LOICZ and Norddeutsches Klimabüro have visited Gesamtschule Bergstedt in Hamburg

How many countries will no longer be habitable due to climate change? Will soon many Dutch and Danish people immigrate because their countries are flooded? Will Hamburg city center be flooded in twenty years? Will it still snow here again sometime? These are only some of the questions the 13-15 year-old pupils of the comprehensive school in Bergstedt prepared to be answered. "It is good to have interest", science coordinator Dr. Juergen Weichselgartner believes, "above all, today’s children and young people are the ones who will be impacted by the profound consequences of the ecological, economic and social processes of global environmental change.”
On 10 September 2008, around eighty pupils got the answers to their questions: "I am very glad that two experts followed our invitation and will present us current scientific information on the topic", welcomed class teacher Anke Gastmann the presenters Juergen Weichselgartner and Julika Dörffer (Norddeutsches Klimabuero, i.e., North German Climatic Office). Both jointly outlined present global change processes and – aside from current facts and figures – they referred to concrete life situations. Consequently, the pupils described their own experiences, e.g., with storm surges and floods in Hamburg. After presenting some prevention and adaptation mechanisms, the lecturers called for discussion by asking one of the pupil’s question back to the audience: "What will the earth look like in 70 years?” Despite divergent opinions, everybody agreed on one thing: the lecture was a successful bridge-building effort between school and science.