Heading for New Shores?

What We Know About the Impacts of Climate Change on the World’s Oceans and What We Need to Prepare For. A Dream Journey into Our Shared Future Along the Coasts
With Dr. Martina Karle, Niedersächsisches Institut für historische Küstenforschung (NIhK) & Cai-Olaf Wilgeroth, Ostfriesische Landschaft

The topic of disappearing islands connects to historical, current, and future challenges of human existence, especially within the dynamic interplay between the oceans and coasts in the era of climate change. In the Pacific Ocean, islands are already “sinking” today because rising sea levels make it impossible to protect these islands for the people living there (Tuvalu). The situation is quite different in Central Europe: We continue to invest in the ongoing protection of our artificial coastlines and habitats, and we continue to allocate the necessary resources to this end. In doing so, we disregard the pressing issues of our time and the fundamental processes of nature. We finance these efforts through an economic and social system that shifts costs onto third parties and has negative impacts elsewhere. Furthermore, we are pre-financing these protective measures out of the future and living on credit – both financially and ecologically – at the expense of future generations. For the natural dynamics of our landscape are increasingly at odds with the static concept of coastal protection.
All of this can be explained by the perceived vast distance from the visible scope of the problem – whether geographical or temporal. For the fact that climate change is already at our doorstep continues to be downplayed or ignored. Psychological defense mechanisms are at work, as are certain vested interests.

6 € | 4 €