07. März 2007 Helmholtz-Geschäftsstelle

Rede zum Rundgang und zur Eröffnung der Ausstellung "Kunstwerk Erde" in Brüssel

Tour of the Kunstwerk Erde (Artwork Earth) exhibition on 7 March 2007 with Annette Schavan

Firstly, we would like to thank Minister Schavan and Mr Potocnic for their invaluable help! This exhibition is intended to make a small contribution to the series of events taking place during the German presidency of the EU Council. We hope that it will demonstrate the great variety of scientific methods used today as well as the keenness of the vision of satellites, which now reaches to the deepest depths of the sea. We also want to show that certain scientific images are not only very interesting and important for research, planning and policymaking but that they are also truly beautiful, just like works of art!

The pictures in the exhibition attest to the great challenges that Europe and the world are taking on in the areas of climate research, energy and urban planning.

First station:

Kaladan delta:

Many people still know the country of Myanmar as Burma. Here you can see the delta of the Kaladan, a river which flows into the Bay of Bengal. The delta has become a huge wetland with unique mangrove forests which are home to the rare Bengal Tiger. The swamps are light green, the dark patches are areas where the woodland has been cleared. This area floods regularly, particularly during the monsoon period. Here, satellite images are not only useful for analysing the vegetation, they also facilitate planning decisions, regarding land utilisation for example.

The Alps

We are looking at the Alps from the north (at the bottom of the picture) towards the south, a rather unusual perspective. This relief was created from different sources and the various heights are indicated with different colours, like on a physical map. The white peaks are not ice, but rather heights above 3,000 metres. On the far right, before the Alps begin, you can see Lake Geneva. Lake Constance is more towards the centre, and the Po valley plain and Apennine mountain range are at the top of the picture.

Second station

Madrid

The process of urbanisation is far advanced in Europe and is well underway in newly industrialised countries. We are faced with the challenge of planning our cities in such a way as to maintain a high quality of life, despite high population densities. We have to shorten the journeys people make and reduce particulate matter emissions and other negative factors. Although life in the city requires resources it also saves resources in other areas (a good public transport network is possible in cities, for example). Environmentally friendly urban planning is a good solution to two major challenges: climate change and the demographic change which we Europeans are leading. This picture of the city of Madrid effectively demonstrates the role which green spaces can play in a city's climate. The Parque del Buen Retiro is Madrid's green lung, cooling the hot summer air like an air conditioning system. This false-colour image depicts the city's vegetation in red.

Altyn-Tagh

Here we see the desert-like landscape at the southern edge of the Altyn-Tagh mountain range in northern China. The green patches at the top right show that the rocks contain ores. In the centre you can see a huge, dried-out salt lake (coloured ochre). This former lake is surrounded by bluish strips on the left and right which indicate soil with a high concentration of salt. A road (black) runs straight through the landscape. China needs these kinds of satellite images in order to make geological maps of the land.

Third station:

Bathymetry

Satellites do not just portray the surfaces of the Earth and the seas, they can take a much deeper look with their measuring instruments. Here you can see a relief of the bottom of the North Atlantic. You can see Britain and Ireland, and above left there is Iceland, sitting on the mid-ocean ridge, which explains why this little island still experiences volcanic activity. Lava penetrates to the surface and pushes the continental plates further apart.

Betsiboka

Tropical rainforests with an enormous diversity of species used to cover the island of Madagascar. But since 1960 half of the forests have been cut down, that's twelve million hectares. It was not until early 2005 that seven million hectares of virgin forest were placed under protection. But people continue to cut down the trees illegally, for understandable reasons as far as the individuals are concerned. They need the money they make from selling wood and need to gain land for agriculture. But in the long term the farmland will be lost. Here you can see the harbour of Mahajanga in the north-west of the island. It has already turned into sand because the monsoon rains are able to wash away increasing areas of soil and land in the island's interior. The Betsiboka river flushes the soil into the bay of Mahajanga. The branches of the river are surrounded by hanging undergrowth which is increasingly hindering river transport (red and green along the waterways).