From knowledge to meaningful action against climate change

[Music]

so

it was during my studies i came to

realize that i’m living at a time of

important change and i started to feel

responsibility to make sure this change

comes out well

i felt i wanted to do my best to

preserve our beautiful and vital cities

and landscapes

for the yet to be born so i began to

work hard

in research and consulting and

initiatives

to contribute to building a

climate-friendly society

in 2013 i was appointed to my current

position as a professor of sustainable

economics at the university of applied

science constance in the photo you can

see me with my

certificate of appointment i was more

than happy

about this new challenge from now on it

would be my job to provide my students

with the exact knowledge skills and

capabilities

they would need to build a

climate-friendly future

highly motivated i started to prepare my

courses

reflecting what should be the key

content of my teaching

i came up with five questions or topics

which i thought would prepare and

motivate my students

to take action those five questions were

first where are we

this describes reality as it is we are

dangerously heating our home planet by

burning the fossil fuels

oil gas and coal floods straws crab

failures wildfires

we can already observe the consequences

of the heating and they could change our

countryside forever

the climate crisis is a massive threat

to peaceful coexistence in

all our societies even the survival of

mankind itself may be at risk

how it hurts to face this reality

and this led to my second question how

could we end up like this

and here’s my answer here in germany

like in many other countries we are

enjoying a living standard unique in

human history

we owe this to the generation of our

parents

and grandparents how bitter it is to

realize today that many of the

technologies

manufacturing processes and daily habits

we adopted

are massively harming the climate and

how disillusioning to see how our laws

and regulations are not

preventing this the reason for this is

simple

those technologies manufacturing

processes

habits and regulations were made at a

time when oil gas and cold promise to be

a good choice

as cheap and infinite sources of energy

now that we know that these energies are

causing the climate crisis in the

tradition of previous generations we can

use our creative power

and decide to adapt to the new realities

the future now lies in our hands

and he followed my third question what

future would it be that we want to

create

where do we want to go

of course this is about ending our

dependence on dirty fossil fuels and

transferring to the clean energy from

sun

wind and water we know that these

renewable sources of energy not only

offer a reliable and secure energy

supply

but also through national prosperity and

secure

long-term jobs then producing less or no

harm to the nature is not enough

we owe it to our children and

grandchildren to even restore nature so

it’s also about healing and repairing

environments

to return them to their natural state

the fourth question would then be how

will we get there how can we possibly

achieve this prospering future

there’s a huge potential in people

taking responsibility

for where we are heading be it for our

personal ways of life our companies our

cities and our countries

we need a strong and decisive plan of

action

like u.s president kennedy’s plan in the

1960s to travel to the moon within less

than 10 years which then became a

national objective and was successfully

achieved

even before time today’s plans need to

be equally strong

they will provide for a new sense of

focus so that we can all pull together

and everybody contribute what we are

good at

my fifth and last question was who

are we or what are we here to do here

i would remind my students that we are

part of a story that started

long before we can remember and

continues long beyond anyone

will remember us well

personally this reminds me to appreciate

and enjoy life and its pleasures

more deeply but then it also makes clear

that it is our duty to safeguard our

world and conserve

the unique privilege of life on our

planet

i kind of dumped my students with

information on these five

questions and i kind of expected them to

come out of my course as little change

agents

longing to take action and yes students

had gained knowledge around the climate

crisis and the how-to

of climate protection that i’d been able

to check in the exam

but no there was no visible action being

triggered by this knowledge

instead of the dynamics i’d hoped to

create

i perceived a sense of despair and

helplessness in the face of today’s

reality

and the challenges lying ahead i was

devastated

there i was having the job i dreamt of

and what was i making of it

i had completely failed in empowering

these young people

to perceive themselves as potent

individuals

who can make a difference i was even

doubting whether

at all i could make a difference in this

world

being a scientist i decided to see

whether there was any research

that could help me understand what had

happened

it didn’t take me long to find out that

the thing

i had experienced is a common phenomenon

there’s even a term for it scientists

call it the

attitude behavior gap we know

what would be the right thing to do but

we still don’t do it

and thinking this through you probably

all have

an example for this in your mind so now

the problem had a name and i could

understand it

which left me with the next question how

can this

attitude behavior gap be overcome

we thought it might be a good idea to

add concrete student action to the peer

teaching of

information to base this action on facts

we would first analyze the climate

impact of

our everyday lives therefore each

student

would calculate his or her personal calm

footprint

in a second step students would then

choose one specific lifestyle change

experiment

that would really make a difference in

terms of reduced climate gases

the experience was to be run for four

weeks and we caught it

a climate challenge we found students

highly motivated and here’s a taste of

what they

engaged in four weeks on a vegetarian or

purely plant-based diet

or a car free month or consumption

relief four weeks without buying new

items and sorting out boxes of things

that are no longer loved and needed to

pass them on

four weeks proved to be a good duration

for the experiment

it was short enough to make it seem

possible and it was long enough for

students to start weaving new routines

into their lives

we also evaluated this scientifically

almost all students

met their objectives successfully and

most of them were happy and proud

about their achievements from psychology

i learned how precious

this experience is knowing that one’s

action has led to positive outcomes

is one of the key predictors for taking

action

in the future they call this concept

self-efficacy

we were happy that the test run had

turned out so well

on second thought we noticed that with

the definition of the task

we had directed the focus very much

towards private action

and changing one’s own behavior and

thereby we had missed an important point

from my previous work i knew that

historical transitions like the one we

are in

have usually been driven by changes on

two levels

firstly individuals deciding and acting

differently and

secondly a change in societal structures

and frameworks

that so strongly influence our

individual decisions

i will explain this bravely changing

behavior is what we had tried out

successfully with

our students a person decides to change

their lifestyle

in order to become more climate friendly

from our climate challenge i can say

that this can feel really cool and i

frequently observe

how it inspires others around you

besides our individual behavior there

are the societal structures in which we

live

this includes laws the range of products

offered to us by companies

or the prevailing social practices

these structures matter because we

normally stick to the law we can only

buy

products that aren’t awful and

affordable and we usually feel better if

our peer group

approves of our decisions

these structures somehow guide our

behavior

and unfortunately up to now in terms of

climate protection they often steers

in the wrong direction probably you have

also made such experiences for example

that it is often cheaper to take a plane

than to travel a certain distance by

train

or you won’t find a climate-friendly

opportunity like in my university’s

cafeteria

where they don’t offer a plant-based

dish each day

i guess you could continue this list

seems like due to those unsupportive

societal structures

and framework conditions it is not

always easy to do the right thing

the good news here is that today’s

framework conditions are not god given

they are human made

which makes them subject to human-driven

change

they date back to a time when the

climate crisis was not an

issue so it is only logical that

now that we face the transition to a

climate-friendly society as an ambitious

challenge

we refine those framework conditions

that includes politics to make sure that

the price for flying reflects the real

climate damage costs

caused by flying all my cafeteria

proudly advertising that its cheapest

choice is always a delicious plant-based

dish

i would be really happy about that

i guess you have an idea about these two

levels of change now

and having reflected on how both of them

matter it became clear to us

we had to further develop our climate

change

it should include starting points for

individual action

addressing both levels

and here is what we came up with

as before the climate challenge would

begin with a four week lifestyle

experiment to reduce one personal

carbon footprint we call this a

footprint

challenge as a new step we would then

ask students why most of society had not

already jumped in and joined in their

footprint challenged behavior

this question motivated students to

reflect on structural barriers

experienced

during their footprint challenge

following that we

asked them to develop and implement an

activity addressing this barrier

this activity we call their handprint

challenge

the results of running our first

combined footprint and handprint

challenge were amazing

so we continued with the concept and

have since been able

to accompany hundreds of young people

through their climate challenges

as a rule we find that taking action on

one’s own carbon footprint is virtually

self-driven once triggered

in contrast a handprint challenge seems

to be relatively unfamiliar

however once students get into this

handprint pattern of thinking

exciting results develop frequently

students serve their family or

friends delicious climate friendly meals

or they organize a closed exchange party

among fellow students where closers that

are not worn anymore

find new owners restaurant chefs

are encouraged to give away their

leftover foods for a small price instead

of throwing it away

or the manager of a supermarket has

shown how he could simplify shopping for

vegans

by including a vegan label on the price

tag or a student talks to the mayor of

her home village

and makes concrete suggestions how to

improve the cycling network

on the whole our challengers also like

to share their experiences via social

media

well it seems to work and just recently

students told me

that after the course they now feel well

prepared for their role as

powerful change agents for safe and

vital future

before i close i want to tell you how

working with the climate challenge

has changed my personal life for the

better

and i’m very grateful to my students for

that before we started the climate

challenge for a long time

i had directed my activities almost

completely to the handprint level

i thought if many people like me we hold

together we would finally succeed in

triggering

the necessary changes of our structural

framework

i believe behavior changes are not

important to look at

because ultimately they would come

automatically

because it’s just the new normal

but when i once again read the student’s

report of switching to a plant-based

diet i suddenly felt i should try this

out by myself

the result is that i am now a pragmatic

and pleasure first vegan which means

delicious continues to be my first

priority when eating

and when there’s no vegan food living up

to this i deliberately

turn a blind eye taking such a pragmatic

approach

turned out to be very helpful for my

evolving footprint activities

i accept i cannot do things perfectly

right

and i make myself aware that it is not

my

individual shortcoming but that the

structures are just not

so supportive yet

which is the reason why i continue to

vote

energy and time to my handprint

activities

and maybe my persuasiveness there has

increased as people

see that i try to walk the talk

and this last point links to what i

think is most important about the

changes

in my personal lifestyle they do not

only serve the climate

but somehow they also make me stronger

could it be narrowing down my attitude

behavior gap

releases energy my own behavior and

action have become

more integrated with my worldview and

somehow this proves to be

a continuous source of power in my life

so what could all of this mean for you

what if you let the facts about the

climate crisis reach your mind

and at the same time you do something

relevant about it

what would be a key climate affecting

behavior

among your habits and how could you

change this for the better

for a trial period of let’s say four

weeks and how will it feel having

succeeded

in beyond this private activity what

could be your handprint starting point

how could you maybe together with others

make a contribution however small

to improving our society structures so

that climate protection becomes

easier for all of us

i had the privilege to witness it

frequently

and i have experienced it in my own

personal life

there is an enormous power in letting

the reality of the climate crisis

touch you and stay brave and take

responsibility

the future lies in our hands