12.6 million persons die annually as a result of unhealthy environmental conditions such as air pollution. For Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) this was cause for concern at the first main forum during “Environmental Week”. Steiner stated: “We take such numbers – and thus a high price – for granted, but actually we are not the ones who have to pay it.” All of the discussion participants on the podium were in agreement that something must be done. But how the path to a good and healthy life should look, without using up the entire basis for life on this planet: this question was controversial. Invited by President Gauck and the DBU, well-known experts from politics, business, and science discussed planetary breaking points and the framework for activity which is available to our society.
