Meet the Delegates

Meet Nils: Master Student, Sustainability Advocate, Nature Enthusiast

On Living sustainably:

"The more I study the history of modern civilization and the relationship between the environment, the economy, and society, the more I realize that environmental degradation, economic mismanagement and social inequality are in fact merely symptoms and expressions of a fundamentally obsolete and unsustainable way of life. The best way to change this is to firstly recognize the scope, severity and interconnectedness of these problems and to secondly create individual, communal and global solutions.

A gradual shift from a largely fossil-fuel powered world to renewables is not only a question of macroeconomics and large-scale technologies, but will also require a personal commitment to lower energy consumption and a move away from a resource devouring economy. In addition to their obvious environmental benefits, renewables create many new jobs in countries that have been adjusting their economies and policies accordingly. Aside from the economic and environmental advantages, they also promote the creation of more resilient communities, producing and managing their own energy.

Switching energy consumption to renewables is merely one – albeit vital – step towards sustainable life. Many more will have to follow."


Nils Symanczyk
Graduate Student
History of Science & Technology
Technical University Berlin


Bio:
Nils Symanczyk is a graduate student of History of Science and Technology at the Technical University of Berlin. Focusing on the industrialization and high modernity of Europe and North America, he devotes most of his research to interdisciplinary fields of study related to environmental concerns. This includes the production of modern commodities such as oil, coffee, and livestock, environmental history and environmental ethics as well as technological utopias and dystopias in the literary genre. During academic exchanges at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Washington he participated in student debates and various classes on social and environmental issues. In 2013 Nils graduated from Freiburg University with a Bachelor of Arts in English and American Studies and Philosophy. 

Nils's research project is focused on “Post Peak Oil: Challenges and Opportunities for a New Paradigm.”

He will be tweeting, posting and commenting under the "token" #NiSy.