Focus on climate crisis
All articles | More information
Reporting on climate change is one of the major journalistic challenges of our time. The climate crisis is also one of the most important issues of humanity for SPIEGEL. For this reason, we support an international initiative that seeks to take a look this week: "Covering Climate Now" has been initiated by the Columbia Journalism Review and the Canadian newspaper "The Nation", with more than 200 media companies worldwide including the Guardian, El País, La Repubblica, The Times of India, Bloomberg or Vanity Fair. SPIEGEL is dedicating the cover story of the current issue to the climate crisis this week and every day pays special attention to mirror.de
SPIEGEL ONLINE : How important environmental and climate protection should be, should be taught to children in the classroom. Why did you start a student uni on this topic? Are schools failing to do their job?
Braun-Wanke : I have two daughters, and when they did the climate and the weather a few years ago in fifth and sixth grade, climate change did not matter at all. The teachers said, "The subject is too difficult, we can not do that any further". But I think it's very important that children get the opportunity to deal with future-relevant questions at an early age. That's why I started to open the university for Berlin schools. Since 2009, we organize the Schüleruni twice a year. Then a team of speakers will dedicate 1,500 children each to around 75 sustainability workshops.
SPIEGEL ONLINE : What is it all about?
Braun-Wanke : Children can and should try a lot with us. For example, we experiment with how much the thermal insulation of buildings brings. The children dress shoe boxes with cork or polystyrene, put glasses in with hot water and measure the temperature. They enter the readings into tables over a period of time and then compare who has best insulated their house. Our trainers are artists, cooks, photographers or researchers who work with the children not only on ecological but also on political, philosophical or social aspects of sustainability. This is well received because the children can discover things themselves and get nothing chewed. They are curious and suck everything up like a sponge.
SPIEGEL ONLINE : How did the first workshops arrive?
Braun-Wanke : They literally hit you. We designed eleven workshops and got 4000 inquiries, which we were not prepared for. The run is still there. Each new student university is booked out within two days. Students come to us from all milieus and neighborhoods. That's important to us, that's why we also offer workshops free of charge.
SPIEGEL ONLINE : Ever since the student protests started under the motto "Fridays for Future" a year ago, the topic of climate protection and sustainability has a very strong media and political presence. But what about the schools?
Karola Braun-Wanke : In Berlin, about every tenth school has set out in the direction of sustainability and anchored the topic in the classroom or in the school profile. A lot has already happened. But nationwide, education for sustainable development is by no means anchored. It is not a school subject, but teachers can tackle it, whether they teach math or German. But that is exactly what overtaxed many educators. They do not know where to start.
SPIEGEL ONLINE : How can teachers take up climate protection, for example in a subject like math?
Braun-Wanke : There are many conceivable calculation tasks, such as: How much water is in the production of a pair of jeans? What is my ecological footprint when flying to Canada? For this teachers can get teaching materials, for example from us. We also offer training for educators. Ultimately, it's about looking beyond one's own nose and making each lesson meaningful and closer to life. This often does not take much: one can, for example, move the lessons outside or hike on class excursions instead of bowling - and discuss, for example, how the climate crisis also changes our local forests.
SPIEGEL ONLINE : "Fridays for Future" brings many young people to the streets. But is sustainability really something that also employs children and young people who do not go to the demos?
Braun-Wanke : "Fridays for Future" is mostly made up of older students - but puberty actually starts at the age of 13 and there are many adolescents who often demonstratively have no desire to get involved. 10- to 13-year-olds tend to be more open to the topic. Our experience shows that children in this age group are honestly concerned about the state of the world and feel directly affected by it. They have a strong sense of what is fair and they want to work for things that are important to them. It shakes her, for example, when chocolate is made with child labor and then persuades her parents to stop buying such chocolate. But there is a discrepancy.
SPIEGEL ONLINE : Which?
Braun-Wanke : Many children want to save endangered species such as orangutans and elephants, but have never had a worm on their hands and can not distinguish their native trees. This affects not only city but also country children who sit in front of the Playstation every day. You can only protect what you love and know. Children today have many other skills, such as how to handle media. But knowledge about our nature and a sustainable life is lost: How do you make jam yourself? How to repair a bicycle hose? It is important for personality development to empower oneself. Children are proud of themselves when they have achieved something. Teachers and parents should encourage and involve them.
SPIEGEL ONLINE : Give me an example, please.
Braun-Wanke : Parents can discuss with children at home whether the family has to go on vacation and whether a new mobile phone is really necessary. You can include children in cooking, take time for a meal together. You can show your children that you do not have to throw away Quark just because the best before date has expired. They should be good role models, because schools alone can not sustain the children's moral and ethical values.
SPIEGEL ONLINE : They count on tiny measures that will hardly slow down global warming and environmental destruction.
Braun-Wanke : None of us lives completely sustainably. If we buy organic apples, they may come from New Zealand or have been stored in German coldstores for months, which is why they are not climate-friendly. We have to learn to bear such contradictions. We all do not know how the future will go. With this uncertainty, we have to learn to live and talk about it.
SPIEGEL ONLINE : Do you not frustrate children with the realization that they can not really do anything right?
Braun-Wanke : Children can handle well that the world is not perfect. But they have to get the feeling that there are other people who are fighting for the same cause and that we can achieve something together. Parents and teachers can think with children: Do we want to create a school garden? Build a bicycle repair shop? There are so many simple ideas, it does not have to be complex and expensive. You just have to start somewhere.
