Next ecological niche in Germany soon to disappear
An ecological niche is a location or “the range” of environmental variables (public buildings, for example) within which a species or an autonomous agent (a German smoker, say), can exist. Generally speaking, only one species can occupy a whole niche in an ecosystem like this at a time.
But Horst Seehofer, Germany’s minister for consumer affairs and not what you would call well-known for his “greenish” tendencies, knows this and doesn’t give a damn. He has said that he expects a ban on smoking in public places to take effect sometime in 2007, effectively depriving the German smoker, anything but an endangered species, but immerhin (still), of the environmental variables he has grown so accustomed to over the years.
It is not clear if the coming ban will include bars and restaurants, so some native smokers will be breathing a smoky sigh of relief about that one at least. Whew.
None of this would be much of in issue if it weren’t for the fact that Germany is one of the last of the EU countries that can still brag of having such an ecological niche like this at all. They have simply refused to get with the plan up until now.
And once a nationwide smoking ban is in place here, are you prepared to look your children in the eye one day and explain to them that you could have done something about all of this and didn’t? Oh, you are? Okay. That's cool.
Ich werde dann eben zuhause rauchen. Wenn meine Frau nicht da ist, meine ich. Auf dem Balkon. Bei günstigen Windbedingungen. Im Dunkeln.
Kommentare auf Deutsch? Klar!
I also ask myself why it has taken us so long to do something about this. My guess would be that 1) we have too many smoking politicians, and 2) legal compensation is too low. (Comment this)