Christian Schwägerl | author journalist biologist RiffReporter

17. March 2018

We’re “Science Journalists of the Year”

“What Christian Schwägerl and Tanja Krämer have created with RiffReporter is unparalleled: a cooperative with a platform for science journalists. So that they can network, initiate new projects together, as well as advice and start-up support. Above all, the project embodies the impetus to bring the evidence-based core of journalism to the fore – in times in which “postfactual” trends are becoming stronger”.

2. February 2018

New articles (mainly in German)

ZEIT Magazin Wissen, Januar/Februar 2018
The power of our conscience

ZEIT Magazin Wissen, Januar/Februar 2018
Interview with former UNEP director Klaus Töpfer, led jointly with Max Rauner

GEO, December 2017
How good are we really? Report on moral research

Yale E360, November 14,2017
In Drive to Cut Emissions, Germany Confronts Its Car Culture

19. August 2016

Global upheavals,
underrated risks

In August 2016, scientists from the “Anthropocene Working Group”have officially confirmed what they had written earlier in a “Science” paper: the Anthropocene is a global geological reality. This new epoch is the topic of my book “The Anthropocene”, published in 2014. What we do on and with Earth does not only change nature and our daily lives today. It has a fundamental impact on the course of evolution and natural history. When I wrote the German version of the book between 2008 and 2010, Anthropocene was an exotic term. Now it is discussed globally, with museums and cultural institutions starting to reflect it in their work. My second book, “11 Looming Wars” (2012), co-written with Andreas Rinke, Reuter’s chief political correspondent in Berlin, couldn’t be more up to date – unfortunately. In our conflict scenarios, we anticipated the current “refugee crisis” and recent maritime conflicts and describe other dangerous developments which receive too little public attention. An updated paperback edition came out in November 2015. My latest book, which came out in autumn 2014, is called “The Analogue Revolution”. Analogue, not digital? Exactly.

20. August 2016

Journey into a man-made epoch

In my work as a journalist, I have witnessed burning rainforests, visited uranium mines and hiked on smelting glaciers. I have seen human ingenuity at work in some of the world’s leading research labs. I have interviewed top politicians, managers and scientists. I have participated in many UN climate conferences since “COP1” in Berlin 1995 and have covered German federal ministers for environment, energy and research. All these experiences helped me to grasp the significance of the Anthropocene idea. In my book on the Anthropocene, which came out in German in 2010, I have tried to relate my experiences to this grand new idea of humanity’s place in Earth history. The book has brought me in close contact with Paul J. Crutzen, the Nobel laureate who helped to coin the word and shape the Anthropocene idea.It also has inspired the “Anthropocene Project 2012-14” by Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Deutsches Museum and IASS Potsdam as well as the special exhibition about the Anthropocene at Deutsches Museum (German Technology Museum) Munich, for which I have served as a co-leader (HKW) and co-curator (DM). In 2015, I was part of a group of scientists to write a review paper called “The Anthropocene Biosphere“. The Anthropocene idea is gaining ground and critical attention world-wide. I support the critical and careful enquiry of this far-reaching hypothesis and will contribute to it with new publications and projects.

20. August 2016

In touch with audiences

Since the public presentation of my Anthropocene book at Berlin’s Natural History museum in September 2010 with UNEP director Achim Steiner (photo) and my first public talk about the Anthropocene at Urania in Berlin I had the chance to talk to many audiences and interact with them. I have shared great days with organizers of events, like the “Zooetics” series in Lithuania and Steirischer Herbst in Graz/Austria. The different perspectives of people in the audience, like pupils at Berlin’s Nelson Mandela School, plant oil producers at their anniversary celebration and design students at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe, were enriching for me as well. In March 2015 I was invited to present at the Royal Institution and the Royal Society of Arts in London. For 2016 a number of talks are already lined up and I look forward to getting in touch with the audiences.

20. May 2016

Ultra-urban birdwatching in Berlin

Zabriskie is a great little bookstore in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. Their focus is on books at the intersection of nature and culture. A great place to start a birding trip. Interest was great – 80 people registered, I could only do the birding walk with two groups of ten each. We’ve heard only a few species, like swifts and robins, but it was a wonderful experience nevertheless to direct our attention away from human to bird sounds.

24. February 2016

The Analogue Revolution is nigh

A humanoid robot walking through a forest, stumbling, but he keeps going. Where? This is what I explore in my most recent book, “The Analogue Revolution”. Analogue is the opposite of digital. It’s everything that is not binary but connected on fluid scales. Life is analogue. But increasingly, digital products also become analogue. They leave the screens and become…swarm-like drones, animal- or human-like robots, tangible things. Even beings? These technological changes will cause many dramatic upheavals in our societies. But where will thsi development lead us, too? I am not a techno-pessimist. But in order to move this huge tech revolution into a good direction, a lot has to happen in society. That’s why I wrote this book.