Climate and Man

What can be learned from the past about the relationship between the development of the population and the climate?

Prof. Gerald Haug (ETH Zurich) gave answers to this question at the KIT Climate Lecture on „Climate and Man“ on 15 October 2013. The audience of about 150 people got carried away by his talk at the Gartensaal of Schloss Karlsruhe. In his talk Prof. Haug explains the influence of man made changes such as greenhouse gas emission to the carbon cycle. He also describes the consequences of global warming like sea level rise or the shifting of climate zones. Prof. Haug further illustrates how analyzing drilling cores contributes to the investigation of cold and warm periods in the past. To slow down the recent man-made climate change it would be necessary to uncouple emissions from a rising world population. Prof. Haug reckons that energy efficiency and the use of renewable energies are key technologies for this.