
This, in turn, visibly pissed off the Greens. The other side does not take the climate fear seriously, said Dominik Waser. He pointed out that psychiatric services for young people throughout the canton of Zurich were completely overwhelmed – “not only, but also” because of the climate crisis. Waser apparently assumed that the initiative would be voted on; he predicted a rejection. However, this is not the case with an interpellation. So the discussion, in which some talked about the climate and others about feelings, ended abruptly.
She left everyone a little perplexed.