In the scope of guided tours through the fascinating world of Cape Town's famous "Two Oceans Aquarium", LOICZ CEO Hartwig Kremer gave lectures to South African school classes from nearby townships. The pupils were between 15-17 years of age and engaged in lively discussions around global change, climate and socio political issues with focus on "their" surrounding coastal zone as a system that sustains the livelihood of so many people in their home country and world wide. With this lectures LOICZ responded to a request from IGBP Congress host and organizer Prof. Guy Midgley, IPCC and Global Change Research Group of the South African National Biodiversity Institute Kirstenbosch Research Centre, who set up a series of comparable lectures from various Earth System core projects as an accompanying programme targeted at young South Africans.

Questions addressed the coast as a major area of social development, economy and multiple cultures. Rapid coastal urbanization, the dimension, consequences and relevance of increasing sea level and the underlying drivers on land and through climate change were evaluated. The pupils who were part of an educational programme that supports children heading for a scientific career, thus potential future young researchers, were particularly interested in the role of the coasts and rivers related to the worldwide food- and water suply as well as in the context of sustainable energy supply and transport.
Due to the positive experiences in Cape Town and in recognition of the growing responsibulity scientific projects of that kind identify in educational tasks LOICZ plans to be more involved in future educational activities.