EventsThe Climate Crisis

The Climate Crisis

Stefan Rahmstorf

Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Event from
17 January
2019
Photo from Stefan Rahmstorf

Event

Topic

Forest fires, floods, landslides, drought – 2018 cast a renewed spotlight on climate change. This doesn’t come as a surprise to climate researchers such as Stefan Rahmstorf, given the increasing rate of extreme weather events that have been observed for decades. In his lecture, he discussed the causes of the climate crisis and presented the latest data on global warming. The climate researcher also appealed to the architects and designers to contribute their part to reducing emissions. Given that heating demand causes 15 % of greenhouse gas emissions in Germany alone, one possibil­ity would be to further promote the construction of energy-plus buildings. A further recommendation on how architecture could contribute to reducing CO2 emissions was to replace concrete by timber structures. Since wood is a carbon reservoir, the cultivation of wood plantations and wooden buildings can actively remove CO2 from the atmosphere. The production of cement alone accounts for 4 % of global fossil emissions, so concrete construction should be restricted as far as possible. 

The climate researcher Stefan Rahmstorf discussed the causes of the climate crisis and presented solutions

Stefan Rahmstorf

Stefan Rahmstorf is Professor of Physics of the Oceans at the University of Potsdam and heads the Department of Earth System Analysis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. He was a member of the German Federal Government’s Advisory Council on Global Environmental Change from 2004 to 2013, and has been a member of the National Geographic Advisory Council in Germany since 2012. In 2017, he was awarded the Climate Communication Prize of the American Geophysical Union.

It Doesn't Matter which Way the Wind is blowing, but how you set the Sails.
Stefan Rahmstorf
Project from Rahmstorf Stefan - Klimawandel Beispiele
Photo © Stefan Rahmstorf
Project from Rahmstorf Stefan - Klimawandel
Photo © Stefan Rahmstorf
Project from Rahmstorf Stefan - Greenland
Greenland © Ragnar Axelsson
Photo of the lecture by Stefan Rahmstorf
Photo © Astrid Eckert