This artificial panic is for once not about cars, it's about heating. Too many germans think and or have been conditioned to think that the Greens and other environmentalists want them to just shut off their heating and freeze. The network of gas industry lobbyists is strong in germany and successfully installed a "clean-gas"-campaign in the former government and now convinces even a Green industrial minister to install new and very oversized LNG terminals, in part because of the Green-cold scare.

If it were only the conservatives. The liberal party and the social democrats aren't better in any way.

The FAZ is still rather conservative, but much better than the "Welt":

https://m.faz.net/agenturmeldungen/dpa/5-5-millionen-menschen-konnten-2022-nicht-angemessen-heizen-19344930.html

Or you could link to DeStatis, the website of the Federal Statistical Office:

https://www.destatis.de/DE/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/Zahl-der-Woche/2023/PD23_48_p002.html

Whatever you like best! Thank you for considering to change the link.

That’s exactly the point. Unfortunately some people don’t think very far. Maybe his intentions aren’t even bad, he’s just beyond sloppy and shouldn’t live unsupervised.

I don’t think you’re the dumb one in this.

Old people are more likely to have arthritis or joint pain.

There is no official proper indoor temperature, but the courts settled at > 20 °C in the day and > 18 °C in the night as "normal". If it's not possible to achieve this temperature, the tenant has the right to withhold part of the rent as long as the heating is not fixed. But tenants are allowed to have their appartment as cold as they like as long as they don't grow mold.

Also, many people with autoimmune conditions experience worsened symptoms when it's hot out.

I don't want to regulate heating. I just find it unfortunate that the survey doesn't mention the target temperature that people couldn't afford. If someone says "it's too expensive nowadays to heat my flat to 25°C" it's a completely different story to "I had to live in constant fear of my water pipes bursting from frost".

We have an ongoing climate crisis and at the same time there's an energy crisis due to the war in Russia. I think keeping that in mind, it should be obvious that we have to cut back a bit in terms of comfort.

If it's indeed more than a third of Germany sitting in their flats freezing that'd be dramatic. But my feeling here it's at least partly people whining around about their horrible fate.

Headlines like this are perfect propaganda for pro Russian politics and in a second step may harm the people in Ukraine - which in many places are REALLY suffering from cold temperatures. Because they are cut off the grid and/or because their flats were damaged in battle.

It's almost as if different people who are used to potentially drastically different climates may have a different amount of tolerance for the cold.

I'm perfectly fine sitting at my desk all day with 18°C in shorts and hoodie.

There are indeed studies but they place the low cutoff at 18°C not at 20°.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK535294/

For countries with temperate or colder climates, 18 °C has been proposed as a safe and well-balanced indoor temperature to protect the health of general populations during cold seasons.