Germans and the Environment, II

As I discussed last week, many people in the German-speaking countries seem to be decidedly protective of and interested in environmental protectionalism, especially when compared to their North American counterparts. Some things that are routine there would be almost unheard of here in the U.S., and surely most of Canada as well.

Here are some examples of some attitudes I encountered when speaking to people from Germany and Switzerland. Please keep in mind that these are only my personal experiences garenered from conversations with Germans and one Swiss man during the time that I spent in Europe a few years ago. They are not meant to necessarily reflect the attitudes of all Germans or Germanic peoples, of course.

I once had a penpal from Switzerland who asked me a seemingly innocent enough question: "Do you ski, Colleen?" I told him that I did not, but that I may like to try cross-country (Nordic) skiing someday. He seemed relieved that I did not participate in downhill (Alpine) skiing. I found this puzzling and asked him why he felt this way. For the life of me, I could not see what could possibly be morally wrong with downhill skiing. He replied that it is SO terrible because "it is very bad for the environment, downhill skiing! You did not know this? The erosion it causes..." THAT was a new one to me! I had never heard a single American (and certainly not a single Canadian) ever mention such a thing. I didn't say much and left it at that. I didn't know enough about the topic to know whether the Swiss were paranoid, the North Americans were ignorant, or a little of both.

One day I sat at the dinner table with a German family I was staying with. The father of the family said, "You Americans use ice cubes in your drinks, don't you?" I was bewildered once again: WHAT was coming next? I thought. "Ice cubes are very bad for the environment," he said. "It takes so much energy to create an ice cube for a drink. It is frivolous and unnecessary to use ice cubes." All-righty then!

The biggest shocker I ran into while living in Germany was resistance to purchasing oranges during a certain time of year because it was out of season and the German in question thought that it was nearly evil to "waste all of that jet fuel from the importation of the oranges form other countries just so that I can eat oranges in the summertime. How wasteful!"