#rp24 speaker Özden Terli: Who cares about the climate?

Özden Terli not only presents the weather on ZDF almost every day, he is also one of the most committed and far-reaching voices for science and climate communication on social media. A discussion about the climate crisis and how it is changing the weather and what kind of reporting is urgently needed is a must at #rp24!

If the facts are clear, why aren't we taking action? As an expert, Özden enlightens the audience by categorising weather phenomena. At re:publica 24, we want to talk to him about how activist journalists can be and how they can get involved in the public sphere. How does Özden deal with online hate campaigns? And what drives him to keep going anyway?
 
Özden Terli is a studied meteorologist, journalist, presenter and author of articles, contributions and commentaries on the topics of weather and climate. Trained as a telecommunications electronics technician, he completed his Abitur (A-levels) through a secondary education programme. He then studied meteorology with a minor in astrophysics at the Free University of Berlin.

He has been working for ZDF since 2013. He currently presents the weather reports in the ZDF morning programme, the ZDF lunchtime programme, heute-journal and the ZDF heute news. In 2021, he was honoured with the Environmental Media Award of DUH, and in 2022 he received both the "Journalist of the Year" award in the science category and a Grimme nomination in the category "Journalistic Achievement".

At #rp24, we are looking forward to Özden's exciting input and inspiring discussions. He has already answered a few questions in advance:
 

#WhoCares: An interview with Özden Terli.

The Motto of re:publica 24 is „Who Cares?“. Whom or what are you currently caring about?

Just caring is not quite the right word. It's more of a permanent concern, if I may say so. As often as I can - and at every opportunity - I deal with the cross-cutting issue of climate and global warming. In the meantime, in different ways and at different levels. It's actually almost the only thing I care about.

What do we care about too little as a society?

Haha, yes. Exactly the same. We pay far too little attention to how we can limit this massive, very dangerous, systematic and epochal upheaval in human history. Unfortunately, politicians don't care enough either - or the measures are not efficient enough to comply with the Paris Agreement. And to put it even more concretely: the Paris Agreement is a compromise, it shouldn't get any warmer...

Is there a person, movement or institution that inspires you in their care for a particular issue? Or maybe a book, article or podcast that inspired you recently?

I had the honour of writing the foreword for the translation of Michael E. Mann's new book "Moment of Decision" into German. Don't worry, I'm not making any money from it 😉 - but I think it's a very good book in which Mann reconstructs the climate and includes people and their culture. I think it's a book you should have read. Another book is "Die Klimaschmutzlobby" (The Climate Pollution Lobby) - it does a marvellous job of showing the connections between the various players in the climate protection lobby in Germany. There are many wonderful people and institutions that I am in contact with. I am very grateful that there is very strong support - in a world where disinformation and lies continue to spread.