But seemingly, nothing changes. In the last decades, the average temperature on our planet has risen almost by one degree, every year we emit more and more CO2.

That’s why I took up a journey and went across Europe by train.

From Poland to Portugal, I travelled to 8 countries and places, where the climate crisis is already visible. I asked scientists if and what we could do against this, and I met lots of young people who are full of energy to act and, like me, fight for more climate protection.

It’s getting warmer on the earth.

Only within the last hundred years, the average temperature has risen almost one degree.

The following figure shows the yearly temperature variations worldwide since 1900. The zero line was calculated from the average temperatures between 1901 and 2000.

The reason for the warming is, according to scientists, especially the continually rising part of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This CO2 increase is mainly caused by burning fuel, gas and coal.

And the more CO2 we emit into the atmosphere, the more thermal radiation is reflected upon our earth. This is called the greenhouse effect.

And the warmer it gets on our planet, the faster ice, like glaciers, melts.

For comparison: there are only 83 years between these two pictures of the Pasterze.

The Alps, and with them their glaciers, are the worthiest water tanks in Europe. If the ice melts, our water household can be disrupted.

If big amounts of rainfalls are no longer stored in the form of ice or snow, this could lead to droughts in summer and floods in winter.

And the sea level is as well rising if big amounts of ice like on the polar caps are melting. Already within the last two decades, the melting of glaciers in the Antarctic and in Greenland has severely accelerated.

The global melting glacier ice contributes around 21 % per year to the observed increase of the global sea level.

On my way, I’ll make a stop at a small river called Alberone, close to the famous holiday destination Udine.

In the next video you’ll see why.

At sea or rather in the sea, is as well the famous city Venice.

Amidst a lagune, the city was built on more than 100 islands that are connected with more than 400 bridges.

First settlements assumedly go back to the time of the Etruscan around 700 B.C.

The warmer our earth becomes, the higher the sea level rises. For cities like Venice that lie directly by the sea, this increasingly becomes a problem.

The more ice is melting at the polar caps, the higher the water is rising.

This is indeed happening slowly, possibly only within the next hundreds of years, but in the long term, coastal cities like Venice, but also New York, Hamburg or Shanghai could partly be under water.

Already today, almost 5 percent of the global population lives in areas that are increasingly endangered by floodings.

Global warming not only causes the rise of the sea level but also increased extreme weather events like major storms, that could result in high water.

In Venice, the high water even has its own name: Aqua Alta.  

Until recently, Venice has faced another problem as well: the cruise liners.

The bow waves of the huge ships that drove through the canals of Venice for years have damaged the fundament of the city.

The citizens of Venice have demonstrated for years against the cruise industry and achieved what people no longer thought to be possible.

Today, the fleet of the cruise industry contains, globally seen, about 600 ships.

Cruise liners run with heavy fuel which is a waste product of the processing of crude oil. It contains high amounts of sulfide, ash, heavy metals and other toxic substances. The use on land is prohibited, it must be disposed of as hazardous waste, at sea, however, it is allowed to be used. Cruise liners produce a high number of pollutants.

Shipping is one of the main causes of CO2 emissions, air pollution and acidification of the seas. Container ships transport goods across the whole world.

Not far from the port in Hamburg, I meet Eva. She’s just come back from a 6-month journey across the Atlantic.

Eva is a sailor and shows me that coffee or cocoa can as well be transported environmentally friendly.

Eva is sailing for the climate and against the pollution of the seas.

For big container ships contribute a huge part to the pollution of our seas.

When fuel is burned, nitrogen oxides develop. Once they connect in the air with water, for example, if it rains, nitrates develop, which are swashed into the seas. Nitrates function like fertilisers and accelerate the growth of algae.

Because of that, so-called death zones can develop in the sea.

These are areas where almost no oxygen is left in the water which can be fatal for marine life. In the next video you see, why specifically the Baltic Sea is globally one of the biggest death zones.

The cod is endangered to become extinct.

In the Western Baltic Sea, the cod stock has decreased so much within the last years that the tipping point of this population is already reached, according to scientists.

Climate change and overfishing are the main causes of the disappearance of the cod on the German Baltic coast.

The diversity of our nature is not only beautiful to look at but also the basis for all life on our planet. Only an intact nature can supply us with water, food and raw materials.

For that, a rich and healthy animal and plant world is required.

The enormous soil consumption, the intense agriculture, air and water pollution, as well as the massive exploitation of natural resources, cause that numerous species could disappear within the next years.

The next graphic shows you how land use by humans and the loss of species have increased over the last few centuries.

All in all, there are currently 8 million different animal species on our planet, and about 1 million are endangered.

II’ve arrived in Albi. A small town in the south of France. In 2014, they made big plans here.

A hint of green revolution was in the air when the city council of Albi announced that all 50.000 residents could be self-supplied with regional foods until 2020.

For this, lands would be bought and given to the citizens to cultivate, local markets would be organized and public communal gardens would be started.

The project gained some popularity in the media, but it failed.

Today, the self-sufficiency rate in Albi is only 2%, the majority has given up their agriculture again.

But not everyone, a small group of engaged citizens stays strong and wants to show that even a small ambitious idea can still develop.

More than 85% of all plant species depend on pollination by insects.

Our whole food production depends on bees, butterflies and co. Scientists see the current loss of species as worrying as climate change.

The way we cultivate, consume and live threatens the balance of our ecosystems.

The phenomenon when deserts expand is called desertification.

Lots of people think of areas like this one. The desert in Tabernas is one of the most famous deserts in Europe.

It developed millions of years ago. Back then there was a sea here. Once the water withdrew, sand and mud settled, the sun and the wind then turned it into a fascinating but dry and arid area. Nowhere else, the sun is burning like here.

Tabernas is a desert that developed because of natural conditions, and geological and climatic changes.

Desertification, on the contrary, means that regions become deserts that climatologically don’t need to be ones.

These are areas that humankind has overused via intense agriculture, in which soils would be used so intensively until nothing grows there anymore. Just a few kilometres away from Tabernas there is such an area. It is a kind of sea that soon may become a desert.

Fertile soils are our livelihood, they save water, let air circulate and are essential for our food production. Once destroyed, there is no way back.

In Spain, already a third of the lands are threatened by desertification, and about 10 percent of Spain’s soils are no longer fertile.

Quite near to the big greenhouses in Almeria lives Miguel.

He is an almond farmer and some years ago he revolutionized the agriculture of his dad which made him an ecological farmer.

Directly on his field, he shows me why he relies on regenerative agriculture instead of conventional mass production and how he manages to control the desert.

The loss of fertile soils and the expansion of deserts is however not only a problem in Spain but actually globally.

A third of the global land area could soon be lost on desertification.

Every year the deserts expand by about 70.000 square kilometres.

There is an even higher number if spoken of degraded lands, thus, land whose fertility has decreased because of desertification, erosion and overuse.

Desertificated soils are as well bad for our climate. The less fertile they are, the less CO2 can be absorbed and stored.

Vega as well fights against desertification.

She is a member of the educational project „Sunseed Desert Technology“ and shows me how to hinder the expansion of deserts.

Bush fires are actually in some regions of the world a natural phenomenon and even have a positive impact on the ecosystem there.

For some people and animals, fires pose a big danger, for the forest itself however they mean a complete overhaul.

Old and ill tress are disposed of, the ash that remains after the fire functions like fertilizer, makes the soil fertile and so new life can develop.

But there is also a big downside of bush fires: every time when they happen too often, too fiercely, in the wrong place or at the wrong time.

In this case, it’s a sure sign that the ecosystem is disturbed due to mankind. In these cases, bush fires are a big threat. Globally, only 4 percent of all bush fires happen because of natural reasons like lightning strikes.

In all the other cases, it is humankind, either directly or indirectly, either negligently or intentionally, who is responsible for bush fires.

In Portugal, bush fires are already on the daily agenda. Due to climate change, they are becoming even more threatening.

The fires in 2017 have been one of the most disastrous natural catastrophes so far in Portugal. For weeks, they couldn’t be controlled, a lot of humans died, and even more lost their homes.

A previous heatwave favoured the fires in 2017. And such heatwaves are no longer a rarity in Portugal today.

In Leiria, I meet Catarina, she remembers the bush fires very well. They razed her hometown to the ground.

Catarina and five other children and teenagers, therefore, decided to take it to court. In 2020, they took legal action against 33 countries at the European Court of Human Rights.

They accused the governments of too little action in the fight against the climate crisis that threatens the future.

The risk to fail with this was big. There are quite a few climate proceedings that, however, first need to run through the national court to be then discussed in Strasbourg by the European Court of Human Rights, which often lasts for years.

For the 6 teenagers from Portugal, however, everything turned out differently.

The climate crisis not only has its ecological impacts but also enormous social ones. .

People in the global south are over proportionally affected by the consequences of the climate crisis. However they are only responsible for a small part of the global CO2 emissions. The effects felt by people there is due to the nature of mobility, diet, and consumption habits in the global North.

Droughts and consequently famine, floods or the rise of the sea level threaten the livelihood of millions of people in the global south.

A lot of climate activists there feel left alone by the governments and the rest of the world. Going out on the streets and demonstrating for more climate protection can be risky, in some countries you could even end up in jail because of that.

But giving up so easily was no option for Beatrice in Zambia. She’s a climate activist and founder of the “You Retain Foundation”, an educational project where children and teenagers learn how to protect the climate.

Those who have the smallest impact on climate change, are affected the most. No other continent suffers from the social consequences that global warming brings with it as Africa does.

The different effects of climate change in the various countries of the world are illustrated by the global climate-risk index.

It illustrates the risk of weather extremes like floodings, storms or heatwaves in each of the countries. Moreover, it shows in which countries the most human consequences, like death and direct economic losses, are expected.

Even if in most parts of Europe, the risk is still manageable, that doesn’t mean that climate change will only be an issue in the future.

Bush fires, floods, storms, these all are consequences that we can already feel now. Only in 2021, during this journey, in just one summer, across just one continent, I witnessed all these catastrophes.

Natural disasters that bring numerous deaths are no longer a rarity and as well no random once-in-a-century events.

The financial problems caused by extreme weather events alone have increased sevenfold since the 1970s.

It’s June 24th, 2021. Shortly after 10 p.m.

All of a sudden, it’s getting dark in Moravska Nova Ves, a small town in the south of the Czech Republic. The power went out. Clouds are coming, it is raining. A few people leave their houses and ask neighbours what is happening. It’s unusually quiet in this town until suddenly, out of nowhere, the first squall hits the town.

Marek Kosut, the Major of Moravska Nova Ves, only vaguely remembers what was happening in the next few minutes. Together with some local councillors, he was in the town hall when suddenly rooftops flew through the air and windows shattered.

With more than 400 km/h, the tornado devastated more than 26 square kilometres. Lots of villages were razed down to the ground, numerous people died, and even more were injured.

After the tornado, a big debate was started about whether these storms are a consequence of climate change or not.

That’s why I met one of the best-known climate researchers in the Czech Republic to ask him this specific question. In the next video, you’ll see the answer.

The higher the global temperature rises, the more extreme weather events are happening.

With the help of modern climate models, scientists can now statistically prove the connection between extreme weather and climate change. This kind of science is called source attribution studies.

The national Czech energy company CEZ points out that the power stations today are state-of-the-art and that they can produce clean and climate-friendly energy. State-of-the-art filter systems provide clean air in the surroundings. But there is one thing they cannot filter: CO2.

In Bilina, I meet Aron, he is a climate activist and works hard for the end of coal mining. For this, he goes on the warpath, but see for yourself:

The term primeval forests may remind you of the tropical jungle like the Amazon rainforest.

But Europe was as well once a continent of primeval forests. About 6000 years ago, 80% of Europe’s land was covered with forests. However, there is not much left of these primal forests.

The last ones of these forests are among others in Poland.

For thousands of years, Poland’s primeval forests survived without human intervention.

But today, the raw material wood is popular. Since wood counts as a renewable energy source and a CO2 storage building material, the demand for this “green” raw material of the forest increases massively.

Wood is good for the carbon footprint, in the oven as well as on the construction site.

If whole ecosystems are turned upside down because of excessive deforestation of intact, naturally grown forests, this is problematic and could even favour climate change and its consequences.

Between 2001 and 2020, Poland has lost 1.15 million hectares of forest. In the last years, since 2013, 100% of the cleared forests were naturally grown.

This corresponds to an amount of 235 million tons of tied CO2

Hasia tells me that in Poland, almost the whole forest belongs to the state. She is a forest protestor.

I meet her in the region Bieszczady, a mountain range of the Carpathians in the southeast of Poland, near the Ukrainian border.

Already 1973, a big national park was constructed here to protect the unique landscape with its numerous, endangered animal and plant species.

And still, the forest of Bieszcady is cleared everywhere, and that’s what Hasia fights against.

Since April 2021, together with a group of climate activists called “Dzikie Karpaty”, she has been occupying a part of the forest. They block the driveway for logging machines with ropes and tents.

They want the government to place this part of the forest as well under nature conservation.

Even EU politics give the forest protestors their backing.

According to the new EU-biodiversity strategy, a plan to protect nature and biological diversity, all EU countries need to place 10% of their land under conservation in the future.

Most of the countries, as well as Poland, are at the moment just at 2 or 3%. This and the stamina of Hasia and her allies could indeed be a chance for Poland’s primeval forests.

We are facing a global crisis, each of us needs to do something about this!

But politics as well need to do something. Major steps in climate protection have, however, only happened if people put pressure on politics. The most recent climate laws in the EU have only been adopted because millions of young people went out on the streets and required politics to take responsibility.

However, changes only happen if you fight for changes. And everyone can contribute to this, explains Katharina Rogenhofer at the end of my journey. She is a climate protection activist and author from Austria.

In 2019, she has started a petition for a climate referendum, a kind of petition for which lots of signatures need to be collected so that the parliament discusses it.

The climate crisis is a crisis that influences all our areas of life. We have never before had to adapt ourselves as quickly to environmental changes as within this century.

Climate change can be observed everywhere on this planet. Our earth warms up, this influences the sea level, extreme weather events and the animal and plant world.

Additionally, humankind consumes more resources than our planet can offer, so deserts remain.

On my journey, I became aware of how urgently we need to act. But I also realised how exhausting the action for more climate protection can be. Problems, crises and destruction are always in the center of it. The inertia of those who could change something. The power of those who want that everything stays the same. Seemingly invincible hurdles.

But I’ve also seen that it is worth fighting; that we still have the possibility to save this world. And not only that, but we could as well turn it into a better one.

Eva, Melanie, August, Marion, Vega, Miguel, Catarina, Sofia, André, Anna-Clara, Aran, Hasia, Áron and Katharine have shown me that we’re on the right track.

That it doesn’t need one big change but lots of small ones. Step by step.