December 3, 2018: FB1 seminar

11:00, Lecture Hall, Düsternbrooker Weg 20

The weather of recent years shows us clearly: Climate change is nothing more that will happen sometime in the distant future, as we already notice its impacts today. But what happens at the political level? For over 25 years, climate change conferences have been looking for a solution to the problem, but at present international climate protection is far from enough if we want to limit global warming to 1.5°C or 2°C by the end of this century! The climate action tracker (https://climateactiontracker.org) projects that global warming will exceed most likely 3°C in 2100, if we follow current policy or even if all countries implement their actual Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs).

In view of this situation, one or the other may ask: Is there still hope that we can mitigate climate change? And is there something more we can do than just to hope that all governments will cooperate one day and will implement a more ambitious climate protection?

I argue that each of us can be/is already more effective that we often think! If we change something in our lives towards more sustainability, we often underestimate the long-term positive effect of our actions by thinking too linearly. It can give encouragement when we focus more on where sustainability has already been implemented in recent decades. Each of the positive changes may be very small on its own, but when we look at the sum, a lot has already changed.

In my talk, I will discuss why it is so difficult to solve the climate change problem at the political level, but also why there is more hope than we often think. And I will try to link the local action in the here and now into the picture of global climate change and at the same time I want to encourage to commit ourselves to more climate protection and sustainability.

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