Springtime in Berlin

Spring is in the air and the long daylight hours are bringing Berliners out of hibernation and back to activity. Activity as in Activism. Green entries in the calendar range from the small and provincial to events of international impact. Anchoring the local end of the spectrum are items such as the call for entries to the competition for the Berlin Mitte Environment Prize. Of somewhere between local and global interest, depending on your point of view, is the much-discussed issue of Knut, the first polar bear born for over thirty years at the Berlin zoo. Where do you weigh in: should Knut be mascot for the fight against global warming? Or should the tiny bear, rejected by its mother and raised on a bottle by the zoo keeper, be humanely executed to spare him the indignity of being raised by humans and therefore not bear-like enough? In spite of the threats to polar bear biodiversity in the wild? At the clearly global end of the spectrum is the G8 conference on the sea shore north of Berlin. With the conference only weeks away, global citizens are converging by foot, bike and caravan to join the protests, exhibitions and general hub-bub that surrounds the meeting of global leaders. Dropping Knowlege will report the blow-by-blow from their G8 Summer Camp, and is a good place to find out how you can join a Bicycle Caravan or Euromarch on Rostock. These links are just examples, but there are routes from south, east, west and north. All roads lead to Rostock and events of cultural, social, environmental and artistic merit; so check it out: everyone can join from anywhere.

Image via ::Knut, Berlin Zoo

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