From Corona to Climate Catastrophe

Despite restrictions due to the Corona pandemic, the U.S. climate agency NOAA recorded a CO2 concentration in our atmosphere in April 2021 that was higher than at any time in the past 800,000 years.

Climate researcher Johannes Orphal sees global warming “as a coming catastrophe, the consequences of which we cannot yet survey.” Is the “two-degree target” of international climate policy still realistic? Could technologies like “climate engineering” be a solution? And with which political and social efforts can the world still be saved?

Prof. Dr. Johannes Orphal is a physicist, head of the Natural and Built Environment Research Department at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and representative of the KIT Presidium for Climate Protection and Sustainability. He represents KIT on the Management Board of the Research Field Earth and Environment of the Helmholtz Association and is a scientific reviewer for national and international research organizations such as the European Space Agency (ESA).