Conference in Essen on The Great Transformation

By now it is obvious for most informed people that climate change is an extremely urgent issue that we need to address immediately to avoid irreversible changes to our climate system that will be devastating to many people living on our planet. And we know that we have the technologies to transfer our energy system into a low-carbon system within this century. How come that we still don’t act effectively? How come we keep falling further and further behind, with climate change proceeding faster than expected? How come the solutions offered by politicians so far don’t even come close to the urgency of the matter?

One major problem is that we still do not have a clear idea how to implement the great transformation in our social systems. How can we move people to action? While we are debating the science and technology, there is very little discourse about the fact that climate change requires a massive social change in the order of the industrial revolution; but not in the time frame of a century – as Prof. Schellnhuber pointed out - but in the order of decades. For Prof. Dixon from the University of Waterloo it is clear that the solutions to climate change will reside largely on the level of social change.

It is this problem that is being discussed in Essen during the next 2 days by experts in climate science, social sciences, and economy. The Mercator Foundation invited to a conference, called The Great Transformation: Climate change as cultural change. In a series of presentations and panel discussions the ca 450 participants from all over the world will try to get a better grip on questions like: Which social changes are needed to be able to implement effective climate policies? How do we best foster behavioral changes? It is high time to break away from conceptual discussions and start practical changes. But how?

One point was clear on the first evening: Experts need to reach out more, and more understandably, to the general public. But I wonder how experts can increase their involvement in public education without losing their credibility by fellow peers? Public outreach takes time and energy away from publishing and writing grants – and those are the main parameters by which scientists are judged today. In order for social change to be enhanced by experts, we not only need to transform the society out there, but also the society within the group of experts – changing our value system, and promoting outreach even though it will reduce our publication record. It is time to not only talk about the world outside from us, but also within.

John Schellnhuber said: “We need a new contract between science and society.” How exactly that contract will look like, and how we can implement it, will hopefully get clearer during the conference.

Maiken Winter

Did you know that today was fossil fools day, with 100s of demonstrations in the US, Canada, and around the world? It was a day to tell politicians and CEOs of large fossil fuel companies that we cannot be fooled any more by half-hearted climate policies that keep supporting the fossil fuel industry.

If you knew about it and did something about it, great! If this is the first time you heard about it, nothing much is lost, as a much more important day is just waiting around the corner: the global day of climate action on October 24 2009. Just to rub it in, I HAD to mention that day just one more time.

Source: 1Sky, Fossil Fools Day

Maiken Winter

Please read the invitation by Bill McKibben and other world climate leaders to participate in a  global day of climate action on October 24 2009. This is not going to be yet another action day that you can forget about. This is going to be THE day for the world to stand up for our children and show the world’s leaders that time is up: We need effective action NOW. Please share your inspirations, ideas, and plans with all of us; either on www.350.org, or on the Klimaschutz-Wiki for Germany.

On October 24, we will stand together as one planet and call for a fair global climate treaty. United by a common call to action, we’ll make it clear: the world needs an international plan that meets the latest science and gets us back to safety.

This movement has just begun, and it needs your help.

Here’s the plan: we’re asking you, and people in every country on earth, to organize an action in your community on October 24. (more…)

Berlin, February 2009: A red Volvo is parked behind the building, the hood void of its motor. The engine sits idling inside a large white room, engulfing a nearby, eight foot-high green cactus with gentle heat… What sounds like the beginning of a bizarre dream is a scene from the show Under Lime by the British artist Simon Starling in Berlin, which recently opened at the Temporäre Kunsthalle in Berlin. Starling is a conceptual artist who has become increasingly known for illuminating the relationship between (art) production and the environment and between creation, energy and waste in a global context.

Take the cactus in the exhibition hall: It is not your off-the-rack type, but one of the species which Sergio Leone’s film team brought to Spain’s Taberna desert to film their famous Spaghetti Westerns in the 1960s. “It is the only true desert in Europe and it was cheaper to produce the movie there than in the real Wild West,” Starling explains. He transported the cactus first to Frankfurt and now to Berlin using the same red Volvo parked outside the exhibition and used the guts of the car to provide the desert plant with its natural climate. (more…)

Nach vielen Vorträgen an Schulen ist klar: der Klimawandel ist weitgehend bekannt. Aber grundlegendes Wissen über die wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse, ein tieferes Verständnis über die Reichweite des Klimawandels, über die Dringlichkeit des Handelns, und über die Möglichkeiten des Handelns sind noch erstaunlich wenig vorhanden.

Am 7.3.2009 wird daher zum ersten mal eine ganztägige Veranstaltung für Lehrerinnen und Lehrer stattfinden, um ein tieferes Verständnis für die Ursachen, Auswirkungen, und Lösungsmöglichkeiten des Klimawandels zu fördern. Die Veranstaltung findet im Prielhof im Gut Scheyern, in Kooperation mit dem Landesbund für Vogelschutz statt (eine weitere folgt am 3.4. am IFM-Geomar in Kiel mit Unterstützung von Mojib Latif). (more…)

Lernen unsere Kinder bald umweltfreundliches Verhalten in der Schule? Umweltschutz als eigenes Unterrichtsfach auf dem täglichen Stundenplan? Wenn es nach dem Verein Solare Zukunft e.V. geht, wird das in Zukunft der Fall sein, denn der Verein setzt sich gezielt dafür ein, Umwelt- und Klimaschutz in die bildungspolitische Agenda zu integrieren.

Ausschlaggeber für diese Idee waren die derzeit immer lauter werdenden Debatten um steigende Energiepreise und die damit verbundene Klimadiskussionen um knapper werdende Ressourcen. An deutschen Schulen und im gesamten Bildungssektor besteht auf diesem Gebiet erheblicher Nachholbedarf. In Bildungsplänen und Schulbüchern ist keine Rede von Klima- und Ressourcenschutz, erneuerbarer Energien oder Energieeinsparung. Gründe dafür sieht der Freiburger Projektleiter Rolf Behringer in der fehlenden Austauschplattform und dem Mangel an Wissen über Lehrmittel, Bildungsinitiativen und bestehende Weiterbildungsangebote.
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On Wednsday, we got an update over the European climate negotiations in Brussels by EU Commissioner Stavros Dimas, and by several other members of the European Parliament. Dimas stated that “a failure of the agreement is inconceivable”, and that the EU climate package will be an inspiration to the world. Those were strong words, considering the fact that Germany is currently blocking effective emission reduction measures (see previous article). (more…)

For months I have waited for this day – to go to the UN Climate meetings in Poznan, and find out for myself how the road towards a sustainable and safe future is built, towards a future that will be decided upon in Copenhagen in December 2009.

My little adventure has not started so great. Hopefully this is just the difficult start to three highly productive days. A defect lock and constructions on the train tracks caused me to miss my train and will finally get me crawling into the hostel way after midnight (after having left at 7:30 am).

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by Bill McKibben

Our eight-year interlude from reality draws to a close, and the job of cleaning up begins. The trouble is, we’re not just cleaning up after a failed US presidency. We’re cleaning up after a two-century binge.

Barack Obama won an historic victory this week, and with it the right to take office under the most difficult circumstances since Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. Maybe more difficult, because while both FDR and Obama had financial meltdowns to deal with, Obama also faces the meltdown meltdown - the rapid disintegration of the planet’s climate system that threatens to challenge the very foundations of our civilization. (more…)

Endlich. Endlich hat der Umbruch angefangen. Eine neue Ära beginnt - in vielen Bereichen der Innen- und Außenpolitik der USA. Und – für uns natürlich besonders interessant – im Bereich der Energiepolitik der USA.

Obamas Sieg ist eine große Erleichterung für viele Menschen auf der Welt. Endlich ein weltoffener, intelligenter, dynamischer, sympatischer Politiker an der Spitze der USA, der Änderungen anstrebt, die sinnvoll sind. Aber wird seine Wahl auch effektiv den Klimaschutz und den Ausbau erneuerbarer Energien vorantreiben? (more…)