2° The Weather, Man and His Climate. An exhibition of the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden, 2008

Man is a weather-sensitive being: when the sun is shining we are cheerful, when the sky is gray we are overcome by melancholy. The weather is inextricably linked to emotions, experiences and memories. But the harmless question about tomorrow's weather has lost its innocence today. The discussion about the causes and consequences of global climate change has reached our everyday lives: Isn't the storm announced for tomorrow a harbinger of the catastrophe of the day after tomorrow?

The exhibition "2° The Weather, Man and His Climate" took a multifaceted look at this fascinating subject. It combines media installations and interactive elements with objects from the history of nature, culture, art and science to create an exciting learning and experience exhibition. For the visitors it was not only clear how the weather comes about and how the climate works, they also gained insights into the issues of historical and current climate research. Witnesses of climate change from different regions of the world reported how the changed weather is already affecting their everyday lives. Such examples made it clear that climate change is also a social issue.

Most climate experts today fear that an increase in the global average temperature of more than two degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial period could trigger unpredictable and almost uncontrollable climatic processes. In 2002, the members of the European Union therefore agreed on the common goal of limiting global warming to this critical value by reducing CO2 emissions. We are therefore all part of a process whose development no one can predict with certainty today. How can the global community creatively use the existing scope for action? How will our life change?

Curator Petra Lutz, Deutsches Hygiene-Museum