The series was developed under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Ulrich Bartosch (new president at the University of Passau), who took the initiative for the series when he was still a professor at the KU and chairman of the advisory committee of the VDW. "The basic idea behind the action days is to understand universities and higher education institutions as forums for critical exchange rather than just as mere ‘training institutions’. We want to promote dialog between renowned scientists and the next generation," says Bartosch. In addition to Prof. von Weizsäcker, climate expert Hartmut Graßl was also one of the discussion partners in several workshops that had been prepared by the students over several weeks. In her opening remarks, KU President Gien also underlined the profile of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt as an open space for discourse that seeks to combine questions of sustainability and personality.
Prof. von Weizsäcker used his closing speech to describe how the ideas of the Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries originally formed in an "empty world" with few people and little economic activity. "In most cases, the thought patterns that originated in this time are not suitable for solving current problems. We need a new Enlightenment," demanded von Weizsäcker. He used various examples to illustrate the historical development of how we use our resources: While in ancient times, 95 percent of vertebrates were still living in the wild, the percentage of wild animals today only amounts to three per cent, whereas 67 percent are used as meat stock – which has corresponding effects on our environment. Even the World Economic Forum has put environmental and climate issues at the top of the list of global risks for the first time this year. "If the Greenland ice or the ice of the West Antarctic slides into the oceans, this will set in motion migration movements in tenfold dimension of what we have seen in 2015. Just think of the 800 million Asians who live directly by the sea," says Weizsäcker. Although global warming was well diagnosed as a dangerous "disease", the cures that were being proposed made the situation even worse – for example, the idea to finance the energy transition with maximizing economic growth further. He said that Europe takes climate issues very seriously when seen in an international comparison. However, climate policy that was limited to industrialized countries was pointless if 90 percent of planned coal-fired power plants were to be built in developing countries. It is precisely in these countries, that electrical energy could be produced in a much more cost-efficient way, for example by using photovoltaic plants.
As a political option, von Weizsäcker suggested granting all countries the same per capita emission rights. Since the industrialized countries had already largely used up their licenses, they would have to go "license shopping" in the developing countries. India, for example, would no longer build new coal-fired power plants, but would instead rely on renewable energies and sell valuable CO2 licenses to Europe. Currently, climate-friendly technologies are not profitable because costs for resources and emissions are not high enough: "We have to make sure, politically, that prices reflect the ecological truth – at least more or less," says von Weizsäcker. The energy transition must also be accompanied by greater resource efficiency in order to make better use of the generated energy.
As a good starting point from a philosophical perspective, he mentioned the encyclical "Laudato Si'” of Pope Francis, the core message of which condemns an economy that was built on stinginess, haste and merciless competition and thus destroyed the "common house". In this context, von Weizsäcker criticized the improper use of the ideas of great thinkers such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo or Charles Darwin. The latter is always used in arguments to justify radical competition. However, Darwin actually discovered that the fauna on the Galapagos Islands was just able to develop in such a diverse way because of the absence of competitors. With this in mind, von Weizsäcker called for a civilization of balance instead of arrogant assertiveness, and a balance between innovation and established courses of action. Not every innovation is intrinsically better – digitalization, in particular, has meanwhile developed into a major CO producer.
In the discussion round with von Weizsäcker that followed his speech, one of the issues addressed was that countries should not only be charged for CO2 emissions in manufacturing that take into account consumption and the associated imports. Rather, it was important to look at the entire process – for example in connection with a CO2 tax. With regard to the current situation, von Weizsäcker already perceived a change in thinking towards a better balance, among other things with regard to travel behavior: “Before Corona, tourism was connected to the dogma that holidays are more relaxing with an increasing number of kilometers traveled to the place of destination. Now it has become normal again to spend your vacation close to home.”
At the end of the action day, the eight groups of students who had previously dealt with detailed questions of sustainability in workshops, think tanks and dialog forums, also summarized their thoughts. One group dealt with Christian spirituality as a point of orientation and resource, and with faith as a source of solidarity with our neighbors. Theological and ethical aspects of sustainability education were also discussed. Together with the Eichstätt initiative ‘fairEInt’, students in a project seminar developed concepts for a car-free city center, green roofs in the industrial area and zero-waste shopping. They emphasized the necessity of an early exchange with contact persons from the industry, politics and society. Particularly in view of the current corona situation, another group emphasized the need for stronger networking among student sustainability initiatives. Fighting poverty as a key to crisis management, ways for implementing sustainable tourism, Education for Sustainable Development for teachers and the role of social entrepreneurs for a transition towards more sustainability were other topics covered by the student groups.
A detailed follow-up report on the results of the student group work can be found on the KU website.
More information on the action days „Aufklärung 2.0: Wir sind dran!“ is available in German at
vdw-ev.de/portfolio/aktionstage-aufklaerung-2-0/.