Est.1985

Environmental Lecture Series

Summer Semester 2026

A Wounded Planet: Because war doesn't end at the frontline

What remains after the violence fades from the headlines? How do conflicts leave lasting scars on land, water, ecosystems, and the people who depend on them? Who bears these burdens most heavily, and what does recovery look like in places shaped by destruction, displacement, and environmental loss?

War does not end where the frontline stops. Its impacts continue in polluted soils and waterways, damaged infrastructure, toxic debris, disrupted food systems, and the destruction of homes, livelihoods, and critical ecosystems. Environmental harm caused by conflict threatens public health, food and water security, and long-term resilience, while the burdens of recovery are often distributed unequally.

The lecture series “A Wounded Planet: Because War Doesn’t End at the Frontline” invites you to explore these connections through diverse perspectives and experiences, both as learners and as contributors to the conversation. Each week, speakers from science, policy, business, architecture, and civil society will share insights and challenges that bring the environmental legacy of war into focus. Throughout the series, interactive discussions will create space to reflect on environmental justice, resilience, and rebuilding, and to ask what it means to repair wounded environments while supporting the communities that live with their consequences.

For TUM students interested in earning 1 or 3 ECTS credits

For everybody else

In our introductory session, you will:

  • meet our team
  • get an overview of our course and lecture structure
  • try out our Engagement Lab
  • and have the space to ask any questions you may have

The talk is based on the accumulation of waste. Its thesis is that the death of man and the environment expands the commodity space, sells in social reproduction time and boosts profit rates.

Dr. Ali Kadri is currently visiting professor at Sun Yat-sen University and has held roles at the London School of Economics (LSE) and the National University of Singapore. His recent book is titled The Accumulation of Waste: A Political Economy of Systemic Destruction (2023).

More details on the documentary will be announced soon.

dok

DOK.fest is the largest film festival in Germany dedicated solely to documentaries. Every year in May, the DOK.fest welcomes well over 100 films, their makers, and, if possible, some protagonists in Munich. They screen at over 20 locations throughout the city and beyond. Since 2020, there has been a digital platform too, that offers these films to be enjoyed, discussed, or binged at homes throughout Germany. Celebrating excellence in the documentary cinematic art is as important to the Dok.fest as are the discoveries, discussions, and encounters for the guests and the audiences. The Student Award of DOK.fest München presents outstanding documentary films by students of German-speaking film schools.

 Shared Session with the Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences

Location: Lothstr. 64, lecture hall „Roter Würfel“, room 1.046 or via the Zoom link with meeting-ID 947 3715 4657 and password 631726

The Lectures for Future is a public lecture series at Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences, held every semester in a hybrid format. Moderated by Prof. Dr. Christian Holler and Prof. Dr. Heinz P. Huber, it brings together researchers from Munich’s universities to explore climate change, environmental protection, and sustainability from diverse interdisciplinary perspectives.

More details on this talk will be announced soon.

Michael Hagmann is the Head of Business Strategy at Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy.

Tanzania’s iconic national parks, such as the Serengeti, Ngorongoro or Nyerere (Selous), are global biodiversity hotspots. As cornerstones of the country’s tourism industry they are marketed as the epitome of wild, pristine Mother Africa. Yet, their origins are deeply rooted in the violent legacies of German and British colonialism. Whether forced displacement of indigenous communities (particularly the Maasai), or the depopulation in the wake of wars like the Maji Maji Resistance: under the guise of wildlife conservation vast areas were repurposed as Naturschutzgebiete, laying the groundwork for today’s national parks.

This lecture traces the transformation of these landscapes from colonial use to modern national parks, exposing how historical injustices persist in contemporary land-use conflicts. By examining the intersection of conservation, tourism, and human rights, the talk sheds light on the ongoing struggles of the Maasai against state-led evictions and Tanzania’s conservation policies. It also explores tourism’s paradoxical role, both as a driver of environmental degradation and as a purported force for protection.

Henriette Seydel is a sociologist and conflict researcher. She is currently pursuing her PhD at the University of Augsburg, focusing on colonial heritage tourism in Tanzania. In 2025, she published the Decolonial Travel Guide Tanzania. She also is the chairwoman of the board of the nationwide NGO Tanzania Network e.V., which engages in decolonial, anti-racist developmental education.

    Shared Session with RCE BenE München

RCE BenE Munich: “Education is the key to a sustainable world”. RCE BenE München e.V. stands for Education for Sustainable Development and is the regional competence center for ESD. We implement educational projects with schools, universities and in adult education. In our working groups, we give citizens the opportunity to actively participate in sustainable and regenerative development and network people interested in ESD. The RCE BenE Munich works primarily locally/regionally, but is very well networked nationally and internationally! Focus of content:

  • Education for sustainable development (ESD)
  • Agenda 2030 / SDGs
  • Sustainability
  • Shaping regenerative cultures

Registration is required, as places for our excursions are limited. Details for registration will be announced soon.


For a long time, the environment has been often considered an invisible victim of armed conflict. As a consequence, the many impacts of wars have gone unnoticed and failed to be address in post-conflict reconstruction.  Rapid technological developments over the last decade have provided researchers and conflict-affected communities with new means to document environmental destruction. This has spurred policy development, strengthening of legal protection and improved awareness on the environmental impacts of conflict. Through showcases from recent conflict in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan, connecting this with discussion in various UN forums, the lecture will outline the success and challenges of these applications and highlight some obstacles and opportunities for further development of this approach.
 
Wim Zwijnenburg is the Environment, Peace and Security Project Lead at PAX, and has been working on the the environmental dimensions of armed conflicts since 2009.  He developed a methodology using open-source information and earth observation to identify and monitor the impacts of wars and armed conflicts on ecosystems people depend on.  Has published extensively on impacts of the wars  Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Yemen and other conflicts areas. Through advocacy and awareness raising, the research has been driving policy development within the humanitarian community,  various UN forums, including the UN Security Council and UN Environment Assembly.  For his work he has the received the UNEP/UNOCH Green Star Award in 2017 and the Environmental Law Institute and UNEP Al Moumin Award in 2023. 

Armed conflict threatens and harms wildlife. The legal framework protecting wildlife against such harm is fragmented and weak. International environmental law regulates the sustainable exploitation of wildlife, while international humanitarian law protects the environment only against excessive damage. In this lecture, I provide an overview of the rules and the interaction between these two principal regimes. Discussing the relation between armed conflict and wildlife trafficking, I highlight the securitization of IEL. Critical initiatives to improve implementation of the law and criminalization proposals will be discussed as well.

Dr. Veerle Platvoet is a senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law. In 2025, she defended her PhD on wildlife law at the University of Helsinki and has a background in global environmental law. Her current research continues to focus on legal questions on animal protection and its interaction with different regimes in international law. Platvoet is a board member of the Dutch Association of Animal Rights Law, review editor at the Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy and member of the Helsinki Animal Law Centre and the Multispecies Collective.

    Shared Session with RCE BenE München

RCE BenE Munich: “Education is the key to a sustainable world”. RCE BenE München e.V. stands for Education for Sustainable Development and is the regional competence center for ESD. We implement educational projects with schools, universities and in adult education. In our working groups, we give citizens the opportunity to actively participate in sustainable and regenerative development and network people interested in ESD. The RCE BenE Munich works primarily locally/regionally, but is very well networked nationally and internationally! Focus of content:

  • Education for sustainable development (ESD)
  • Agenda 2030 / SDGs
  • Sustainability
  • Shaping regenerative cultures

Registration is required, as places for our excursions are limited. Details for registration will be announced soon.

© Stefan Simak

As a Member of the European Parliament Jutta Paulus offers a personal perspective on the current developments at European level, with a focus on the impacts on environmental policy. Global wars and conflicts are shifting attention of policy makers towards short term challenges, achievements in EU environmental protection are now considered detrimental for competitiveness and the ability to deal with global crisis.  

Jutta Paulus (born 1967 in Gießen, Hessen) is a German pharmacist and politician. After studying in Marburg (1986–1990), she moved to the Palatinate, where she has lived ever since. In 1991, she co-founded a laboratory specializing in indoor pollutants and ecotoxicology, later focusing on chemical testing and EU regulatory compliance. Following two decades in management, she sold her shares in 2012 and shifted her focus to politics, while continuing to work in quality management in laboratories and hospitals. As a long-standing member of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Paulus has held numerous roles at local, state, and federal levels, particularly in energy, ecology, and environmental policy. She served as chair of the Green Party in Rhineland-Palatinate (2017–2019) and has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2019 as part of the Greens/EFA group.

Copyright Jan Winter/TUM

The lecture highlights the multifaceted challenges supply chains face today. It juxtaposes the promise of value creation and prosperity with the acute reality of worker exploitation and environmental harm. It explores the interconnected relationships of supply chains with political problems, social crises, and the depreciation of natural resources. The lecture concludes by sketching some ways out of the crisis.

Since 2025 Prof. Stefan Gold has been Chair of Sustainability Management at TUMCS. He was previously Professor of Corporate Sustainability at the University of Kassel (2017-2025) and Assistant Professor at the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (ICCSR) at the University of Nottingham (UK) (2014-2016). After completing his PhD at the University of Kassel in 2011, he was a Postdoc at the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland). He studied International Business and Cultural Studies at the University of Passau (1997-2003).

His research in the field of sustainability management is interdisciplinary and focuses on the social dimension of sustainability. In particular, it addresses the question of how sustainability transformation should be shaped and implemented in economy and society. His research focuses on modern slavery and decent work, circular economy, sustainable supply chain management, and sustainability in humanitarian aid.

getting to the lecture hall

Location

On-site: TUM Main Campus

Room: N1190 (Hans-Heinrich-Meinke-Hörsaal)

Floor: 2
Building: U-Trakt (N1) (Nordgelände)
Location: Theresienstr. 90, 80333 München

Microsoft Teams Session

Webinar ID: 312 477 277 942 766
Password: 
Wv7WP3ZQ

Contact us!

rivo@fs.tum.de

History of the Environmental Lecture Series

The lecture series on the environment is an interdisciplinary, public lecture series organised by the Environmental Department of the Student Union of the TU Munich. It is organised by TU Munich students on a voluntary basis.

Speakers have been giving lectures on the topic of sustainability since 1985. This includes, for example, technical environmental protection, health, consumer and climate protection. In this way, it offers both students and teachers at the TU Munich, as well as the non-university public, the opportunity to learn about and discuss these topics and research results at a scientific level.

The speakers from research, associations, authorities and companies will be happy to answer questions from the audience after the lecture; the slides of the lectures, and in some cases the video recordings themselves, will be made available – if available – on our website. In the 40 years of its existence, more than 480 lectures have been organised so far.

In the meantime, the lecture series on the environment has become a regular part of the TU’s lecture programme and is supported, among others, by the management of the TU Munich, the Munich Center for Technology in Society and the KHG of the TU Munich. The lecture series on the environment is a partner of the BNB, the “Alliance for Sustainability in Bavaria”. In addition, some lectures are held in cooperation with the Environmental Academy and the Munich Forum for Sustainability.

Check out our trailer! 😉

As Vice President of TUM, I am proud to endorse the Environmental Lecture Series, RiVo. For nearly 40 years, TUM students have been at the forefront of this interdisciplinary initiative, providing a platform for knowledge exchange and facilitating critical discussions on the challenges and solutions surrounding sustainability. It is heartening to see speakers from diverse backgrounds sharing their expertise and enriching our understanding. RiVo educates, raises awareness and inspires action for a greener future. My heartfelt appreciation goes to the Student Council’s Environmental Department for their tireless dedication in organizing this invaluable series.

Prof. Dr. Werner Lang
TUM Vice President for Sustainable Transformation

Our previous lecture series

Watch our previous recorded lectures here!

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Beyond the shelf
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Outdoor Poster (60 × 84.7 cm)2
Poster
RiVo SS23 Poster