The climate crisis and the mass extinction of species dwarf any other challenge humanity is faced with. Being involved in the education of young people implies a particular obligation for joining the fight against the climate catastrophe, since what we teach will be useless if our civilization unravels in a hotter world.

As a member of the environmental committee of the University  I try to contribute to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of the university. A climate protection concept for the university was formulated, defining various scenarios by which my university will become climate neutral, ideally by 2035.

Together with Stefan Müller from Humboldt University, I started the climate Wednesday initiative which has become somewhat quiet during these Corona days. ClimateWednesday was active in the self commitment initiative against short distance flights at the universities of Berlin and Brandenburg and further institutions (https://climatewednesday.org/selbstverpflichtung/).

An attempt to extend the initiative to the whole of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (https://www.scientists4future.org/unter-1000/) has not been completely successful because what was meant to be the iniative’s hot phase became the time of the first corona wave. 

I am a member of the Beirat of Scientists for Future ,  and of the Regionalgruppe Berlin-Brandenburg and the Ortsgruppe Potsdam