The impact of global warming: UYA produces the #1punt5 climate lectures

The United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change, the IPCC, has published several reports on the impacts of 1.5 °C global warming, a target specified in the Paris agreement. Keeping the average increase below 1.5 °C, requires rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented change in all aspects of society. How do scientists and scholars at Utrecht University take on this challenge?

To communicate the manifold consequences of climate change, the Utrecht Young Academy has produced the video series “1punt5”, in collaboration with the Faculty of Science communication office. In these short clips of 1.5 minutes, several faculty members reflect on the necessary public understanding of global warming and its consequences from the viewpoint of their disciplines. 

Professor of Psychology, Denise de Ridder, speaks in one of the first videos. She investigates how people regulate their behaviour. This knowledge can be used to positively influence how people behave with regards to global warming. “The university can do this by always offering employees a train ride as an alternative to flying for trips in Europe.” Her tip for the university would be to make it easier and more attractive to act climate-friendly.   

In another video, pole researcher Dr. Peter Kuipers Munneke discusses how the rise in sea levels, caused by global warming, poses a threat to water management systems in the Netherlands. “If the planetary temperature rises more than 1.5 degrees, we should prepare our country for a sea level rise of several meters in the coming centuries. That has a chance of success, but against a high price and potentially with major societal consequences.”

More 1punt5 videos will be released in the coming weeks. Keep an eye out to learn more about what we can do to control global warming and how researchers at Utrecht University are involved.