Start of the public lecture series "Climate Thinking

Climate change as an environmental problem does not fall solely within the purview of the natural sciences. While the latter research problems and propose solutions, the sciences themselves and also the phenomenon they research are situated in complex cultural and social contexts.

Each Wednesday from 8:15 p.m. to 9:45 p.m., various guests will lecture on climate change topics as part of the lecture series this summer semester. All interested parties are invited, also beyond the university.

On May 05, environmental historian Verena Winiwarter ("History of our environment. 66 journeys through time") will open the event. Furthermore, the journalist Kathrin Hartmann ("The green lie. Saving the world as a profitable business model") on May 19 and the economist Niko Paech ("Liberation from abundance. On the way to a post-growth economy") on June 16 are among the speakers.

Habits of life shape our actions, and habits of thought apparently direct our view with regard to the complex of climate change in ways that have so far rendered us as a society incapable of responding to a problem that Swedish physicist and chemist Svante Arrhenius described as early as 1897 in his study "On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in The Air Upon The Temperature of The Earth": the permanent increase in the Earth's temperature due to the continued use of fossil fuels.

"To take a look at these interconnections of ways of thinking and living, to discuss them with representatives of the cultural sector as well as other disciplines, and to develop new perspectives together with an interested public is what we at the doctoral college see as our task," says Dr. Paul Reszke, research associate at the Department of Linguistics at the University of Kassel.

The topics of sustainability and the environment have been strongly anchored in research and teaching at the University of Kassel since its founding 50 years ago. Currently, a Center for Sustainable Development is in the process of being established at the university, which will further emphasize this focus.

Further information:

The dial-in link to the event: https://uni-kassel.zoom.us/j/94200652396

The program can be found here.

Follow on Instagram: climate_thinking