Dear people,

As you probably already know, this Friday, 20 September, the largest climate protection demonstrations ever will take place in over 500 German cities and 1000 cities worldwide.

This time the call is explicitly addressed to all generations.

We need to strengthen the backs of young people now:

Braunschweig: https://de-de.facebook.com/events/2299362740318644/

Deutschland: https://fridaysforfuture.de/allefuersklima/#map

Welt: https://fridaysforfuture.org/events/map

I am writing to personally appeal to you to support the Global Climate Strike in your city on 20 September!

The FridaysForFuture movement demands that the German government takes effective climate action NOW to meet Germany’s responsibility to meet the 1.5°C target:

“The climate crisis poses an existential threat to the stability of our planet’s ecosystems and to millions of people. Unchecked global warming poses an enormous threat to peace and prosperity around the world. According to the IPCC, the Earth has already warmed by about one degree Celsius since the beginning of industrialisation. There is little time left to stop climate change and avoid tipping points in the climate system. If we fail to do so, the damage caused will cost far more than any investment in concrete measures to prevent climate catastrophe.
Fridays for the Future calls for compliance with the goals of the Paris Agreement and the 1.5°C target.
For Germany we explicitly demand:
– Achieve net zero in 2035
– Coal phase-out by 2030
– 100% renewable energy by 2035

The key to meeting the 1.5°C target is to make deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible
That is why we are calling for the following by the end of 2019

– An end to fossil fuel subsidies
– Shut down 1/4 of coal-fired power plants
– A tax on all greenhouse gas emissions. The price of greenhouse gas emissions must quickly become as high as the costs they impose on us and future generations. According to the UBA, that’s €180 per tonne of CO2″.
https://fridaysforfuture.de/forderungen/
https://fridaysforfuture.de/forderungen/faq/

We need real climate action and we need it NOW – the time for waiting, for ignorance and for wasting time must be over. From politicians, but also from us.
“It’s just going to go on somehow” or “you can’t change anything anyway” are no longer valid!
Through her personal example and initiative, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg has inspired a new global climate movement that has seen millions of people, especially young people, take to the streets in recent months. She has shown that one person can make a difference!

The “older” generations have also come together in various ways:ch die „älteren“ Generationen haben sich verschiedentlich zusammengefunden:

Scientists4Future drafted a statement “Statement by scientists on the protests for more climate protection – #Scientists4Future”, which was signed by 26,800 scientists, mainly from Germany, Austria and Switzerland:
https://www.scientists4future.org/stellungnahme/stellungnahme-de/
The statement consists of the main text, a list of 24 key facts, a list of initial signatories and references:
24 facts: https://www.scientists4future.org/stellungnahme/fakten/

At ParentsForFuture many parents and grandparents support the climate protest:
https://parentsforfuture.de/de/
The Braunschweig ParentsForFuture have formulated an appeal:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fy02kpkefru1azb/1909%20APPELL%20Parents4Future%20Braunschweig.pdf?dl=0

Numerous environmental organisations and initiatives are calling for a Global Climate Strike and an action programme for effective climate protection:
https://www.klima-streik.org/buendnis
https://www.dnr.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Handlungspapier_Klimakrise_final.pdf

The DGB Southeast Lower Saxony calls for a demonstration:
https://www.igm-bs.de/fileadmin/user/_Home/Dokumente/2019/2019-09-20_DGB-Aufruf_FFF_BS.pdf

There are certainly many ways to support this and demand real climate action. Mere expressions of sympathy are not enough, please consider supporting the FridaysForFuture movement according to your means!

#AllForClimate

Yours sincerely,
Stephan Moldzio

P.S.:

Science has been showing the effects for decades and yet the CO2 concentration is increasing by about 2.5 ppm per year.
The pre-industrial concentration was about 280 ppm, when I was born it was 330 ppm and today, in 8/2019, we have 410 ppm.
Why don’t you see what it looks like on your birthday and in your family:

https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/graph.html

It really is all about EVERYTHING now. We cannot waste any more time and we have little time left to turn the tide.
We need to go 100% renewable as soon as possible and leave fossil fuels like coal, oil, gas and even uranium in the ground.
Passing the various tipping points of the climate system must be avoided at all costs, otherwise a cascade of self-reinforcing feedback effects will lead to an uncontrollable and unstoppable rise in temperature, with all the catastrophic consequences this would entail for humanity and ecosystems.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kippelemente_im_Erdsystem

The latest IPCC Special Report “1.5° Global Warming” (2018) has highlighted that beyond 1.5°C, the risk of uncontrollable feedbacks and catastrophic impacts on humans and ecosystems increases:
Thawing and destabilisation of methane hydrates in permafrost soils and continental shelves, ice-albedo feedback, accelerated sea level rise, tipping point of West Antarctica, reduction of sea ice formation – the engine of the ocean current system, the “Earth’s circulatory system”, Deep-sea oxygen depletion & expansion of anoxic zones, shifting climate zones, more frequent extreme weather events, desertification, collapse of food production, acidification of oceans, shift in species composition / degradation and risk of collapse of entire ecosystems.

As a marine ecologist, I am now witnessing – live – how the world’s coral reefs are degrading at an accelerating rate, as summarised in the special issue of the journal CORAL REEFS on the 3rd Global Coral Bleaching Event 2014-2017:
https://link.springer.com/journal/338/38/4
Coral reefs are dying – even faster than I feared 10 years ago. Back then I thought it would be by the end of this century…
http://www.greencorals.de/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Reise-ins-Meer-%C3%BCber-die-Bedrohung-der-marinen-%C3%96kosysteme-2008.pdf

We are indeed in the midst of a mass extinction event, as documented in the latest IPBES assessment report, the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, published in May 2019:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Assessment_Report_on_Biodiversity_and_Ecosystem_Services
https://www.ipbes.net/global-assessment-report-biodiversity-ecosystem-services
Mass extinctions have occurred several times in Earth’s history – what was then mega-volcanism or meteorites is now our way of doing business with the burning of fossil fuels, which have been separated from the biosphere for millions of years and which we are now returning to the carbon cycle as CO2 in the shortest possible time. This is pure INSANITY!
The problem is that we, as individuals, do not directly experience or feel this as we are living in “slow motion” because our own lifespan is shorter than the blink of an eye on geological time scales.

We must act NOW.
Keep coal, oil, gas and uranium in the ground.
Every 10th of a degree counts.
We have the RESPONSIBILITY to set the course now so that we, our children, grandchildren and future generations can continue to live on Earth!