Tunnel thinking

Hamster resettlement, bat bridges and amphibian tunnels — the European Union, obsessed with the ‘green’ agenda, is spending exorbitant amounts of money on all these projects while scrapping many social programmes due to crisis

Millions for resettlement

According to statistics, industrial production in Germany decreased by 1.5 percent in 2023 compared to 2022. This does not seem like a big deal but there was also a decline of 1.8 percent in 2022. What is the reason? It lies in the disappearance of available energy resources coming from the east, including through Belarus, coupled with the thoughtless sanctions policy. Consequently, European factories are closing one by one, and large companies are moving their production to other continents. The current decline in economic production is comparable to the recession of 2008, when the financial crisis broke out in the world. The West did not suffer great losses at that time and managed to deal with the economic turbulence thanks to its functioning enterprises. The current situation is completely different and does not bode well for the ‘golden billion’, as the unemployment rates remain high and wages are falling.
The EU’s ardent commitment to the green agenda, which requires citizens to replace heating systems, reconstruct houses, eliminate natural gas furnaces and appliances in homes, forces mandatory landscaping and imposes climate taxes in favour of the state, does not contribute positivity. All of this, naturally, is paid for from the severely depleted wallets of the population. 
Against the backdrop of the economic downturn and the understandable despondency among Germans, there are those for whose well-being no money is spared. Thus, the authorities of the city of Erfurt have allocated €2.5 million for... the resettlement of wild hamsters.

A local high school is planning an expansion for 2026, and an additional building is to be constructed on a territory currently occupied by 39 hamsters. Eighteen other proposed sites have been deemed unsuitable for construction while the hamsters’ habitat is just right. The animals were thoroughly counted to avoid mistakenly relocating any extras.

“Even if the school is not built, we must do something large-scale for the hamsters,” Matthias Bärwolff, the head of the construction department at the local administration, explained to reporters. Given the budget of €2.5 million, it is indeed possible to carry out something large-scale for bigger representatives of the fauna. 
What will happen if, by the time of the relocation, the territory is occupied not by 39 hamsters but by 45? Where would they find the funds for the additional ones? 
This is far from being a solitary case of paranoid ‘care’ about flora and fauna. In Hamburg, four tunnels for toads and newts have already been built at a cost of €465,000 in order to protect them from traffic. Previously, the situation was managed using conventional barriers that closed off the passage during amphibian migrations, much to everyone’s satisfaction. However, local animal rights activists felt such measures were not enough.

In 2021, eco-activists counted all toads in Hamburg, revealing a decline to 616 from 1,002 in 2018. The situation with pond newts is even more alarming as conservationists were shocked to discover only one specimen in 2021. No one has even considered the possibility that amphibians’ deaths might be related to excessive attention to them from animal rights activists.  
The blame was immediately put on transport, which led to the construction of four tunnels for toads and newts, which ended up being used by... no one. While the newt has remained alone and must be vigilant to stay alive and not hop recklessly through any tunnels, ignorant toads could have stopped migrating along their usual route — after all, there are safe passages with direction signs installed for them. Yet, things are not working out.

Useless care

The German Autobahn 17 boasts three bat bridges, the construction of which cost German taxpayers €1 million. As a result, bridges 11 metres wide and 60 metres long each, with specially designed echolocation-friendly features and a system of guide barriers to aid bats in navigation, over one year of observations were used… by one bat. Despite the failure on Autobahn 17, the authorities have decided to try again and allocate between €3-4 million to build a bridge over the A94 motorway for the convenience of bats in Bavaria in 2024. Along with that, some biologists believe that the new bridge must be built to look like a big hedge, making it appear more natural to bats. Others claim that bats prefer to fly through tunnels.
 Apparently, both structures should be built so that bats have a choice. All of this, of course, should be planted with grasses. 
Local citizens express their sadness on social networks, recalling that in Bavaria, a bridge for the hazel dormouse has already been built at a cost of €93,000. Does it need to be mentioned that no dormouse has ever approached the bridge?  
In 2023 alone, Germany spent €119,000 to pay for the services of hamster relocation consultants who conducted ‘selective monitoring of field hamsters to determine their distribution range in Saxony-Anhalt’. Expenditure for bat consultants and monitoring amounted to €49,000, beetles and spiders — €39,000, beavers — €37,000, amphibians and reptiles — more than €250,000.
However, there seems to be much less care for Germans in Germany. The government has chosen to reduce pension subsidies by another €2 billion, marking the fourth reduction in three years. In total, German pension funds have lost €8.8 billion since 2022.
During the discussion of the 2025 budget in the Bundestag, funding for education, transport and infrastructure was cut, while health care costs were slashed by €8 billion.

As Germany sinks into crisis and its citizens face impoverishment, hamsters obviously enjoy greater care than any burgher. From the perspective of the green agenda, this might appear justified. After all, Europe aims to become the first climate neutral continent by 2050, and according to green activists, people are an impediment to this goal.

Absurd projects

In its pursuit to become the first in the implementation of the EU green agenda, Germany has already lost nuclear energy — on April 16th, 2023, the last German nuclear power plants stopped electric energy supply. However, they remain operational since it is impossible to shut down a nuclear power plant instantly like an electric kettle. The decommissioning process is expected to take another 8-10 years. As a result, Germany is forced to purchase electricity generated by... French nuclear power plants.
The current government aims to eliminate coal use for electricity generation in Germany by 2030. To achieve this goal, all coal mines in Germany will be mothballed. Germany has also refused Russian oil and gas, opting to buy those… from other countries at significantly higher prices. Moreover, the commissioned wind turbines and solar panels have not yielded the expected results so far.

By the way

The issue of recycling expired solar panels and wind turbines has already surfaced. Any proposed disposal options pollute the environment far more than all the coal-fired power plants in Europe combined.  

Two in one

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) states that despite the forced decarbonisation, Germany’s green transition does not work. On the contrary, more issues are emerging that negate Germany’s aspirations to consume 80 percent of electricity from renewable sources — wind, solar, water, biomass — by 2030. And by 2045, Germany wants to become a climate neutral industrialised country. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the ‘two in one’ approach will not succeed — it is about being either industrially developed or climate neutral. Nonetheless, German eco-activists stubbornly insist that everything is going according to the plan...

By Alena Krasovskaya