Extreme drought and several centuries of flooding. To understand how these two extremes are connected, it is important to understand the water cycle.
In a clear introduction, Axel Kleidon explains the main drivers of the water cycle and shows how it actively influences our climate - a process that is closely linked to energy and movement.
Find out how climate change is altering the water cycle and why we must expect both increasing droughts and heavier rainfall in the future. The lecture also offers exciting insights into the already noticeable effects of climate change in Germany and explains why the last few decades have been characterized by increased drought.
Axel Kleidon has headed an independent research group at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry since 2006. He studies energy transformations in the Earth system in connection with the laws of thermodynamics. It is important to him to communicate his research findings to the general public in interviews, overview articles and films.