„Life on Earth“ students attend climate conference simulation

On Friday, December 5th, our Life on Earth students attended the Welt-Klimakonferenz at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus.

The students were able to roleplay a climate conference like the one simultaneously happening in Lima, Peru. They slipped into the roles of countries facing hard decisions in order to save the Earth’s climate: How many emissions could be reduced by 2050? And how much would each country pay into the new Green Climate Fund?

The timetable for the evening was packed: every twenty minutes, the students as well as the other visitors of the Schauspielhaus had to rush to another „meeting“, listen to lectures about melting glaciers, our world’s drinking water supply, and the development of countries‘ economies through green energy. The „delegates“ were made aware of the persistent threat that climate change imposes on our food supply, and how important it is to limit our carbon footprint to protect our environment and economies. They learned that while many people believe that to reduce our emissions is to damage our economy, the case is quite the opposite with renewable energy giving people more jobs while also being an ecological source of energy.

The conference was a practical way to reinforce our knowledge of climate change, while showing that trying to get 196 countries to compromise and implement climate change in a democratic way is extremely difficult, and it is hardly surprising that the climate conference in Copenhagen in 2009 was such a disaster.

We owe special thanks to Ms Brunnert for arranging our participation under the KlimaKunstSchule programme.