The Unpredictable Factor

In the climate discourse, the one element that eludes quantification in climate models is human agency. How can we nonetheless comprehend our role within the climate system and steer the crisis? Climate change is a vast, intricate global challenge. More frequent extreme weather, rising sea levels, and harsher living conditions—affecting people everywhere—are already part of daily reality. Global society has never faced a challenge of this complexity. For young people, the looming climate scenarios will become real in the future; for the Global South, they are already here. Overcoming the crisis requires diverse perspectives. THE UNPREDICTABLE FACTOR traces the origins of the German environmental movement, follows today’s Rhineland activists in their fight against the coal industry, and gives voice to scientists from climate research, ethnology, and psychology.