2010issue 3

National selection conferenceof EYP Germany, Würzburg 9.-13.6.2010

Planet w

The endof BP Stealing

spring rolls

Planet W | 2

WI want to dedicate these few lines to the female journalists I’ve been work-ing together with the last few days.Most of you delegates have spent a lot of time with them. Playing teambuild-ing games, taking pictures together and helping you with GA prepara-tions. I know that each one of you have gotten to know one of them.

Sini, Rita, Rebecca, Mimi, Karin-Liis

My journalistsand Jo Susann. Thank you for this week and thank you for your ideas, laughs and for always handing in your articles in time.

Delegates, I hope yout bags have been filled with memories and I hope you know the press team has done their best to help you fill your bags. Now take them home and open them.Read Planet W, it’s a present to you

from your journalists.

Thanks for a fantastic week, amigos.

Hanna Ollinen

Planet W | 3

content4Getting the Maximun

8Würz Up?

10This is yourcommittee

21Stealingspring rolls

22Gulf ofMexico

26Is the sunshining?

Planet W | 4

Getting theMaximum

Planet W | 5

By Karin-Liis LahtmäeAlthough Max assured me that he had no proper childhood, always working in the gold mines, he did want to become a waiter. Both of his great-grandparents owned hotels, therefore, it’s in his blood. He did become one eventually for 4 and a half years and, evidently, just quit his job last Sunday. He doesn’t regret it, because he’s taking the summer to go inter-rail-ing around Europe. Trains are his thing.

If you hadn’t guessed it yet, this is a cen-sored interview with our favourite head organiser (he even has his own song) of the 20th National Selection Conference of EYP Germany on his childhood mem-ories and hopes for the future. NOT! This is actually a follow-up to EYP TV’s first video. We got his num-ber, but is he worth calling? La-dies and gentlemen, you decide.

It’s 12:14 and Max, as we so lovingly call him, is walking across the courtyard with a smile on his face, greeting everybody on the way. He suggests we do the first half of the interview now and leave the rest till later. Totally understandable – he is a busy man after all, him being the head organiser. He’s reserved about his doings, though: “I’ve had a lot of time to just chill during this session.” He also

adds that nothing can go wrong anymore, because the delegates have all arrived and they’re awesome for having done so.Firstly, we cover the basics. Why he and not another hot Barney Stinson (charac-ter from How I Met Your Mother) looka-like for the head organiser of this ses-sion? Probably, because he’s awesome – his favourite word in English. Joking aside, he prefers the role of a leader, because he likes to carry out his own vi-sion. However, he notes that no one is born to be a leader: “Over the course of your life time you get led and you lead.” Dedication is also a key point. Max hasn’t been involved with EYP for too long, since 2008, but he got infected immediately. After his first National Session in Frankfurt, 3 weeks later he took his car and drove 650 kilome-tres just to get to an alumni meeting.

Being a devoted EYPer he is super talkative and hyper-active. He thinks he comes across as someone whose hu-mour people don’t get, because he likes to over-use irony and sarcasm. I fall for his humourous trap when Max “threat-ens” to send me home if this article doesn’t please him. Max later explains: “I’m a nice person even if you don’t think so at first.” During the interview

Favourite colour: light blueLast book read: ‘The Bible after Bill’Last movie seen: Repoman with Jude Law (it sucked)On women:’She has to be a mate that you can really hang out with, but still be a lady, definitely not a girly girl.’He likes the northern type, but he would never say that he’d only fancy blonde girls.

countless people come up and hug Max.

Having covered his personality, we move onto his body. Max is the one to always injure himself. He shows me some scars and then declares that he has a tiny stone in his knee. Because Max lives on a mountain, well, a hill, he likes to rollerskate down it. He only uses his brakes 50 metres before hav-ing to stop. „And this one time I had installed my brakes to my left foot, so instead of stopping, I crashed into this house at the foot of the mountain,“ Max muses. Although, he enjoys rollerskat-ing, he doesn’t like any other sports as much. When all the others gather to watch soccer, he goes there for the party.Talking about parties, he loves the 1950s theme: the era, style, music (blues, jazz, his eyes light up when men-tioning Sinatra). He would like to be just a cool guy owning a jazz bar in New York.First and second half put together, I’ve spent an hour talking to Max. It’s 18:37 and we call it quits after a photo shoot. Max walks back to the Orga room and I already see some girls dialing Max’s number.

Planet W | 6

On Friday afternoon the delegates had the unique opportunity to take part in several environment-friendly activities, such as hiking, yoga, soc-cer or planting a tree.Wiebke Sickel, one of the organisers, led the delegates to their task of giv-ing a tree a new place to live, by tell-ing them the story of Herman, the lit-tle tree. She says that Herman’s worn out appearance is a direct result of a difficult childhood and its budding is a consequence of EYP love and nur-ture. Wiebke tried to convince the delegates to give Herman a chance for a new and better life by planting

it next to the old and sick tree named Norman. In the long-term Herman will take over Norman’s position and thus keep up the circle of life in the youth educational center Was-serkuppe.After having dug out a hole in where Herman was placed, the delegates formed a circle around it and ex-pressed their wishes: ‘ We wish you awesomeness, happiness and an Ameisenleimring’ they said, after Jo-sef from CLIM had noted that they are in need of an ‘Ameisenleimring’, a glue-ring which protects trees from ants. Later everyone had the opportu-

nity to write hopes and wishes about the session and for Herman on little papers, which they hung on Herman.

Next to the tree-planting, Janka was instructing the delegates how to re-lax themselves with exotic Yoga-po-sitions. The hiking group obviously had fun, because they came back from their trip exhausted, yet happy. Ac-companied by chill out music, bounc-ing of the soccer ball and sunshine, a nice atmosphere of laughter and good mood lay over the Wasserkuppe.

Environmentalism in action

By Mimi Bonev

Planet W | 7

Make the most out of GA and re-member to buy a Würzburg T-shirt

9 €

Planet W | 8

WÜRZ UP?

eco ideas

Wide long skirts, self-knitted bikinis and tops, batik-style shirts... Hippie clothes were not only up-to-date in the seventies. Recently clothes with a hint of hippie-style turned out to be trendy again. Combined with the new ecological awareness amongst great parts of the population, H&M, a Swedish brand, launched several collections with Organic cotton only. This kind of cotton is grown without any synthetic agri-cultural chemicals such as fertilizers or pesticides and thus contributes to a more eco-friendly way of living.

As you might have noticed, we love delegates that always smile. Rieka Herzog and Ellen Handrick from ECON belong to this lovely species. Even during GA, they always had a smile for everyone. We appreciate this a lot: that is why we think you de-serve this extraordinary title.

delegatesof the day

Planet W | 9

(left) Some people might say that matching clothes are old-fashioned. These two delegates from AFET, Lucas and Franzi ,with their similar hairstyles, glasses, check shirts and shorts, show us how this style looks both adorable and harmonic.

(right) The absolutely most stylish GA look at the session. Chic suit combined with a ‘Mad men’- styled briefcase.

Max talking about his favourite food: “I like pea. No, don’t write that!” Max Karpf

Style of the day

Julian: ‘Germany is not so clean.’Connor: ‘Well, China is way ahead.’Julian: ‘Me, too.’

Planet W | 10

cult

CULTOn Wednesday, the newbies arrived and I finally got to meet my committee: the Cults. You really let yourself get carried away by the awesomeness of common EYP games like “Zulu Dance”, “Street Fighter” and “Cat and Mouse” which was prob-ably totally different than you expected (at least, they were very different from what I expected at first). Despite initial shyness, the teambuilding was great. I think you really opened up and got into it; I had a lot of fun. In retrospect, I have to laugh about how we strayed through the woods to find the magical spider web. Even if I couldn’t be with you all the time, I believe that I saw you develop and step out of your comfort zone. All

of you are open-minded and smart which made the committee work both pleasant and diverse. Your theatre sketch for ‘Taj Mahon’ and the photo hunt proved creativity, jokes like “Guten Morgan, Freeman” and “Wie Gates” tolerance and your answers to the toilet speech ingenuity. Being so enthralled in the discussion of your top-ic, the GA snuck up on you, so I was really proud that you participated directly in the first debate. Philipp, Leona, Teresa and Judith – you started off and showed your team members Franzi, Julia, Meike, Gerhard, Vanessa, Enno, Julian and Alex who joined later debates that there is nothing to be afraid of. I am happy that I got to be your journo.

Don’t let your resolution discourage you. You still have a whole day to shine. So make the most out of GA! I wish you success on your last day and hope that we will meet again at coming EYP sessions.

‘The game was great. They re-ally got a new perspective on each other.’

Connor during ‘Skin the Snake’

opens upBy Jo Susann Graff

Planet W | 11

Buser and Lorenz, a matching com-bination of creative chairs lead the committee which deals with the failed Copenhagen summit and the EU how it should deal with en-vironmental questions in future.

The committee, which consists of 12 delegates – 6 females and 6 males, was in the beginning rather reserved because of fear of contact but has made a great step towards becom-ing a dynamic committee! The well informed delegates are fond of dis-

cussions and like to plan everything in detail, thus they are glad that their Chairs give them the freedom they need and only intervene when neces-sary. ‘ We are pretty, we have esteem, we’re the climate team’ is their motto, while creating the best resolution possible. The committee found it very entertaining to compare finan-cial subsidies with apples and choco-late. CLIM is not only competent but also fun to be with, for example when playing ‘Blip Blop’ where eve-ryone spills water all over the table.

As a little energiser, CLIM’s Chairs initiated a ride on the summer roller band, which surely contributed posi-tively to the team spirit in CLIM. The good team work and good atmosphere eventually resulted in a witty and cou-rageous resolution that stresses EU’s importance as a role model for the rest of the world. All in all, they do not only have their hearts in the right place, but also in everything they do.

A good climatein CLIM

By Mimi Bonev

clim

Planet W | 12

What is in your bag?This time chair Zahra has showed our journalists her precious belongings. Zahra explains what she packed in her bag.‘Well, I did bring a lot of clothes. I just love dresses and skirts, that’s why I didn’t bring any pants. I brought five pairs of shoes and stuff like facial cleaner, deodorant, sunblock and vi-tamins. The vitamins are especially essential. I’m working as a chair so I

prepared a human bingo for my com-mittee’s teambuilding. I also have things in my bag for regiovillage: an orange boa and orange sunglasses. I’m Dutch, I want to represent my country, and our national color is or-ange. Most important, though, are my toothbrush and panties. That’s basi-cally all you need.

ZahraRunderkampFemaleChairDutch

By Jo Susann Graff and Rebecca Smith

Planet W | 13

ZahraRunderkampFemaleChairDutch

AwesomeForeign Emissaries,Thanks

“Committees reflect their chair” says Jamie, one of AFET’s chairs. So, is AFET really as awesome as Jamie and Jim? Their committee work was awe-some, that’s for sure. They made me miss my delegate days bitterly, and I kept wanting to make points during their discussion. Especially when they had an intense argument about donuts, and put James Bond on the solutions board. They even had some psychological reflections, on whether the solutions might incite instead of discourage people to take hard drugs. I think the topic review should have

encouraged the delegates to try out the drug addict’s life for an insider’s view. No, I’m just kidding. Though maybe they should go around in a circle and each say what they think about that. If they do, a lot will prob-ably have to do with food, betraying how much they worry about their stomachs (come on guys, toughen up. Food is like sleep, it’s for the weak). Despite this lack of prepara-tion, they did try to write a “freak-ing good resolution”. GA proved they succeeded. They had one of the most (I can’t say “the most”, the

AFEt

comment will be rejected as biased) interesting debates, spurring a lot of questions but also answers from the floor. The committee’s answers were warmly clapped – maybe it was an ap-preciation for the hesitation hum?Enough about their serious activi-ties. What makes this committee re-ally “capital”? They streetfighted at 950m under a scorching sun, pro-duced the most unsolvable human knot, and even showed some scien-tific knowledge – though the genetic argument they used to justify the fashion model’s place on Mars was questionable. They were not allowed to “talk bullocks”, but liked saying it. Never ever have I… no I mean never ever have I ever… wait, should I stand up now and change seats? Teambuild-ing games were like mushrooms, they grew on them. After some squeezing, passing an orange, and a surprising transformation of a bunny into their neighbour, they got more comfortable with their bodies. Butt-spelling next? Ok, I have to finish with something hor-ribly sweet. Amazing job during GA. That was not bullocks. It was just like it was being your journo: awesome.

By Rebecca Smith

Picture caption: Disco Daniel, Tired Tosca, Alive Aydan, Active Anna, Jungle Julian, Thinking Theresa, Crazy Cora, Freaky Franzi, Arrogant Anna, Medieval Max, Laughing Lucas, Splen-did Stephen – with chairs Jumping Jim and Jelly-legged James and journo Running Rebecca.

Planet W | 14

ECON

Financial crisis – Green New Deal – European economy. ECON have a very serious and complex commit-tee topic, but they are dealing with it surprisingly well. Under Kerstin’s and Lars’ surveillance, the commit-tee presents itself as well-organised, always listening to each other and raising one’s hand when wanting to say something. Adjectives like ambi-tious, creative and thorough can be well applied to the group of 5 girls and 7 boys – the German stereotype, but after being rather reserved in the

beginning, teambuilding games like ‘Honey, tell me that you love me’ revealed that still waters run deep. Sometimes the ambitious committee prefers committee work to lunch, in order to achieve a great resolution. ‘Have we enough problems for our so-lution?’, Liane asked when the chairs were proceeding to playing a game.

Some delegates shine with extraor-dinary technical terms and an elo-quent way of expressing themselves, but the words ‘subsidies’ and ‘to

subsidize’ caused pronounciation problems to everyone, but prac-tising it with their journo helped them to overcome the difficulties.

Teambuilding in this committee is very entertaining to watch, since no one is capable to throw a ball in the right direction. Although not be-ing professional ball throwers, one can be sure that there will not be a lack of professionalism during GA.

By Mimi Bonev

- productive, cooperative, economical Econ

Planet W | 15

A typical Wednesday, but with 11 new people looking at me. I don’t necessarily feel uncomfortable, but I’m still trying to make out what the other people in my committee are like. Okay, here goes nothing, I’m on top of Wasserkuppe and there’s no way back – we start teambuilding.

I’m enjoying myself, although in the back of my head I know it’s not going to be easy during committee work if we don’t learn to respect each other. I understand that everybody wants to speak, but it is just so hard to let oth-ers speak or get the chance to speak for that matter. My chairs say ’a per-fect circle’ always helps. We lower our cups and during the game of“ Spider Web“ we put our theory to the test. I find out that we do need a perfect cir-cle and that as a team we don’t like to plan as much as to eagerly act. We end team-building with a squashing hug.

I wake up feeling tired, but people keep telling me that it’s just something that I need to grow accustom to. Com-mittee work ought to be interesting as everyone has prepared extremely well.

Everyone’s spoken, I want to say something too. I’m gonna say it now. NOW! ‘Well, I think that we need smaller climate justice sum-mits instead of a big one once a year.’ Oh, great, I was cut off by someone.

I am so bored. I roll my eyes at somebody, because I’m too tired to make an elaborate response. I yawn. I’m going to fall asleep any minute now. My eyelids are getting heavy...

Say something!! I think we need an internationally independent or-ganisation. There, I said it. Oh, he thought my idea was great. She said that I made a good point. I’m not tired anymore, we have achieved mutual

respect. Oh, her point was so good, as was his. I nod, I actually agree.

I like the fact that our chairs step into the discussion only when we go into too much detail, like when we discuss whether to make up a name for the international organisation. Lulu and Jonathan also let us make our own schedule. I also like it when commit-tee members realise that somebody hasn’t spoken for a long time already and invite them back to the debate. I like that we have certain rules that had to be followed and that people were occasionally reminded of them.

It’s really cool to be a delegate, it truly is. All the cool videos, parties, the food, the newspapers *cough* I can’t wait for my other EYP sessions.Go Devils!

P.S. I don’t want to see any buckets ever again!

- through the Devil’s eyes DEVE

DEVE

Planet W | 16

ITRE 1

In the evolution game, played during the first phase of teambuilding, we could see the transformation from a lost delegate into the almighty presi-dent. Observing the work of the Com-mittee on Industry, Research and Energy 1, I was privileged to fol-low another kind of an evolution.On the first day of team building ITRE 1 started its journey towards greatness. With the zebra-striped Zahra as the committee’s Master of Awesomeness, it is obvious that the ultimate coolness was to be achieved in the course of the session. Already on the second day visible de-

velopment had happened. The com-mittee had already achieved such a level of awesomeness that they could make George W. Bush beatbox just by saying “please”. Impressive, but Bush is easily fooled anyway. I feel like they can do even better. After observing the self-acting and hard-working actions on their second day of committee work, it is definite that a much cooler president, Mr. Jamie Brown, was to be impressed by the work they have done. Solv-ing the problem of the energy sup-ply transformation of the “European Onion”, the committee will without doubt högfem its way to their fel-

low delegates’ hearts during the GA.One thing is for sure: the awe-some committee of ITRE 1 would not have achieved the same level of greatness without all of its precious members. As Lewin promised to kill everyone failing in an attempt to pro-nounce his name, the whole commit-tee can be happy to have survived. René, Henrike, Annica, Kasimir, Sophia, Simon, Tim, Tom, Jo-nas, Lara, Sebastian and Lewin, you are awesome. Hög fem!

By Sini Ventelä

i trE1- on the way to pure awesomeness

Planet W | 17

ENVIGreen Genes

The topic of genically modified food has been of great controversial ac-claim throughout the past decade, if not longer. The Committee on Envi-ronment took it upon themselves to find a balance between research and the potential danger such research poses. With a chair pair of Anar and Boudewijn, the committee were sure to find a compromise between the two.After a well spent afternoon on a peak with panoramic views of the surround-ing Hessen region, the committee got off to a great start, breaking down the barriers of pre-session tension. Only after these nerves diminished was there room for committee work.

By Rita Grant

EnVi

A difficult question to tackle, the com-mittee had to remove themselves from the situation and view it from both sides. Many don’t see the harm in ge-netic altering, considering it a benefit to humanity in some senses. ENVI concur with this, yet hold strong in their belief that there also remains extreme disadvantages to GMO’s.

While Anar remained cool and col-lected, and Boudewijn played quiz master, the committee were put through their paces as their resolution was taken apart and examined to the best of their efforts. This proved suc-cesful in G.A. as the resolution for the

Committee on Environment passed. You did an amazing job in GA, thanks to a thoughful resolution, intelligent preparation and catchy speeches, you succeeded. There is still one more day to go, so be awesome and rock it!

Planet W | 18

ITRE II

“We are the best, the coolest, the tightest, the freshest, we work hard al-though we have no challenge and are under no pressure.” Well, ITRE II has no confidence issues. I can argue against the “hard-working”though: they wanted an hour-long coffee break (seriously? It wasn’t lunch! It was coffee!), and were very talka-tive during their silent (but I have to admit, very intricate) human knot. Okay, I’m not being fair. They were

impressive in committee work, inter-rupting each other surprisingly little, and even wrote down a set of rules, of which the best are: number 2: smile, number 4: if you speak German, you have to dance, number 10: be cool :). They took their topic to heart – cows emmiting greenhouse gases captured their attention for quite some time. ITRE II may be the observer com-mittee, but they are very active. They prove it both in the arctic cold

as penguins and in the blazing heat as flamingos. Mostly, they showed it during their photo hunt (I’m rather sure that if there was to be a winner, it would have been them), skiing, dancing, smiling, and pyramiding. I want to thank them for enduring the pain of being crushed by their fellow committee members. As you can see, the photo is well worth it.Their creativity did not limit itself to photography. They were very in-ventive when it came to mess with their chair pair, Merete and Ulrich. On Friday morning, when the chair pair was late, the committee jumped out the window. One of them gained an epic mark from it on her leg.

They are indeed an impressive com-mittee. Merete’s prime adjective for them is ‘tall’. Tower over the others! But their appreciation of the virgin and pervert game makes me ques-tion their morals. They grew, I hope, fond of teambuilding games, forget-ting the awkwardness to concentrate on the fun. I was impressed by their orange passing skills (perhaps be-cause I’m utterly deprived of those?).ITRE II’s best characteristic is their group spirit. They are cutely always together at breaks (mak-ing the chairs happy) and even at parties (making me happy).And with the risk of sound-ing like your common mother, I’m very proud of you.

itrE ii

By Rebecca Smith

- Ipod, Itouch, ITREndy too!

Planet W | 19

Planet W | 20

IMCO

With so many people stress-ing the need for more organic food on the shelves of our super-markets, the Committee on the Internal Mar-ket and Consumer Protection took it upon themselves to question the valid-ity of the products we are, or could be, consuming. In this era of fad diets and health crazes, we are taking too much for granted. However, this committee were not going to have the wool pulled over their eyes. Under the guidance of Angelic Angelika and Dashing Dominik, there was little doubt in my mind that the next few days would

be anything less than ‘awesome’. Delving into the dark side of ‘green food’ is no path for the naive. A team of dedicated and open-minded people is what was needed; thankful-ly, IMCO possessed these qualities, and so many more. Like any and every committee, tension, due to anxiety of the uncertain future, was present from the very start. This is where the chairs came into play. With help from the ever creative chair-pair and their af-ternoon of team-building, all pre-ses-sion nerves were banished with ease. Observing the team in the

early stages of their committee work, it was clear to see that IMCO were going to have a long day of fruitful debate. The level of discussion was simply astounding, with input from all the delegates. From ‘nick-names such as ‘Snowy’ to a very active pho-to hunt, I’ve had an out-standing time getting to know IMCO. With thanks to the wonderful delegates and the lovely chairs, I hope you have had half as awesome a time as I had.

By Rita Grant

- Green does not mean ‘organic’ imco

Planet W | 21

Vegetarianism is a sickness and all vegetarians are weird hippies that have huge front teeth after years of eating only carrots and lettuce. These sad excuses of human beings have not realized that they are only mak-ing their life diffucult and miserable without meat. In fact, I believe that all the 6,826,500,000 people living on Earth should have meat at least half a kilo per day to ensure all the neces-sary proteins, vitamins and minerals. Actually, let’s give it another thought. Let’s imagine that everyone did eat half a kilo of meat every day...

This would mean a meat consump-tion of over 3,4 billion kilograms per day - more than 1,2 trillion a year. As carnivarism is the biggest producer of methane on the planet and methane (CH4) is 21 times as effective greenhouse gas as CO2, it is obvious that meat production has a huge environmental impact.

Also, we need to remember that live-

stock needs a lot of space for grazing. Research has shown that the space needed to produce the food for one person for one year is 2300 m2 per meat-eater but only 1000 m2 per ve-gan. Since more and more meat is pro-duced every year, new space is need-ed. However, all the space available is already in use. The constant demand of new pastures means cutting down the woods and rainforests. This cre-ates even greater problems as the ab-sorption of CO2 emissions is put off.

There are differences in the en-ergy consumption in the produc-tion process. For example, it takes 15 times as much energy to pro-duce one kilogram of pork than the same amount of protein-rich legu-minous plants. Obviously, the en-ergy needed in the process has to be generated - often in a way that cre-ates even more greenhouse gases.

Germans eat a yearly-average of 58.7 kilograms of meat per person. This means a massive amount of

greenhouse gases produced year-ly. And we are only talking about Germany. When the quickly de-veloping countries such as India and China are going to realize they have the same right to enjoy their daily meat dose, there just won’t be enough space on our Earth.

In this context the theory of small streams forming a huge ocean works both ways. You can either contrib-ute your bit to the health Mother Earth or harm her. Little things are those that matter. You don’t need to get vegan all the way, just keep on choosing the veggie op-tion every once in a while. But I’m sure you will, after all you did steal my veggie spring rolls the other day. Yes, I am a vegetarian. Yes, I was left hungry at lunch when everyone found the veggie food more deli-cious looking than the meat dish. Just keep stealing my veggie rolls and finally the manufacturers will realize that all that meat won’t be needed.

Stealing spring rolls, saving nature

By Sini Ventelä

Planet W | 22

‘However, does every cloud have a silver lining?’

Planet W | 23

‘An ecological disaster of unknown proportions’ - a fitting description chosen by CNN to portray the tragedy of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Late April bore witness to one of the worst oil spills on record when an explosion on the Deepwater Hori-zon oil rig caused irreparable dam-age, damage that no one could have had foreseen or even imagined. Initially, experts were unsure of the amount of oil that was leaking from the under-water pipes, estimating it to be almost 800,000 litres a day. Since then, this figure has been smashed by the estimations of other experts recording the leakage to be around a whopping 38,000,000 litres a day. This is the equivalent of 250,000 filled bath-tubs! The gushing crude oil threatens one of America’s most diverse ecosystems, which is home to hundreds of species of wildlife. Fears of the slick reaching the tourist beaches of Florida have recently been realised, putting even more finan-cial strain on the country. What are worse, however, are the predictions that this disaster could pose a serious hazard to Europe’s ecosystem. As the oil slick becomes entangled in the swirl of a massive conveyer of ocean water, known as the Loop Current, fears of the disaster hitting the Eu-ropean coast-line soar. Already, over

72,000 square km of fishery has been ordered to close in the Gulf of Mex-ico. This closure has crippled local economy that thrived on the marine industry. A mirror effect, stretching the distance from Ireland to South-ern Spain, would occur if the 5 mil-lion gallons that have already escaped carry onwards the way they are now.

Unfortunately, economies would not be the only thing to suffer in the event of the BP oil slick reaching Eu-rope. It is the toxicity of the oil that poses such a great threat to wild-life; the greatest at risk in this case are birds and marine animals. The current situation in Southern USA is looking bleaker by the day as the slick slowly creeps across the coast. More than 400 species of animal are a threatened by the ‘black tar’, so aptly named due to the thick coat of resi-due it leaves in the lungs. Experts are unsure of how long the oil slick will remain a hazard to ecosystems, yet some have predicted over a decade.

While researching this topic, I found it difficult to find many sites disclos-ing information of great detail on the topic of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. I feel this could be due to the efforts of BP Oil Company. Being the company responsible for the rig in question, BP initially downplayed

Panic in the Gulf of MexicoBy Rita Grant

the incident, describing the oil spill as ‘relatively tiny’ in comparison to the ‘very big ocean’, a massive under-statement in hindsight. The company have since retracted these comments; however, complaints have been made by journalists and scientists in light of the repeated refusals of access to in-formation on the impact of the escap-ing oil. I find it staggering the amount of control the oil company has over what they want citizens, who will be affected by this incident, to know.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was, and remains to be, nothing less than a catastrophe. Not only did it cost the lives of 11 rig workers and billions of dollars in clean-up but it has also has had, and will continue to have, an adverse affect on marine and wildlife habitats. However, does every cloud have a silver lining? This disaster has opened the eyes of peo-ple the world over to the dangers of deep-sea mining. It has forced glob-al oil companies to re-assess their safety measures and has even boost-ed renewable energy investments, which seems to be the only advan-tages we can derive from this mess.

Planet W | 24

THEGENERALASSEMBLYAFTERMATHA lot is riding on how you perform at the General Assembly. I don’t want to jinx it, but what happens if you fail? You needn’t worry too much, though. It’s all okay, intro-ducing three alternative planets you can reside on. For those of you al-lergic to imaginary stuff, I strongly advise you not to read any further.

By Karin-Liis Lahtmäe

Planet W | 25

HellGagaHaving not found the perfect solution for your committee’s topic may very well put you on the list of space ship passengers to HellGaGa. The new planet has EarthHour every hour of the day (night), so everythings almost pitch black, to preserve its energy and to commemorate Earth, which by then no longer exists. However, the planet is lit by nice open fireplaces looked after by devilish troops hand-picked by Lady GaGa. The latter is also responsible for the entertain-ment on the planet. Only high heel-less heels and hot pants allowed (not too great for the guys). Oh, and you can’t eat anything that the Lady her-self doesn’t eat, so you don’t exactly have a wide choice. To conclude, if you haven’t got a proper poker face, don’t own a cool telephone, can’t just dance, hate paparazzi, don’t love games, if you’re left speechless or if you don’t want a bad romance, then HellGaGa is not for you, my dear!

1 32Recycle BinThis is not a planet for the ill-nosed per-son who can’t tolerate pungent smell. Everyone’s a waste technician (a gar-bage man) to ensure that the wastelevel stays normal. People recy-cle everything and use the recycledobjects in their daily lives. Corn is grown in fields of gold and afterwards eaten and made into pens. People don’t have any free time with regard to constant recycling, but when an op-portunity presents itself, they use it to write random odes to corn with their recycled pens. Although, the name of the planet is in strong conjunction with computers, there are no comput-ers allowed, because they are hard to recycle. Any other entertainment be-sides the lovely corn odes is prohib-ited too. Cornflakes are a must when starting off your amazingly rubbish-filled day. As for the dress code, eve-rything yellow, orange or brown goes.

Avatar Twii (3)This planet has been named Avatar 3, because James Cameron has officially promised us Avatar 2 (yay for fans, no yay for non-fans). This planet hosts the living space for all the different trees of the previous (Earth) world and also the spirit three thingies por-trayed in Avatar. You might feel as an outcast, though, especially if you are into deforestation. The residents hug, chain themselves to and make special commitments to trees or even marry them. A beautiful symbiosis it is. To stay fit, the people, stationary due to hugging trees, have WiiFit-ness on big 3D screens everywhere. The planet has no animals in order to avoid the temptation of becoming a meat eater. They only eat trees, flow-ers, Martians - just because they are green. On this planet blue is the new green. The fasionable wears leaves.

Take a moment to digest what you’ve just read, if you didn’t stop half-way through. Basically, it’s a take ’em or leave ‘em situation for you, dear reader. If you want to stay on planet Earth with all its variety and awesome coolness (Wasserkuppe, anyone!?), give your all at GA-

Planet W | 26

economy

energy

change

energy

ener

gy

developement

deve

lop

emen

t

climate

pollutionscience

greenhousegases

CO2energ

y

pollution

carbon

earth

save

lifedi

oxid

e

energy

change

forest

recycle

sea skyeurope

life

nowac

t

youme&

together

planetg

reen

CO4

Planet W | 27

now

Hurricanes in Florida, earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, flooding in Ten-erife, volcanic eruption in the Philip-pines and cruel cold spells in Eastern Europe: the earth strikes back and apparently seeks revenge for peo-ple’s thoughtlessness. 300 years ago, Indians had already believed that the world would draw to a close if trees began to die anywhere. They thought a disease rising out of the wa-ter as an ogre would destroy human-ity. Are we a threat to our own exist-ence? Or do we exaggerate if we talk about the dangers of climate change?

For several years problems have been controversially discussed as momen-tous demand for resources and global climate change. They seem to be eve-ryone’s topics of conversation, but hardly anyone has realized their sig-nificance. However, the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 2007

shows the seriousness of the current situation. Recently, IPCC-leader Ra-jendra Kumar Pachauri remarked that the coming years will show whether we are able to manage the crisis or not.

To discuss the issue Planet W inter-viewed two people at the session. Anar Kucera, chair of the committee on environment, and Kerstin Mathi-as, one of the organizers responsible for the jury supervision, really have their own point of view on the topic.

They think two aspects have to be taken into consideration: it is possi-ble to define climate change as both human induced and as a natural phe-nomenon. For further problem solv-ing keeping this in mind is important. Anar explains: „The problem is that we don’t really have an open debate on the matter and we shouldn’t forget about the massive economical inter-est behind it. I’m always critical so I

By Jo Susann Graffthink it’s necessary to question those powers, all the money and influence behind the ‘green’ projects and or-ganisations. We need a proper debate without labelling and dogmas.” In his opinion the controversy is how we can actually change anything, to what ex-tent and if it is even worth considering.So what should be done to change the situation? Anar and Kerstin, to a certain extent, have contrasting views. Anar says: „Well, I can not really answer this question. I believe that the large majority of the tools and regulations we are using, the decisions we are making are not go-ing in a direction that would enable us to deal with the problem. I believe we miss the point. Just to give you an example: Europe concentrates only on some aspects, but there’s a variety with the same effect. Methane seems completely left out and we tend to use the least effective and most ex-pensive way like solar power. I think

Wouldn’t it be great if the sunshinedall day long?

Planet W | 28

the state has to set an efficient goal, but leave the actual decision making and actions to the market, to allow it to pick out the most effective tool.“Kerstin’s reaction: „There are quite a few things that I agree with, but then again – we have a free market. Yes, in an ideal world it would work but at the moment there isn’t political con-sent. It will take time. There’s at least a debate or willingness to change the situation. We are on the right track with the clean development and the joint implementation mechanism. We just need to be patient. It’s bet-ter to do anything than nothing.“ However, unlike Kerstin, Anar be-lieves there is a clear danger in con-tinuing the present strategies. In his opinion Europe wants to heal its problems at the expense of third world countries. He is in favour of green house gas emission taxation or thinks that we should at least look for other indicators such as produc-ing alternative energy and reduc-ing our dependency on oil or gas.

Anar and Kerstin try to act eco-friendly and conscious in their eve-ryday lives. Thus they try for ex-

ample to save energy and water or use public transportation. Kerstin emphasises at the end of the inter-view that environment-friendly be-haviour is a question of priority on which each individual has to decide.

In conclusion, if the process of global warming cannot be halted, the economy will have to adjust. It is time that one of the industrial nations worldwide succeeds in generating an enduring development model that becomes a global antetype. To nour-ish a liveable planet for further gen-erations and to meet the exigences of the future at the same time, con-sidered action of all social power is essential: each individual must con-tribute something to make the world a better place. There is no planet B.

Planet W | 29

planet w was here

Planet W | 30

SPONSORS

Bosch Rexroth

GlaxoSmithKline

Sparkassenstiftung für die Stadt Würzburg

Planet W | 31

THE PRESS ROOM

SINIVENTELäFinland

MIMIBONEVGermany

JO SUSANNGRAFFGermany

REBECCASMITHFrance

KARIN-LIISLAHTMäEEstonia

RITAGRANTIreland

HANNA OLLINENFinland

100%internet freepress room

Editor