How do we want to live with the oceans?
The oceans provide breathing oxygen and food for more than a third of humanity. They offer work and relaxation, as well as places of longing and fascinating habitats full of species. They regulate the climate and slow down man-made global warming. The future of marine life and of humanity is directly linked to the fate of the oceans. However, climate change, pollution and overexploitation are creating increasing problems for marine habitats and pose the question to all of us:
How can we deal with the coasts, seas and oceans so sustainably that we can secure marine life and create desirable futures on our “blue planet”?
The sustainable use of coasts, seas and oceans is a social challenge that affects us all. The Ocean Future Lab offers space for the co-creative and inspiring design of future scenarios for oceans. Citizens are invited to develop ideas for the future and possible action in exchange with artists and scientists.
We’ll start with an open call to start the dialogue with citizens and changemakers. Selected ideas by an expert jury will be featured in an online gallery. For the acceleration of selected ideas a hackathon (2-day-online event in September) is planned. The final evaluation and presentation of the results will take place at the Entrepreneurship Summit 2022 in Berlin.
Furthermore, the Ocean Future Lab offers a series of workshops. Some can be attended online, others on site: in the German Maritime Museum in Stralsund, in the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven, and in the Futurium in Berlin.
Background
Climate change and species extinction are two main global environmental problems of our time. Its consequences are serious, but difficult to grasp. Above all, the changes in the world’s oceans, which cover three quarters of the earth’s surface, elude our direct perception, but affect us directly. The realization that much more needs to be done to stop ocean health from deteriorating, and instead to improve it again, has prompted the United Nations to proclaim 2021-2030 as the International Decade of Marine Reseaarch for Sustainable Development.
Politics, society and science are called upon to work together on the successful implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with a special focus on goal 14 “Life below water”. In this context, the Ocean Future Lab aims to develop ideas and impulses for positive and sustainable future scenarios for seas and people and to strengthen civic engagement for a sustainable use of coasts, seas and oceans. Together, with diverse actors from society, art and science we wish to develop new perspectives and solutions.
We know the facts, now it’s time to act!
Let us know about your ideas and actions. Join our movement – participate in our events and become part of our network. Together we can make change happen!
The Ocean Future Lab is a project of the “Science Year 2022 – Participate!” and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Partners
The German Marine Research Alliance (DAM) was founded in 2019 by German marine research together with the federal government and the northern German federal states. Its goal is to strengthen the sustainable use of the coasts, seas and oceans through research and transfer, data management and digitization as well as the coordination of infrastructures. To this end, the DAM develops solution-oriented knowledge together with its member institutions and ensures a target group-specific exchange of knowledge and dialogue with society.
www.allianz-meeresforschung.de
The German Maritime Museum Foundation in Stralsund is officially one of the cultural beacons in the new federal states. The museum interests people in the nature of the seas and coasts. It touches, moves and sensitizes people and thus contributes to changing their thinking and behavior towards the natural environment.
The German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven is a research museum of the Leibniz Association and a place of education and dialogue. At the core of his work are maritime issues of relevance to society as a whole.
The Institute for Art and Innovation supports and promotes the interaction of art and innovation to promote social-ecological and digital transformation. It has been working in a multidisciplinary and cross-thematic manner since 2017. In order to drive social innovations, a variety of interaction and cooperation formats are used to achieve complementarity between different disciplines and to generate different types of knowledge. The focus lies on the common good for future generations within the framework of the planetary boundaries.
The German Science Year 2022 – Participate!
#MeineFragefürdieWissenschaft
The “Science Year 2022 – Participate!” invites all citizens to pose their own personal question for science and thus provide impulses for potential future fields and future research projects. These science years are initiatives of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) together with Wissenschaft im Dialog (WiD). For 22 years, these events have supported the mediation between scientific research and the public.
