Events

As part of the opening event of the BMBF joint project REKLINEU – "Regional Pathways to Climate Neutral Universities" – the public evening lecture by Prof. Dr. Matthias Drösler from Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences will take place on December 14, 2022, 6:15 pm. The topic of the lecture is climate protection through peatland conservation. The basic characteristic of peatlands is the storage of carbon through the build-up of organic matter as a result of incomplete decomposition under naturally water-saturated conditions. This process has been ongoing in Europe since the last ice age and has resulted in peatlands being the largest terrestrial carbon stores per unit area. For the climate relevance of peatlands, however, it is not primarily the C-pool but the balance of the exchange of climate-relevant trace gases that is decisive. In a near-natural state, peatlands are +/- climate neutral, since the uptake of CO2 and the release of CH4 compensate each other with respect to the global warming potential. However, only about 5% of the peatlands in Bavaria are still in near-natural condition. Most of them are drained and used for agriculture or forestry. As a result, the moor soil is aerated, aerobic degradation begins and the moors develop into hotspots of climate pollution.

The lecture will explain the basics of the climate relevance of peatlands, present the current balances for Bavaria and outline the options for action to achieve climate protection goals: The challenge of using peatlands as CO2 sinks will be considered on a technical organizational and strategic/legal level.

Literature and Climate (Change): How does literature, especially poetry, participate in the debate about the climate crisis? And what can we learn from ecopoetry? We will present and discuss examples from the work of the American poet Jorie Graham.

Please register via eh@uni-wuerzburg.de. The Zoom link will be sent to you after registration.

This event is part of the Public Climate School 2022 and therefore open to the public. Further information: https://publicclimateschool.de/lokalprogramm-nov-22/

Find further PCS events in Würzburg also listed on the pages of the new WueLab: https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/universitaet/nachhaltigkeit/wuelab/aktiv-werden/

Stephanie LeMenager, Barbara and Carlisle Moore Professor of English & Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon, USA gives a Zoom Workshop for PhDs and Advanced Students on »What Can Fictions Do, When Reality Implodes?«. Register via QR code by clicking on the event.

Véronique Tadjo, writer, artist and Visiting Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, South Africa gives a Zoom Workshop for PhDs and Advanced Students on »Virus, Literature & Politics«. Register via QR code by clicking on the event.

Pieter Vermeulen, Associate Professor at the University of Leuven, Belgium gives a Zoom Workshop for PhDs and Advanced Students on »Depopulating the Novel: Post-Catastrophe Fiction, Scale & the Population Unconscious«. Register via QR code by clicking on the event.

Katie Ritson, Research Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center Munich, Germany and Julia Leyda Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim, Norway give a Zoom Workshop for PhDs and Advanced Students on »Oil and Gender in European Fiction & Film«. Register via QR code by clicking on the event.