"Fridays-for-Hubraum" – a new Friday Movement

By Dr. Klaus L.E. Kaiser —— Bio and Archives September 30, 2019

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Fridays are rapidly getting new meanings. From the common abbreviation TGIF, to the recent “Fridays-for-Future” (FFF) demonstrations, right now, yet another Friday-meaning appears to be getting a large crowd of followers – and fast. Actually much faster than the FFF movement; it’s called the “Fridays-for-Hubraum” movement (FFH). Let’s begin with an explanation.

What’s “Hubraum?”

Hubraum is the German term for the displacement volume of an internal combustion engine. In North America, the units for Hubraum are commonly given in cubic-inch of the displacement volume, like 200-250 cubic-inch or so for many six-cylinder engines. So, Hubraum (HR) is a common measurement of the displacement of an engine’s piston(s). Naturally, the larger the HR, the more power an engine can generate. Of course, a larger HR also means not only more power but also higher fuel consumption and fuel combustion product (CO2), at least with comparable engine technologies. From the mixed English/German name of FFH, you may surmise that the new movement’s origin is in Germany. Indeed, that’s the case.

So, what’s FFH all about?

As the daily Stern reports , this brand-new Facebook group got started by car engine tuning specialist Chris Grau and friends, not long ago. It has quickly grown, by leaps and bounds, and has already well over 400,000 followers on Facebook in just a few days. When I checked, on Saturday, Sept. 29, there were more than 200,000 additional followers waiting to subscribe to it. The system just could not handle that number of folks in a short time.

What are FFH’s goals?

According to the large daily WELT , FFH co-founder Chris Grau and associates intended to produce a site with “an alternative, sensible CO2-avoidance and environmental policy” [translated]. But the whole idea sort of took on a life of its own, with internet trolls and even a political party trying to use it for their own purposes. When the originators realized that, they shut it down, temporarily. Now, it has been re-established with a strict oversight to prevent hate-messages and other unwanted attempts to “take it over.”

FFH’s view of FFF

Mr. Grau recommends to leave Greta Thunberg out of the discussion with “leave this girl in peace,” pointing to her young age. As you will likely know, Greta is at the forefront of the FFF movement that has quickly become a worldwide craze. In recent days, large crowds of (mostly) young adults and children of tender age went on to demonstrate “against climate change” and/or for “halting/preventing climate change” (yes, I heard that on the CBC morning radio show). Of course, that idea is no less ridiculous than asking your government to make the sun shine less, or change the earth’s path around the sun, or the rotation around its axis. But the most basic question is not even being asked, namely “does a change of the level of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the earth’s atmosphere have any significant influence on earth’s climate?”