CHANGING LAND USE AND POLICY SINCE THE END OF THE 18TH CENTURY AND THEIR IMPACTS ON DIVERSITY

Zoom, 3 PM

Following a short historical retrospect to the origin and development of our man-made landscape the presentation will consider the contribution of changing land use which started with the eclaration period end of the 18th century and was strongly supported by technical progresses, economic changes and the land consolidation in the 19th century to the decline of biodiversity. However, the strongest impact had political decisions in the 20th and 21st centuries. The most drastic change was caused by the signing of the Roman treaties in 1957 but also the introduction of the EEG (law for renewable energy) strongly affected our biodiversity. Despite the number of nature conservation areas increased between 1997 and 2016 by more than double the proportion of threatened species (shown at the example of vascular plants) remained the same. The causes for this ongoing decline of our biodiversity but also perspectives presented by case studies how to turn back this process will be discussed.

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Peter Poschlod

ZOOM: ID 834 4031 2244

SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT AT THE cOST OF HUMAN RIGHTS? – THE LOSERS OF THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION

Zoom, 8 PM

A clean electric car instead of a dirty gasoline car, laptop and tablet instead of deforestation for your university script and mobile phone as a daily companion for organizing the next demo. All of this is only possible thanks to lithium-ion batteries. Cobalt is a core component of these batteries and is mostly mined under life-threatening working conditions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Child labor is also not uncommon.

Although there are international standards for companies to fulfill their human rights due diligence also with regard to their suppliers, so far only a few companies have taken measures against the serious human rights violations in the cobalt supply chain.

The joy of new smartphones, laptops or tablets is often short-lived: A new model will soon have to be produced again and the used device is often exported along with other electronic waste to developing and emerging countries via illegal shipping routes.

In this lecture we would like to first explain the problem of cobalt mining and show you what needs to be done so that companies are finally held accountable.

Organised by: Amnesty international

ZOOM: ID 863 2742 6106