28.05.2019
Climate Champions Wanted! A Climate Action Day at the Futurium
The Climate Action Day will take place at the Futurium on 3 June 2018 from 11:00 to 18:00 as part of the Workshop Weeks. The house of futures will be offering a platform to activists and climate researchers, organising round tables with experts, and providing all sorts of opportunities for the whole family to participate. A keynote speech will be given by the internationally renowned researcher Professor Dr Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK, Institute of the Leibniz Association).
Climate protection is a task for the whole of society. The effects of human-made climate change cannot be overlooked: polar caps are melting and extreme weather conditions on the increase. No one can save the world on their own, but we can all do our bit towards saving it together. And towards that goal, all our imaginative powers and ideas – as crazy as they might at first glance seem – can be of use. “The worst possible thing for us to do would be to try to save the world in the best possible way,” says Professor Dr Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). “I’ll be completely satisfied if we save the world in a chaotic, suboptimal and possibly even crazy way. But let’s just make sure we save it.”
The Climate Action Day is about the things we can actually do for climate protection in our everyday lives. The possibilities in this regard range from changing our eating habits and switching to alternative means of transport to establishing initiatives for climate-conscious living. Professor Dr Schellnhuber will be giving a lecture on “Climate Change 4.0”. Climate protection as a task for us all is the theme that will be expanded upon in brief lectures to be given by a number of scientists and entrepreneurs. A panel discussion will provide the opportunity for representatives of climate-protection organisations to come together with company founders committed to climate protection to present their views. What motivates them to commit themselves and what are their concrete proposals for solving the challenges of climate change?
The dance company Asphalt Piloten will contribute an artistic perspective to the programme with its performance “TAPE RIOT” – a mixture of modern dance, tape art and urban composition. Dr Andreas Pohlmann will be presenting a photo exhibition with panoramic portraits of German climate researchers. And the Berlin theatre and performance collective Turbo Pascal will be gathering visitors together for an interactive theatrical performance about ecological footprints and climate concerns.
Visitors will be able to try things out and experiment at numerous interactive stations throughout the building: from self-made energy converters to climate-friendly architecture of the future, from the open-source weather station senseBox to new forms of mobility with load bicycles.
The Urban Gardening project on the forecourt of the Futurium shows how urban plants can contribute to the urban climate. In workshops, visitors will be able to make their own “seed balls” for greening the city, while in the Science Café they will have a chance to talk to people who themselves in the post-war period and the GDR cultivated fruit and vegetables in the city for their own use.
A talk between Dr habil. Fritz A. Reusswig (PIK) and Dr Stefan Brandt (Director of the Futurium) recapping on the day’s events will round off the programme.
The Climate Action Day will provide even its youngest guests with lots of fun and games. In the children’s area on the ground floor, children aged three to five will be able to build weather stations, paint creatures of the future, help marine animals (by fishing for plastic bottles) and try out skill games.
The Climate Action Day will be taking place in the context of the Futurium’s Workshop Weeks from 30 May to 9 June 2018. We extend a cordial invitation to our visitors to get to know our work at this house of futures and to take a peek behind the scenes at the Futurium as it strides towards its launch in spring 2019. The Workshop Weeks at the Futurium have been organised under the heading “Areas of Tension. Approaching Possible Futures”. They will concern the major issues of the future, such as digitisation, civic involvement, climate protection and sustainability – always under the guiding question “How do we want to live?”. Admission is free, except on the Long Night of the Sciences.
Press accreditation: If you wish to attend one of the events as a representative of the press, please seek accreditation by sending an email to public.relations@futurium.de.