WEBVTT

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OK, so I have to make a confession.

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Every time I rehearsed this speech,

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I got to the point
where I almost started crying.

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What I want to talk with you about
moves me a lot.

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And what moves me

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is the beauty and the power
of people like you and me

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standing up together

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to solve a problem
that seems impossible to tackle.

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This is me a couple of years ago.

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I was deeply unsettled
and overwhelmed by global warming.

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I knew it was there, but it seemed
very far away and abstract.

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And at the same time,
I was closely surrounded by its cause:

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our global economic system

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that is based on digging out
and burning fossil fuels -

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coal, oil and gas -

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which holds responsible for two thirds
of our global carbon emissions.

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Now, living a normal life in Germany,

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I was part of the system every day,

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from my consumption to the food I eat,
the travel, like in the picture,

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the waste I produce.

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In fact, I felt that I was
so much involved in it

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that I didn't even have
the right to oppose it.

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I was global warming in a way.

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And no matter what I would do
to reduce my personal consumption,

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it would never be enough
to solve the problem.

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I felt helpless when I thought of it,

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and so for a long time,
I preferred not to think of it too much.

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I'm sure you are aware

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that global warming
is an increasingly urgent topic.

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It's proceeding much more rapidly
then expected just now,

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and although we have no time to lose,

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our political leaders don't seem
to take the necessary steps

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to break free from those fossil fuels.

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Although there are some
pretty good options on the table

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like introducing carbon taxes,

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ending subsidies
in the fossil fuel industry -

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that are really high,
especially in Germany -

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or an obligatory carbon footprint label
on all the products that we buy

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so we actually have a choice

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and we foster competition among companies
to reduce their emissions.

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We get none of this.

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And this is even more confusing
and unsettling to me.

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And I kept asking myself,

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"Is there anything I as an individual
can do to open the door to change?"

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Well, I found there is.

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Two years ago, I signed
a petition at 350.org.

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It's a US based NGO

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fighting climate change
by building a grassroots movement.

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And this movement really excited me.

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I saw people taking
creative public action.

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They were many,
they were doing it together,

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and they didn't at all seem sad
or desperate or aggressive.

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They looked like they had a lot of fun.

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And I fell in love with that movement.

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Now, I have children and I have a job -

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I'm a service design strategist -

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but at this point,

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I didn't at all think about how
I would be able to come up with the time

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to put some effort into this.

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I just knew I wanted to be part of it.

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I wanted to end my paralysis.

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On the map of 350.org,
I found Fossil Free Berlin,

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which is the local campaign
in the town where I live.

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It's a city actually.

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When I got to meet these beautiful people,

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I learned that their goal

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was to get the city of Berlin to divest
its capital reserves from fossil fuels.

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Just like you might be right now,
I was asking myself,

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What is this 'divestment'?

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I had no idea.

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But by now, I've found out
three quite amazing things about it

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that I want to share with you.

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Number one:

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Divestment is to pull out our money
from the fossil fuel industry.

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It's basically the opposite
of an investment

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because the investments that we have

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are being withdrawn from companies
that dig out or burn fossil fuels.

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Those are companies like Shell, NVE,
BP, ExxonMobil, Total -

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you get the picture.

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It's basically a boycott, simple as that.

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Now you may say,

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"That sounds like a good idea,

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but I don't even own shares
in these companies."

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I also thought that I didn't,

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and then I had to found out that I did.

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Not because I ever took that decision
and thought it was a really good idea,

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but because the ones
who received my money did:

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public administration, my bank,

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my insurances, my pension fund.

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No matter who I give my money to,

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some of it goes
to the fossil fuel industry,

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in the form of loans, shares,
project finance, bonds.

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Today there is almost no exception.

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Now, I realized
this makes me a stakeholder,

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and as a stakeholder I can interfere.

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I can tell them that I don't want this.

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Chances are better
if I don't do it on my own

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but together with other people
who are in the same position.

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And this is how
the divestment movement works:

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individuals get together

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and ask their institutions
to divest from fossil fuels.

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It's something very simple
and obvious we are asking for.

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It's to divest from those companies

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that are at the root of the system
that we need to change.

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And it's usually not that much;

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it's just between five and ten percent
of all investments that needs to be moved.

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It's a totally realistic goal,
and we can reach it.

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So, now you may say,

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"Well, if it's not that much money,

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who cares?"

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And even worse,

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"If these institutions divest

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somebody else is going to buy
their shares, right?"

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It's true.

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The fossil fuel industry is very big,

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and there will always be
investors who don't care.

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So, will the fossil fuel industry
even take any notice of what's going on?

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How can divestment
actually change anything?

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Well, this brings us to the second thing
that I learned about divestment.

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It's not about money.

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But it can cause something else;

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it can cause moral bankruptcy.

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And you can see an example
of moral bankruptcy

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if you look at the end
of the South African apartheid regime.

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In the 80's, students in the US

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succeeded in asking their universities
to divest from companies

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that were doing business
with the South African apartheid regime.

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And those universities divesting

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and talking in public
about why they had done so

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led to other institutions following:

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faith organizations, unions,
cities, investment funds.

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It spread like a virus.

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And this public dissociation was,
according to Nelson Mandela,

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a crucial factor in ending apartheid.

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And Willem de Klerk, the last president
of the apartheid regime, can be quoted:

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"When the divestment movement began,
I knew that apartheid had to end."

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[F.W. de Klerk, last president
of the apartheid regime]

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This is a political leader acknowledging

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that once people are ready
to move their money

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in order to make a moral statement,

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they will have their way.

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Think about the power that gives to us.

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And there is yet a third thing
I came to understand about divestment:

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it's a precondition for change.

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Remember I said earlier that we don't see
the necessary political steps?

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Well, here is why.

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We as a society

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currently depend on the profits
of the fossil fuel industry.

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Because we invested in them everywhere.

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Our wellbeing depends
on their dirty business.

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Currently, as it is, if they fall,
we lose our money.

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On the other hand,

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we know if they remain profitable,
the planet will be boiled.

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Which one is worse?

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We need to understand

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that ending this dependency
is a precondition

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for taking the necessary steps
to stop global warming,

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for rebuilding our economy

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and changing it into one
that is based on renewables.

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Divestment is not going to solve
all the problems immediately,

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but it's the first necessary step
towards solving them.

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And the virus is spreading.

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This is what this powerful
and wonderful movement

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has been achieving in the past 18 months;

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all of these institutions
have decided to divest.

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It's started with a lot of
universities in the US,

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Yale being the latest example.

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Then there was the Norwegian
Sovereign Wealth Fund.

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They decided to divest
their 900 billion portfolio last year.

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There were over 60 cities,
such as Seattle, Oslo, Copenhagen

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and Munster, being the first German city,
to take that decision last year,

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where responsibles said,

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"It was surprisingly easy
and quickly done."

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And then other huge institutions followed:

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The Rockefeller Foundation,
The Guardian Media Group,

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The British Medical Association,

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a lot of faith organizations
and the Church of Scotland.

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And even the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation,

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who would not call it "divestment,"
but that is really what they do.

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So, the entire sum

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adds up to 3.4 trillion US dollars

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that are committed
for divestment right now.

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Now, what about my hometown, Berlin,
and the campaign I'm in?

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We are not on the list yet,

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but we had a meeting
with the senator for finance last week.

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And he said that he began
looking into divestment

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just shortly after
we launched our campaign,

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and he expects it to be done
by the end of this year.

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We're ten people in a four million town.

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Now -

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(Applause)

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Getting him to talk to us

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obviously was a lot of work
in the past year.

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And I did most of that work
at nights and on weekends

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because of my family
and my job filling my days.

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It was very exhausting,
but I could not stop.

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It was also a challenge
for the people around me,

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and my husband at times,
frankly, almost went nuts.

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Thank God, he is here today.

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So, over the last winter,
I decided to take a climate sabbatical.

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I was lucky I could do that.

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I wanted more time during the day
for the Berlin campaign,

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and also, I wanted to do something else,

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I wanted to address my own pension fund -
Versorgungswerk der Presse -

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and make them divest.

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I sent a letter to them last fall,

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and shortly after, they replied

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saying that they had decided
to divest partly from coal.

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Sometimes it can be that simple;
it was just one letter -

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and of course, the threat to tell
the entire German press about it,

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but OK.

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(Laughing)

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But it is just a first step;
it's really too little.

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I want my pension to be clean,

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and that's why I want them
to go all the way.

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So I built this website,

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and I'm mobilizing journalists
and other supporters

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to send divestment letters

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to the Versorgungswerk der Presse
through this website.

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I hope you will check it out.

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And if you think
it's a good idea, contribute.

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Now, there is really no need

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to go all the way crazy
over divestment like I did.

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You can actually get things going
with fairly little effort.

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And that's why I want
to encourage you to take action.

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Look around you -

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the person next to you might be a member
of the same pension fund

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or a customer of the same bank as you.

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You can get together
and start by writing a letter.

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If you are not sure how to do it,
send me an email - we'll get it done.

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Now, I've lived in Hamburg,
and I know that it's a wealthy city.

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If you have money,
make sure it does the right thing,

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and then go and tell everyone
what you did and why.

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If we let our financial institutions know

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that we do not want to benefit
from global warming anymore,

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we will set in motion a change process.

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I guarantee: the more we are the better.

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And my dream is that one day
when we are looking back,

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the fossil fuel industry
will be quoted this:

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"When the divestment movement began,
we knew that fossil fuels had to end."

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[The fossil fuel industry]

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Thank you.

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(Applause)