Climate change, climate crisis – does that matter for us?
About a year ago, the first reports on protesting young people appeared. They called for science to be taken seriously and for us to confront climate change.
In fact, we could all have known for a long time: the idea of digging up fossil fuels to burn them was not the best. The resulting carbon dioxide changes the Earth’s heat balance. A larger part of the solar energy remains in our atmosphere. The average temperature rises.
Unfortunately, an increase in the average temperature changes many habitats. The ice at the poles becomes less. Sea levels are rising. Extreme weather events will become more frequent, storms, heavy rains and droughts. We are already seeing the first effects of climate change. The average temperature has already risen by about 1° since pre-industrial times.
Meanwhile, climate science has recognized tipping points. If these critical conditions are reached by warming, they in turn lead to significantly more warming. The melting of Arctic ice, for example, ensures that less sunlight is reflected directly, and thus generates a rise in temperature itself. Thawing permafrost soils release large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane, which in turn cause the temperature to rise.
Therefore, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in 2015, it was decided to keep the temperature rise well below 2°, preferably below 1.5°.
This means that net emissions must be reduced to zero between 2030 and 2050.
This requires significant changes in our lifestyles!
Our politicians are reluctant to make significant changes because they fear they will not be re-elected. So we must take that fear away from them and instead show them that we will only re-elect them if they make the necessary changes.
That’s why we are committed to climate protection at WERK II. In the week from 20 to 27 September 2019, campaigns for climate protection will take place all over the world. A global climate strike will start on Friday, September 20, 2019. WERK II employees will take part in local demonstrations at the various sites.
We will also show our support with a banner on our company buildin