Environment

The Landeszentrale für Umweltaufklärung Rheinland-Pfalz is an institution founded by the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It reports directly to the Minister of the Environment and is based in the ministry responsible for the environment and forestry in Mainz. The national centre was founded by a cabinet decision on 1 February 1990. Its objective and task are to inform the population about environmental concerns and to motivate them to learn an environmentally sustainable lifestyle. The crux of the matter is the following: We have already been living beyond our means for a long time. We live at the cost of following generations. And, still, we refuse all too easily to believe that terms like ‘climate catastrophe’ and ‘ozone hole’ are real threats. We continue to live as if the supplies of natural resources and energy sources were inexhaustible, as if water, soil and the atmosphere are able to indefinitely absorb toxic substances. However, an acceleration of this development is foreseeable. About 20 percent of the global population use approximately 80 percent of the resources for themselves and are responsible for the corresponding share of the environmental damage. When the remaining 80 percent of the global population follow (why shouldn’t they?), the collapse of the system ‘earth’ will not be long in coming. We have no choice but to introduce sustainable development that brings economic and social interests worldwide in accordance with each other. It does not help much, though, to point a finger at ‘the others’, the industry or the government. It is up to all of us. The first step towards change is a change of (environmental) thinking, which is what the LZU demands. And everyone has to participate.

Greenpeace is an international environmental organization which fights with direct actions free of power for the protection of the natural resources of human and nature and for justice for all living beings. Greenpeace works on the subjects of seas, agriculture, rubbish, forests, climate changes, biodiversity, energy transition, the arctic, environment & economy. Greenpeace was founded in 1971 and today it is represented in more than 40 countries. More than three million people support Greenpeace worldwide, out of that are about 590,000 conveyor members in Germany. Greenpeace works independently of governments, parties and economic interest groups. Greenpeace doesn’t get any financial help from the EU or UN for their projects.

The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research e. V. (PIK) works on issues of climate change, climate impacts and sustainable development. It was founded in 1992 and today employs around 140 staff. At PIK, researchers from the natural sciences and the humanities work together to investigate global environmental changes and their ecological, economic and social consequences.

The Institution is responsible for all matters of teachers education and qualification, for school development and evaluation and for the education internet sever. The topic of intercutural education include also global learning and international schoolpartnerships, special with countries in the south.