society
May 18, 2024

Christiane Paul: "Life is an eco-construction site"

Christiane Paul was born in 1974 in East Berlin. The actress and Ph.D. doctor became famous with the film "Life is a Construction Site". She lives with her children Mascha (9) and Maximilian (4) in Berlin.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: How did you come up with the eco-trip?

Christiane Paul: There was no real aha experience. I have always been interested in ecological issues. Immediately after the opening of the Wall, for example, I bought in the health food store. For a short time, I even dreamed of looking after the activists as a doctor on a Greenpeace ship. In between, the ecology thought something spilled, I was simply busy with two jobs and child. My ecological turn started in 2006 when I read the alarming numbers on climate change. I thought: Now I have to do something.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Was it conducive or rather a hindrance that you grew up in the GDR?

Christiane Paul: In any case, I grew up as a politically conscious person, although a really ecological thinking was not taught. But, for example, there was something like the old stuff day for students. We rang the doorbells, collected valuable materials such as paper, glass, bottle caps and brought them to school, from where they picked them up. We were made clear how precious and important raw materials and their recycling were. Of course, too, because we lacked it. As a kid I loved it, because I felt I was doing something for my country. But of course the GDR was not suitable as an environmental model, on the contrary.

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ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: You have spoken for your book with dedicated scientists, politicians, psychologists and authors. Who impressed you most?

Christiane Paul: Actually, I was all thrilled, I found it fascinating how these very different people do something in their own way. You are no longer in a niche. And there is no right or wrong, there is not one single solution to the global crisis. A real hero for me is Leo Hickman. The Guardian journalist has attempted to live ethically correct for a full year. I was very happy to meet him. He says that every person should begin to change in his sphere of influence. Even if that means that you have to fly frequently and thus naturally cause emissions. Sometimes flying can also be posi- tively occupied when, for example, the climate scientist Anders Levermann reaches people who can make a difference by speaking to managers in a more distant location.

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ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: What have you changed in your personal life?

Christiane Paul: In addition to many things in everyday life and household including my mobility. I do a lot more cycling than I did before and bought an environmentally friendly car with blue-motion technology. I like the idea of Boris Palmer, the mayor of Tübingen. If everything is close together - home, work, school, daycare and shops - it's also much easier to walk or bike. If possible, my children should go to nearby schools. I do not want to drive you through half the city by car so you can visit a very special school. Special talents can still be promoted. It is certainly important in principle to try to find a life content apart from consumption, not just to define it. Nowadays, most people find it hard to be happy without constantly consuming. I have experienced Leo Hickman as a happy person.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Much room in your book takes up the topic of food and meat consumption.

Christiane Paul: Yes, it's just the closest to our everyday lives. It is actually not that difficult to reduce your own meat consumption. Very little can do a lot. Diet is an environmentally relevant factor. In the meantime I only eat a warm meat meal in three weeks and maybe a piece of sausage. My children eat meat at school and in kindergarten, but I try to educate them to become flexitaries. So people who occasionally eat meat, but are flexible and do not insist on a particular type of diet.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Get started and take along! That's the slogan at the end of your book. Do you like to agitate?

Christiane Paul: No, persuading does not work. I just speak to things when it turns out. For example, I talk to colleagues on the set about the crazy consumption of plastic cups. Or discuss with a waiter, that the mushrooms in front of the restaurant are superfluous.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Will it be enough if every single person changes his life?

Christiane Paul: No, we certainly need a government regulation. If we wait for the economy to earn money properly, as some people think, it's certainly too late.