Understanding climate change (PDF)

What is driving climate change? What impact does it have on the Earth's ecosystems, our environment, and us? What can I do? This book explains in a clear and understandable way the interrelationships, influencing factors and effects of the greatest challenge facing mankind: climate change.

The team of authors presents over 100 aspects in clear language, each on a double-page spread. With impressive sketchnotes, professor and sketchnoter Katharina Theis-Bröhl illustrates and explains the sometimes simple, sometimes complicated issues always understandable. Because: Sketchnotes are not only beautiful to look at - they are also an effective mnemonic, a structural tool and an aid to crystallize the essentials. Comprehensible accompanying texts by Cecilia Scorza and Harald Lesch round off each topic in an informative way.

With this book, you can understand the causes of climate change, discover the physical connections, and recognize both local and global impacts. You will learn about the role our location in the solar system plays, the feedback processes involved in global warming, and what it means when the oceans acidify. And ultimately, the question will be asked: How much time do we have left to act?

From the contents

How special is the Earth? - Understanding the greenhouse effect - The Earth's climate system - The climate change - Effects of climate change - What can I do? - A look ahead

About the authors

Harald Lesch is Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics at the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Munich. For years, he has brought complex scientific and philosophical topics to the general public in an understandable and impressive way with numerous bestsellers and programs such as "Lesch's Cosmos". Climate change and climate protection are among his main topics.

Cecilia Scorza holds a doctorate in astrophysics and is the coordinator of public outreach and education at the Faculty of Physics at the University of Munich. She has received, among others, the Neumann Prize for Didactics of the German Astronomical Society, the Scientix Prize of the EU and the Kepler Prize for Physics Education. Together with Harald Lesch and colleagues, she initiated the project "Climate Change: Understanding and Acting", which has been running with great success in German-speaking schools since 2018.

Katharina Theis-Bröhl is a professor of physics, mathematics and materials science at Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences. She uses sketchnotes in lectures and popular science talks to present complex issues in an understandable way. In 2019 and 2022, she organized the "Climate Week Bremerhaven" at Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences, where scientists, students and the interested public could inform and exchange ideas. Sheis active in Scientists for Future.