From the July 7-10 conference held in Paris
Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber expressed the urgency and the scale of the problem we have to solve: In order to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius we need to bring about the end of the carbon economy over the next 20 or 30 years. Otherwise we have not the slightest chance of avoiding dangerous climate change.
Schellnhuber says that we live in a deadly economy that destroys the world and are currently making the choice whether to live instead in an economy that is protecting creation. And even if we cannot change the supply side immediately due to the power of corporations we can begin by changing demand through a global social movement as envisioned by the Pope, and by divestment. It’s not poverty that destroys the environment but it is wealth, consumption and waste.
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, AKA John Schellnhuber, most recently came to world attention as a leading scientific adviser to Pope Francis. He was chosen to be one among only four speakers at the presentation of the Pope’s global warming encyclical on June 17, 2015. A segment of Schellnhuber’s presentation at the Vatican can be heard at the end of this program.
Part of the credentials that brought Schellnhuber to the attention of the Pope may have included: his doctorate degree in Theoretical Physics, and his role as Chief Government Advisor on Climate and Related Issues during Germany’s EU Council Presidency and G8 Presidency.
Schellnhuber is climate advisor to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and founder and director of the respected Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). He is Professor for Theoretical Physics at the University of Potsdam and heads the European Commission’s Global Change Advisory Group and the advisory board of the European Climate Foundation.
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