So, this blog post is not entirely about the European Union, but it does involve a member state: Germany. The BBC article describes how more and more Germans are staying home for an “eco-holiday.” Germans are staying in Germany in order to “cut down on their carbon emissions, to do their bit in the fight against global warming” so they take the train to destinations in Germany, rather than taking the plane somewhere else. Many people are environmentally conscious and don’t want to pollute the enviroment by using a lot of plane travel. However, the global warming phenomenon has also provided another reason for Germans taking their holidays closer to home – the climate there is getting warmer and warmer so it’s not necessary to travel elsewhere. There’s a bit of an irony in the situation.
This observation ties back into an aspect of realism which we discussed in class. Realists say that there will always be winners and losers, global warming just switches it around a bit (and you have to pay attention to how this shifts power. IE: property values in Greenland would go up, so it is important to see how this new balance redistributes power). In this particular instance, the tourism business is getting more and more business, which relates to this redistribution of “winners” and “losers.” It is interesting to see the shifting of economic power on a smaller scale within Germany and the traditional vacation spots outside of Germany.
