Under the slogan "All for the climate", citizens around the world are demonstrating today in favour of comprehensive climate protection. Back in March this year, German-speaking scientists issued a statement in support of the demands of the "Fridays for Future" movement. In this short interview, tropical ecologist Gerhard Zotz explains why Oldenburg researchers are getting involved.
Prof Dr Zotz, you yourself are one of the more than 26,800 experts who signed the statement by the end of March. In the meantime, a "Scientists for Future" initiative is also about to be founded in Oldenburg. What prompted you to become active?
Most basic researchers, like myself, work on very specialised topics. For example, my group uses climate chambers to investigate how tropical orchids grow under elevated CO₂ or how bromeliads germinate at higher temperatures. And in the natural environment, we investigate how entire plant populations develop in the long term. Our results are then communicated primarily within specialist circles. There is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, which regularly publishes reports on climate change and its consequences. These reports are naturally present in the media. But climate change is a huge challenge and the catastrophic consequences of a policy of inaction and procrastination are becoming ever clearer. In view of this, scientists who are not active in the IPCC can no longer just stand by and watch the social debate, but must get involved.
Why do you think it is important for scientists to take a public stand on climate protection issues?
Scientific findings should form the basis of political action in an enlightened society. This applies not only to the climate debate, but also to other current social debates, such as the one about immunisation rates being too low. However, we are not issuing any instructions. The conclusions that politicians and society draw from scientific findings are the result of a democratic process. However, this does not follow scientific criteria. It is about the short and long-term interests of different groups, about fears, about convictions that are difficult to change, about cherished habits that people do not want to give up. But despite the diversity of opinions: The facts have to be right. However, when this is often not the case, as in many discussions about climate change, we have to take a stand as scientists and as citizens of this country in view of the scale of the problem.
How would you and your fellow campaigners in Oldenburg specifically like to contribute to the debate on climate change?
We want to use this debate not only to discuss climate change with the people of Oldenburg, but also to engage in a fundamental dialogue about science. Only if you understand how scientific knowledge is gained can you, for example, correctly categorise press releases that "cholesterol is not harmful after all" or that there are also scientists who consider the influence of humans on the climate to be rather small. Science is a process! As a concrete format for this dialogue, we are planning a monthly series of lectures and discussions in which we reflect on the scientific method and examine the topic of climate change from the perspective of a wide range of disciplines, such as philosophy, economics, social sciences and biology. This is a challenge for the university as a whole. The way we are facing up to this challenge as a university is a very positive experience for me personally.