"The effects of climate change are already apparent around the world." / The German President presented the DBU's German Environmental Prize today in Erfurt

Erfurt (ots) - German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier thanked
"thousands of people" in Germany for ensuring that "mainstream
society has truly become aware" of both the environment and
environmental protection. At the award ceremony for the German
Environmental Foundation's (DBU) German Environmental Prize that was
held today in Erfurt, he emphasized the fact that environmental
issues and climate protection affect all of us, and that "every one
of us can make a difference." However, we can only combat an issue of
this magnitude "if we view the environment and climate protection in
a global context. Environmental issues do not stop at national
borders, and neither does environmental protection. The effects of
climate change are already apparent around the world, and they are a
matter of life and death." - Steinmeier personally handed over the
richest independent environmental prize in Europe to marine biologist
Antje Boetius (Bremerhaven) and an interdisciplinary team of
wastewater experts from Leipzig made up of Roland A. Müller, Manfred
van Afferden, Mi-Yong Lee and Wolf-Michael Hirschfeld.

"It will be fatal if one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in
the world withdraws."

In front of an audience of around 1,200 guests, which included the
Jordanian Ambassador to Germany, Basheer Zoubi, the Parliamentary
State Secretary of the Jordanian Ministry of Water and Irrigation,
Ali Subah, Thuringia's Minister of Environment, Anja Siegesmund, and
previous DBU award winner and former federal minister, Klaus Töpfer,
Steinmeier, referring to the US, warned that it will be "fatal if one
of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world withdraws and
even goes as far as to call these multilateral partnerships into
question." Even though the road to global solutions can be bumpy and
we will continue to experience further setbacks, we need to "work
together across all governmental and non-governmental levels in order
to create a larger working alliance." President Steinmeier: "We are
able to and will continue to make progress when all of us who still
believe in multilateral solutions work together - and there are a lot
of us around the world, even in the US!"

Steinmeier calls on Germany to fulfil its international
obligations

The effects of climate change have not merely been calculated or
predicted for the distant future. We can already see them for
ourselves today: melting glaciers, greater damage from more frequent
storms, and shifts in the distribution of vegetation are all tangible
signs, and this year, after a record-breaking summer, the topics of
water and drought have become "kitchen table issues in Germany as
well." We need to work together and act swiftly, Steinmeier warned:
"And, of course, we in Germany need to fulfil the international
obligations that we have entered into. I feel confident that we can
do it! And others are counting on us, with our strong national
economy, to continue to take a leading role the way that we did when
it came to the introduction of renewable energies and environmentally
friendly technology." Conflicts over the climate and environmental
protection, such as the recent events surrounding Hambach Forest, are
becoming increasingly rancorous. But in order for us to solve the
countless, urgent problems that we are facing, all societal actors
need to be involved so that we can continue to find a balance between
ecological, societal, economical and industrial interests. It is
encouraging that that the UN's 2030 Agenda has already resulted in
tremendous progress on an international level. The international
community is able to agree on shared goals - also when it comes to
climate protection. Like any multilateral agreement, the 2015 Paris
Agreement was not perfect, but it has served as the basis for all
further cooperation - "and it must continue to do so in the future."

"Climate change and water scarcity are forcing more and more
people to flee."

Water is essential to our survival, and therefore protecting our
water supply is also of central importance. In many parts of the
world, more than two billion people do not have access to clean
water, making survival a daily struggle. Steinmeier: "Increasingly,
we are seeing regions go from receiving very little rain to no rain
at all. Climate change and water scarcity are forcing more and more
people to flee." For that reason, Steinmeier said, he is unsure if
the Northwest Passage becoming more navigable is necessarily good
news, but it is certainly proof that large-scale climate change will
significantly change the conditions in the Polar Sea, and if the
polar ice disappears, this would not only result in an increase in
sea levels, and would not only endanger many coastal regions, but
would also threaten the existence of entire island communities.
Furthermore, if the polar ice melts completely, it could permanently
destroy the balance of the earth's climate.

"You are also giving people hope, and that is extremely
important."

For this reason, he was pleased to present the German
Environmental Prize to scientists who are working to protect the
world's fresh water supplies and oceans. Professor Boetius, for
example, leaves no doubt as to how advanced climate change has
already become, and on the urgency to act. But, despite this, her
message is not pessimistic; rather, her optimism has the power to
inspire others. For her, the hole in the ozone layer, which has
evidently slowly begun to close back up now that the problem has been
identified and the international community has introduced corrective
measures, is an example that allows us to have hope in the
rationality and accountability of our fellow man. The work of the
Leipzig-based team of wastewater experts is making a significant
contribution towards helping Jordan - one of the most arid countries
in the world - move closer to the United Nations' goal of clean water
for all, even though the country has opened its doors to more than
650,000 Syrian war refugees, and has unofficially taken on closer to
twice that number. According to Steinmeier, the fact that Jordan
continues to welcome these refugees is an act of generosity that
"cannot be overstated." For Jordan, protecting their valuable water
supply is a matter of life and death. With their decentralised,
flexible wastewater management systems, they have introduced a
paradigm shift with the aim of nearly doubling the amount of treated
wastewater in the country by 2025. About the prize winners,
Steinmeier said: "They are not only achieving breakthroughs, but are
also demonstrating solutions and alternatives, ways in which we can
improve our future! And that is incredibly important in this age of
crises, upheaval and uncertainty. They are showing us that climate
change is not simply a foregone conclusion, but rather that we can do
something about it and work to change our future."

Jury praises the prize winners' dedication

As a member of this year's jury for the German Environmental
Prize, which provides recommendations on the basis of which the DBU
Board of Trustees selects the year's prize winners, Heidi Foth
(Director of the Institute for Environmental Toxicology at the
Faculty of Medicine of Martin Luther University Halle) and Bettina
Lorenz (co-founder of the initiative "Zukunft selber machen - Junge
Nachhaltigkeitsideen e.V." and DBU scholarship recipient) discussed
the achievements of the 2018 prize recipients. Foth praised Boetius
for being able to take a relatively complex field of research and
disseminate it into the wider society. Boetius makes it clear that by
breaking down methane gas, deep-sea microbes act as a sort of
protective shield for us. Foth went on to say that Professor Boetius'
presentation was truly eye-opening for her: "We have a lot of work to
do together." About the prize winners from Leipzig, Bettina Lorenz
said that they were not only able to provide the technological
services required to develop wastewater treatment systems, but also
install these systems in a region that is unusual for such a
technology-oriented group. To succeed at all the levels required in
order to implement this type of project is "incredibly impressive".

Boetius: Vanishing sea ice, climate change, environmental
pollution and plastic waste is "dramatic".

In films that were shown during the ceremony and in discussions
with the moderator, Judith Rakers, the prize winners once again made
their positions clear. Antje Boetius said that the deep sea is one of
the largest inhabited environments on the planet, and yet we have
only researched a fraction of a per cent of it. She emphasized the
importance of the microorganisms on the ocean floor that trap harmful
methane gas, preventing it from escaping into the atmosphere.
Boetius: "Without them, we would essentially live on a completely
different planet." When it comes to the global emissions of equally
harmful carbon dioxide (CO2), Boetius warned that we must act
quickly: "While we sit here thinking about what we should do, if we
really need to cut our CO2 emissions, everything is already
changing." Boetius used the words "dramatic" and "scary" to describe
not only the rapid disappearance of the polar ice and the speed at
which the climate is changing, but also the significant quantity of
pollutants and plastic waste that are ending up both on the ocean
floor and the ocean surface. For her, "it's all or nothing, right
now." We need to take the knowledge acquired by observing the deep
sea and our climate and earth models and "bring it directly to our
society in order to determine how we need to prepare ourselves for
the future." Boetius: "This is absolutely essential!"

"We can make a tangible difference in terms of conserving
resources and promoting wastewater treatment."

Roland A. Müller, a member of the Leipzig-based team that received
this year's prize, pointed out the fact that approximately 90 per
cent of wastewater around the world is discharged into the
environment either untreated or poorly treated. For that reason, it
must be our goal to significantly increase the amount of clean,
treated water available "for future generations." Local solutions are
particularly environmentally friendly because the waste water is
treated and stays in the community where it was created, and where it
can be reused, explained Mi-Yong Lee. When it came to the wastewater
project in Jordan and building a wastewater research and
demonstration centre near the border to Israel, it was important to
raise awareness among the local population through direct contact so
that they could develop a personal connection the solutions being
introduced, said Wolf-Michael Hirschfeld. This type of process can
"help stabilise the situation and improve communication between the
countries," added Manfred van Afferden. Müller, summarising:
"Naturally, as researchers we can't save the world; but I think that
our work has demonstrated concrete ways in which we can help to
conserve resources and promote wastewater treatment."

IPTC-compliant photos are available for publication free of charge
at www.dbu.de

Contact:
Franz-Georg Elpers
- Press Officer -
Kerstin Heemann
Julie Milch
Gesa Wannick

DBU Contact
An der Bornau 2
49090 Osnabrück
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)541|9633521
Fax: +49 (0)541|9633198
presse@dbu.de
www.dbu.de

Original-Content von: Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU), übermittelt durch news aktuell