Record summer droughts, floods in the Ahr Valley, tornadoes in Kentucky - society is increasingly confronted with extreme weather events. Scientists worldwide have been warning of man-made climate change for decades and urging governments to rethink. With the Green Deal, the EU wants to achieve a 55% reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and the coalition agreement of the new German government also contains climate targets. But are all these steps enough? How much "over" can our society take at all?

The TUD Lecture "Overheating, flooding, survival? - How much "over" can our society take?" took part on Wednesday, 16.03. at 18:00, expert Dr. Valeri Goldberg and Dr. André Lindner focused on regional climate change in our region and its consequences, especially in relation to heat and drought. Dr. Valeri Goldberg works at the Chair of Meteorology and conducts research in the HeatResilientCity project, among others, which was awarded the German Sustainability Prize Research 2022 on 3 December. Since 2020 André Lindner has headed the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (with its five faculties: Environmental Sciences, Civil Engineering, Architecture, Transportation Sciences, Economics). Previously, he was able to deepen his experience in international and interdisciplinary exchange during his work at the Center for International Postgraduate Studies of Environmental Management (CIPSEM) and was, among other things, project coordinator of the "International Network on Climate Change (INCA): Understanding Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies of Tropical Andean People". His talk looks at the aspects of global climate change and climate justice, and why the climate crisis is actually the lesser problem when our most significant toolbox for countering and adapting is being lost in just the sixth mass extinction in Earth's history, and why sustainable action is essential in terms of biosphere, society, and economy.

The event was moderated by the student group "ÜberfluTUng - change TUD", whose goal is to bring the 20 demands of the TUD's climate policy catalog of demands to the broad university public. The catalog was developed in the wake of the Climate Action Week in early 2020 by committed people in a StuRa project group and legitimized by the StuRa plenum in June 2020. Change-TUD initially launched "überfluTUng 1.0" in summer 2020, a digital social media campaign with over 70 sharepics that made the demands visually tangible. The campaign was shared across Germany by other student representatives and initiatives. Numerous demands have been implemented since 2020. Further demands are currently being explored and implemented by students and employees.
For all who missed the event, here is the video to watch now