In Germany, a ‘wonderful’ illustration of Isaiah 32:14 – “the castle will be forsaken, the noisy city deserted; citadel and tower will become wasteland forever” – is in areas where coal is mined, such as in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Wastelands, as far as the eye reaches, villages are destroyed, people evicted just to feed power plants which belong to big corporations and thus sustain the power of the already wealthy at the expense of those who cannot oppose oppression.
And yet, and yet: as you can see, alternatives are sneaking up and gaining importance. Renewable energy generation in Germany has long left the margins. Its importance is increasing continually.
In 2024, 60% of electricity in Germany was already being generated by solar and wind energy. New and “green” technologies are gaining importance and increasing in volume as well as battery storage capacities.
Eventually, this is the hope, renewable energies will gradually render coal mining and other fossil sources of energy generation “uneconomical”, a benefit both for the purse of the consumer and, of course, for nature and all living beings.
But there are more good things about wind and solar energy: they can be, in principle at least, generated by individuals or cooperatives of citizens, therefore making citizens and neighbourhoods independent from the profit-making schemes of those corporations which so far control energy production.
And: renewable energy can be generated in a decentralized way, which means that generation is no longer controlled by those monopolists who own the distribution networks, or endangered by computer hackers who interrupt supply.
Obviously, there will be resistance from energy producing and distributing corporations and their shareholders but, at least in Germany, I hope that the point of no return has already been crossed.
So there is hope that indeed damage is being healed and nature restored, and people will be able to return and “live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.” (Is 32:18).
Fr. Jörg Alt, born in 1961, a Jesuit since 1981 and a priest since 1993, has degrees in Philosophy, Theology and Sociology. He worked in various fields of work for the Jesuit Refugee Service between 1986-2004. He joined the team of jesuitenweltweit in Nuremberg, Germany, in 2009 and the Ukama-Centre for social-ecological transformation in 2022 He has spent time in prison for his climate activism.
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