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Insights

On the front page we soberly count who comes last. Here we say why. Our own research, our own sources – but without the diplomatic voice. Because last place rarely falls from the sky. Usually, someone is responsible for it.

pointed partisan fact-based read from the left
Hinweis: This page is the opinion section of Schlusslicht. These texts are commentary and satire – pointed and partisan, but each verified against its own real, linked source. If you prefer it neutral, read the front page.

Last place is not a natural disaster. Nobody is born unhappy, no country is born poor, no industry pays starvation wages by nature. Behind every last-placed entry is a chain of decisions – and almost always, those who made them have never stood at the back themselves. That is exactly what we talk about here.

Standpoint · emissions

Carbon Counts, Not Excuses

The European Commission says verified EU Emissions Trading System emissions fell by 1.3 percent in 2025 compared with 2024, while power-sector emissions from fossil-fuel combustion fell by 0.4 percent and net electricity generation rose by 1.7 percent.

That is the rare political arithmetic that still knows how to embarrass the fossil lobby: less smoke, more electricity, less sermonizing, and a little less room for those who still sell delay as realism.

The same official figures also show the European economy’s greenhouse gas emissions at 837 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent in the first quarter of 2026, down 1.2 percent year on year, which means the decline is not a fairy tale but a measurable, stubborn trend.

The task now is simple to name and difficult to fake: tighten the cap faster, end the remaining fossil privileges, and make the biggest polluters finance the transition they have postponed for too long.

Standpoint · overdose

Fewer Dead, Same Industry

The CDC estimated 69,973 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2025, a decline of nearly 14 percent from the 81,313 estimated in 2024, with opioid-involved deaths falling from 55,296 to 44,564.

The improvement is real, but it arrives with the sour taste of a country that has spent years allowing profit, painkillers, and neglect to share a business model, then acting surprised when the bill comes due in body bags.

CDC data also show preliminary projections of 67,798 overdose deaths for the 12 months ending in March 2026, which means the crisis is easing without disappearing; the death toll is still obscene enough to measure the failure of prevention, treatment, and regulation in one grim ledger.

The next step is not a victory lap but stricter oversight of drug distribution, broader access to treatment, and public funding that follows the damage instead of protecting the companies that helped cause it.

Standpoint · greenhouse gas

The Air Finally Has Receipts

Eurostat estimated that the European Union economy emitted 837 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent in the first quarter of 2026, which was 0.3 percent higher than the previous quarter but 1.2 percent lower than the first quarter of 2025.

So the continent can still breathe in a small way when it chooses to do the dull work of standards, investment, and regulation instead of handing the microphone to the people who treat the atmosphere as a free disposal site.

The same figures say EU GDP rose by 0.8 percent over the year, which matters because it undercuts the old excuse that environmental restraint must mean economic paralysis; evidently, the laws of physics are not the same thing as a trade union blacklist.

The response should be obvious: keep emissions falling while protecting households from the transition costs, and put the heaviest burden on sectors that have profited longest from postponement.

The house rules, from the back

  1. Last place is made, not given. We always ask: by whom?
  2. Numbers are not neutral. Whoever collects, sorts and publishes them makes a choice.
  3. We take sides – for those at the very back, against those who keep them there.
  4. We attack power, not people. Structures, not the vulnerable.
  5. And we stay verifiable: every pointed claim rests on a source linked up front.

— Redaktion Schlusslicht · Insights · Nottuln 2026

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