Jan Freihardt: "What role does science have to play in managing the tasks of the future?"

You have master’s degrees in Environmental Engineering and Science, Technology and Policy (STP) from ETH Zurich. What inspired you to study at ETH Zurich?

Even when I was at school, I thought about studying at ETH – mainly on account of my interest in technology and the good reputation that ETH has in such subjects. I gained my bachelor’s degree from the Technical University in Berlin. I then spent my exchange year at EPFL in Lausanne. I found the study environment very challenging but also stimulating. Most of my friends from Lausanne moved to Zurich for their master’s degrees. So that motivated me to study for my master's in Zurich too. I’m really pleased that I made that decision. In this respect, studying for my master’s in Zurich is no real surprise and I have never regretted the move.

You are currently studying for your PhD in environmental migration at ETH. What precisely are you researching?

We know that climate change will have dramatic impacts on ecosystems. This will affect millions of people whose lives depend on these ecosystems. People in Europe who are dependent on agriculture or snow in the Alps are already experiencing the changes right now. And these problems will only worsen in the future.

In the global south, this effect is even more drastic. At the moment, I am in Bangladesh where 43 percent of the population work on the land. We often hear about climate migrants, sometimes we see shocking reports in the news. Politically speaking, the issue slots into a very particular agenda. But from a scientific view, many questions remain unanswered. For example, we don’t know how many people are actually migrating and where they are going. Through a case study in Bangladesh, we want to generate robust data into how many people are migrating as a result of drastic changes to the climate. We also want to use a new method to highlight migration issues and hope to add objectivity to the debate.

Why did you decide to conduct your field study in Bangladesh?

Bangladesh is already being severely impacted by climate change – on the coast through cyclones and rising sea levels and therefore the resultant salt water intrusion; while in the interior of the country every year the monsoons cause huge numbers of river banks to be destroyed, resulting in entire villages disappearing.

We are conducting interviews with people living on one of the largest rivers and the monsoons are about to arrive. During the monsoon, some of these people will be affected, some won’t. After the monsoon, we will attempt to find all these people again. We will want to know where they are, how they have been impacted and how they have adapted. Because we are selecting them “naturally”, we will be able to make direct comparisons between those affected and those not.

You are chairman of the Wissenschaf(f)t Zukünfte association. What exactly is this?

We are a new association of undergraduates, postgraduates and PhD researchers. We want to create a place for students and young scientists to be able to discuss their role in society. We also want to reflect actively on the relationship between science and society. The work of science in the context of issues such as climate change or the coronavirus pandemic is discussed a lot in the media. But these are aspects that are not on the curriculum for academic courses. At university, students are bombarded with many implicit assumptions, such as neutrality of value or that as a scientist you are not allowed to have a political opinion. These normative statements have developed over time but are not natural law.

At the same time, these are all key issues especially considering the huge challenges we currently face. What role does science have to play in managing the tasks of the future? Is it enough for scientists to simply deliver their findings to politicians and leave it to them to implement the results? Many people, including myself, believe that we have been tackling climate change the wrong way for a long while. For decades, we have had ways of potentially resolving the issue, but until a few years ago, we actually did nothing. In light of this, the concept of “transformative science” was developed a few years ago in the German-speaking world. This concept supports the idea that science should play a greater and more active role in these social processes of change. For example, this may take the form of scientists sitting down with all interested parties to work on solutions, which are then implemented by society. This would prevent research from bypassing society.

You recently published a book entitled "Draußen ist es anders" (It’s different on the outside!). What motivated you to write this book?

For many years a friend and I volunteered to sit on the scientific advisory board of “Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz”, the largest environmental group in Germany. In this role, we organised seminars on the topics we have just been discussing, namely interactions between science and civil society. We noticed that young people in particular are very interested in these issues. But there was no good introductory reading for them into this topic. As I said previously, transformative science is still relatively new and until now has mainly been handled by academics. And this doesn't make it attractive to people who are only just getting into it.

We wanted to capture the positive energy of these seminars and make the topic accessible to more people. Then we hit upon the idea of writing a short book on the topic. We submitted the idea to oekom Verlag in Munich, which had organised a competition to celebrate its 30th anniversary. The publishing house selected our idea to be published as their anniversary book. So we set out on a journey lasting almost two years during which time we undertook a lot of research work, but also talked to numerous people from different parts of the science community. For example, in the book we present niche pioneers who even today are trialling the science of the future. We want to encourage people to reflect on their own experiences.

Do you have any tips for today’s students?

The transition from environmental engineer to political scientist is not an obvious one. I found it to be a very enriching experience. Solutions to our problems don’t lie in technology alone or social science alone, we need to merge the two perspectives. Only together, do we have a chance of finding sustainable solutions acceptable to the majority. Of course, you can bring several people from different disciplines together. But I think it is important to involve people who can bring several perspectives to the table.

At university, you have more flexibility than you will have later during your working life. Dip into different areas and get a fresh perspective. This may be at university itself, but also by taking on voluntary work. I believe that this is very important for personal development. It may also make you appealing to potential employers. I am convinced that networking people and perspectives will become increasingly important in the future.