Anders Levermann

We are at the end of the age of expansion – and we need an idea for the next big step. The finite nature of our planet collides with the need for rapid social development. If one accepts that both are harsh realities, then we are faced with a dilemma of limitation and dynamism. The desperate, albeit understandable, call for renunciation and recollection is helpless and of little use, as it does not resolve the dilemma. The mathematical principle of convolution could provide this solution because it allows infinite development in a finite world. Not growth into more, but growth into diversity. And not theoretically, but very practically – be it in European emissions trading or corporate tax.

Anders Levermann studied physics in Marburg, Berlin and Kiel. In 2002, he received his doctorate in theoretical physics at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot. He has been working at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research for more than 20 years, where he heads the Complexity Research Department. He is a professor at the Institute of Physics at the University of Potsdam and conducted research at Columbia University in New York from 2015 to 2023. He has contributed to the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for 15 years.