Headline: Mark Lawrence spurs Potsdam audience in Climate Engineering discussion

Sixty guests filled the Hans Otto Reithalle in Potsdam on October 16th to hear PD Dr. Mark Lawrence, IASS Scientific Director, speak and answer questions about the risks and considerations involved in deploying climate engineering technologies to combat climate change. The “nachtboulevard,” part of the Potsdamer Köpfe (“Potsdam minds”) lectures series organized by the association proWissen, also featured Professor Dr. Stefan Rahmstorf from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Resarch (PIK), and was moderated by Professor Stefan Zundel from the University of Applied Sciences in Lausitz.

Dr. Lawrence first screened a film that vividly explains climate engineering technologies and the moral, ethical and scientific issues it raises. The audience of 60 Köpfe responded with their own questions for Dr. Lawrence and Prof. Rahmstorf:

Why do we consider some technologies to be acceptable, and others to be destructive? Why do some people think we can deploy certain climate engineering technologies along with the emission-reduction measures already in use? How can we get people to change their behavior? Noting that these questions revealed the audience's engagement in sustainability matters and a high-level of knowledge about climate engineering, Dr. Lawrence asked the listeners in turn, what motivated them to change their own behavior? The audience launched a discussion that rounded off the evening with a question underlying the social research pursued at both PIK and the IASS: How can you form a society that considers the effects of its own actions on the environment and atmosphere, as well as the ethical and moral questions that arise when we talk about climate engineering?

Dr. Lawrence remarked: "If the audience here tonight is at all representative, then we'll have the aware, civil participants we need to achieve a responsible approach to mitigating climate change and deciding on what to do about climate engineering."