Christoph Metzelder and Alex Goerlach
After an injury in the past year you have returned to the playing field. How are things now?Thanks, I’m doing well again and happy that I can play again. I’m grateful in every respect to my doctors and other assistants.
In the period of recuperating from your injury you became involved in the Club of Pioneers. That sounds like being ill is a good condition for thinking about climate protection and sustainability. I don’t really think that there is a connection between the two. Climate protection is a subject for me whether I am healthy or sick. To be sure, when you are forced to slow down because of an injury, then there is more time to think about yourself and your life. It doesn’t really belong to the main task of a competitive athlete to discuss issues of environmental protection…This topic should concern all of us! Since I began blogging for the Club of Pioneers in December, amazing things have happened. The topic of climate change and how to combat it is resounding everywhere. The climate conference of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in Paris at the beginning of February has shown that we have no more time to postpone solutions till some later date.What can athletes and other prominent people like you do?

In general we have many fans and even a whole string of fan clubs. Those are the forums in which I can arouse attention to the subjects that are important to me. In my Web site www.metzelder.de there is, for example, a link to the Club of Pioneers. And so, many of my fans come in contact with my blog at Club of Pioneers and are confronted with my way of thinking and position on these matters.Are you able to come to terms with the idea of “sustainable lifestyle”?I think that most people – including myself – do not want to abandon their standard of living. But at the same time they don’t want to enjoy their lifestyle at the expense of God's creation or the coming generation. Technical progress is in principle positive, but it must be used responsibly. I view this in the exact same way. This has nothing to do with a particular political opinion, but with rationality. Can you give us an example?For instance, driving a car. I like to be mobile and really enjoy the technology of a car, also a certain amount of comfort and good design. But a car must be eco-friendly. Therefore I am interested in alternative forms of combustion and would be delighted to test drive the BMW Hydrogen 7 model. Is climate protection the only area in which you are involved?I am also involved in the area of work with underprivileged children and youth. For me it is important to be able to offer a perspective to the upcoming generation. We need to make it possible for boys and girls to develop their abilities in school and training and to play a part in society. But for that to happen, we need to turn a world over to them in which they can live naturally and without detriment. To me both of these areas belong together.Interview: Alex Goerlach

Children are important, and it is a misfortune that in virtually all industrial nations the birth rate is declining. There is lots of thought and public discussion in Germany these days about the right upbringing and education for children. Often the issue is centered on values. What values are important and how should parents and society impart these values to the adolescent generation?One value that in my opinion belongs, among others, to values education, but which has not yet been taken into broad consideration, is ecological, sustainable behavior. By this I mean, for instance, respect for natural resources – frugal use of water, conscientious energy consumption (heat, electricity). Children don’t learn frugality incidentally, but more exactly when they are deliberately introduced to it, best of all by persons who lead the way by example.