Summer School: Potential and Hazards of Systematic Climate Modifications

The potential and hazards of systematic climate modifications are the key topic of a summer school entitled “Governing Climate Engineering” taking place from 12 to 16 July 2010 in Heidelberg. The project is jointly organised by Heidelberg University’s Marsilius Kolleg, the University of Calgary (Canada), and Carnegie Mellon University (USA). The summer school will be held at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg. It is aimed at young scholars and scientists and will give them an opportunity to discuss scientific, sociological and legal aspects of climate engineering with leading experts in the field.

“Due to increasing greenhouse gas emissions and the climate changes resulting from them the international community of nations indispensably needs to act. Even a drastic reduction of greenhouse gases may no longer be sufficient to dispel the hazards connected with climate change.” insists Prof. Dr. Ulrich Platt of Heidelberg University’s Institute of Environmental Physics. Prof. Platt is one of the coordinators of a research group at the Marsilius Kolleg in which scholars and scientists from various disciplines have been meeting since the middle of 2009 to investigate the technologies, political strategies and legal instruments associated with climate engineering. One of their central aims is to analyse how humanity might deal with such options as well as how to address the opportunities, risks and problems they involve.

Applications for participation in the international summer school should be submitted in writing by 31 May 2010. More details on the application procedure and a full programme for the course can be found at www.climate-engineering.de.

Contact
Tobias Just
Marsilius Kolleg
phone: +49 6221 543980
just@mk.uni-heidelberg.de

Communications and Marketing
Press Office, phone: +49 6221 542311
presse@rektorat.uni-heidelberg.de