Of the two mega-crises of our time, Corona and Climate, not everyone is hit twice.

Let's take the producers of radiant heaters: They were considered climate killers until the pandemic brought them a terrific comeback.

The FDP felt the same way.

Some could also benefit twice, like Karl Lauterbach.

The SPD man is currently training from Corona to Climate, which is obvious because the deforestation of the forests means that in many cities around the world there are now more host animals than hosts.

The latter have often gone bankrupt because of Corona, after they had bought radiant heaters for a lot of money and were still not allowed to open them.

Timo Frasch

Political correspondent in Munich.

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But there are also industries that are double-coated.

First the pilots, the aviation in general.

Corona has caused a massive collapse in air traffic, and climate change gives reason to expect, perhaps even hope, that it will stay that way.

It is also a hard landing for the pilots because they fall very low, out of all the clouds, so to speak.

For decades they kept the republic in suspense with their tariff demands as now the GDL has kept tourists who wanted to take the train instead of flying for the sake of the climate.

Pilot and autopilot

Pilots had lovers all over the world. If they were just doing their job, even if it was on autopilot, they were applauded as if they were nurses in a corona ward at the start of the pandemic. Her profession was sung about. Aviator, show me the sun. Above the clouds. And I fliag. Airplanes in the stomach. I believe I can fly. Wish I could fly. The descent followed the singing flight. Passengers who clapped their hands after a safe landing instead of immediately switching off the flight mode on their smartphone were considered provincial proletarians who order currywurst in the VW canteen and can only afford a Malle flight once a year.

That in the well-received guidebook “A man. A book “explaining to everyone in just nine pages how to land a Boeing 747 didn't make things any better. While the Bavarian Prime Minister Franz Josef Strauss was still making history when he drove a Cessna to Moscow by hand in 1987, the joystick in the hands of amateur pilot and politician Friedrich Merz is only a symbol of control justice.

Flying is no longer uplifting, but rather aloof, at best.

The CSU once announced in the debate about “poverty immigration”: If you cheat, you fly.

That wasn't an advertisement for flying either.

Today it has become: Whoever flies is cheating.

Katharina Schulze, for example, had to find out about that, the Bavarian green woman who was caught eating ice cream - in California!

A green!

Fear of flying was yesterday, today is flight shame.

The pendulum of history

Now you can say that all professions have their time. Journalists were able to enjoy themselves on the Reeperbahn a few decades ago and then account for it as a business trip - to be read in the diaries of Fritz J. Raddatz. In the meantime, many of them would like to earn something on the Reeperbahn - if Corona allowed it. The old white men among the professional groups, however, are the pilots: Those who have been given preferential treatment for so long, yes: have been adored, now have to deal with it when the pendulum of history hits back mercilessly. Now is the time for the ice cream sellers, housekeepers and parcel deliveries.

Let the pilots come down a bit.

That would also be important for those trying to extend the adage The sky is the limit into space.

The online mail order company Amazon was named after the Amazon, cynically.

Instead of relying on the fact that mankind could one day move on to another planet and leave the earth behind like a burned-out piece of Amazon rainforest, company founder and would-be astronaut Jeff Bezos should rather look after the world down here with his billions.

Maybe then there would still be hope, even for the pilots.

Anyone who last looked to Greece, even if it was from above, knows that there will also be a need for them in the future and even opportunities to get applause again after landing: during fire fighting.