Climate crisis and society
Global warming is the focus of the climate crisis and represents the central problem of mankind in the coming years and decades. After we presented the scientific principles and facts about the climate crisis in the first lecture series and the focus of the second lecture series was on individual action, want in the third part we deal with the social and political possibilities for overcoming the crisis. The debate about the CO2 footprint of individual people and how they can minimize it may be morally correct, but it also distracts from the responsibility of the major greenhouse gas emitters to take a viable path to substituting fossil fuels. That is why the lectures in this year's lecture series focus on political and social options for action.
The individual lectures take place (online) on Mondays from 4 p.m. and, with a few exceptions, are permanently stored on www.youtube.com/MichaelSchmittderLasermichel and in the HHU media library (https://mediathek.hhu.de).
April 12th, 2021 Michael Schmitt, HHU 'Why are we already in a climate crisis today?'
In the introduction to the lecture series Climate Crisis and Society, we will talk about the fundamentals of global warming and discuss the risks to social structures, health, and biodiversity that are associated with the rise in global temperature. The individual lectures in the series are presented at the beginning and placed in the context of the overall series.
April 19, 2021 Dr. Christiane Textor, Dr. Thomas Reineke, DLR Cologne 'The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC and its role in science-based climate policy'
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as the most important source of reliable and independent information on climate change is presented. The structures and procedures of the IPCC and its role in science-based climate policy are explained with a focus on the international climate negotiations under the Framework Convention on Climate Change.
April 26, 2021 Andreas Schneller, adelphi 'The social dimension of the energy transition: Why climate protection goals alone are not enough.'
The tension between climate protection and social justice is becoming increasingly important. The social dimension is an important condition for acceptance and success of the necessary transformation process. Participation and social design of the energy transition are important prerequisites for this. In this lecture, Andreas Schneller shows current problems and concrete proposals for the socially acceptable design of climate protection and the energy transition from the perspective of political advice.
May 3rd, 2021 Michael Schmitt, HHU 'Denying, falsifying, lying - motivation and tricks of the Merchants of Doubt'
The motives of different groups or individuals to deny or even falsify scientific knowledge will be examined in this lecture. This includes sociological and psychological reasons that lead people to hold onto beliefs that scientific consensus has shown to be false.
May 10, 2021 Niko Froitzheim, University of Bonn 'As a scientist at Extinction Rebellion'
Scientists have been informing the public about the causes and dangers of climate change for decades, with overall rather moderate success. In recent years the climate crisis has intensified dramatically and many people see non-violent civil disobedience as a last chance. In the lecture I will tell you about my own experiences with Extinction Rebellion and the role that civil disobedience could play in vital system change.
May 17th, 2021 Lina Gobbelé and Pauline Brünger, Fridays for Future, HHU, “What can Fridays for Future?”
What can Fridays for Future do? An overview of the change in the social climate debate and a look behind the scenes of a global youth movement in times of the Corona.
May 24th, 2021 Whit Monday VL not applicable
May 31, 2021 Dr. Anna Soßdorf and Laura Ferschinger, HHU 'Fridays for Future meets Citizen Science'
After 1.5 years of joint research with activists of the Fridays for Future movement in the Düsseldorf area, we have the first findings. On the one hand, about how the citizen science approach with co-researching activists can be successfully implemented despite the pandemic and, on the other hand, how the movement has adapted to digital spaces in the course of the corona crisis. Laura Ferschinger and Anna Soßdorf will shed light on both aspects in the lecture.
June 7th, 2021 Sophie Gepp, Charité Berlin 'Planetary Health Alliance'
Planetary health is an area that focuses on characterizing the effects on human health of man-made disturbances in the earth's natural systems.
June 14th, 2021 Isaac Ssentumbwe, Rise Up Movement 'Intersection of climate change and gender equality'
Climate change threatens girls' rights. Girls are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and at the same time, promoting their rights is crucial to tackling the climate crisis.
June 21, 2021 Axel Steier, co-founder, chairman and spokesman of Mission Lifeline e.V. 'Climate crisis and migration'
Thousands of people every year try to get to safety from war, persecution and poverty across the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. The great evacuation movements induced by environmental destruction have not even started. MISSION LIFELINE has been rescuing people from distress at sea since 2017. Axel Steier brings us closer to the topic of sea rescue.
June 28, 2021 Jürgen Trittin, former Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Berlin 'How Germany's EEG helped put the world on the 1.5 ° path.'
Out of the fossils - into the renewables. This formula for combating the climate crisis is largely common sense today. Only by completely converting energy generation to CO2-free, renewable technologies can global warming be limited to +1.5 degrees. A few years ago it was unthinkable that the cheapest kilowatt hours are now generated by solar and wind power. The basis for global competitiveness was laid in Germany 20 years ago with the Renewable Energy Sources Act.
July 5th, 2021 Dr. Amrei Bahr, HHU “Climate protection through sustainability? Potentials and limits of the concept of sustainability '
The concept of sustainability has become the key concept for responsible use of the climate. But what exactly does the term mean - and what does this mean for our actions? In the lecture, I will reveal the potential and limits of what the term can do with regard to questions of climate protection.
July 12th, 2021 Caterina Freytag, Germanwatch 'Climate change - (no) reason for complaint?'
The Paris Climate Agreement goes hand in hand with a phenomenon that is quite controversial in legal circles: that of climate action. The most recent example of this is the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court, which has given the legislature a timely and science-based transition to climate neutrality in order to 'secure fundamental rights protected freedom over time and proportionate distribution of freedom opportunities across generations'. As part of the lecture, the speaker Caterina Freytag (Germanwatch e.V.) will take a look behind the scenes of the climate action phenomenon, take a critical balance and venture a look ahead: What about climate actions worldwide, which trends are emerging? What can courts do in terms of climate protection law? What legitimation does strategic litigation have and how does it affect national climate policies or business models of emission-intensive companies as a systemic lever?
July 19th, 2021 Michael Schmitt, HHU 'Climate Crisis - Where are we going?'
At the end of the lecture series, an attempt is made to bring the individual parts together in order to show ways out of the climate crisis.