Felix Finkbeiner | |
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 Finkbeiner at the Yucatán Reforestation Project (2018) | |
| Born | 8 October 1997 (age 26) Munich, Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Known for | Founding Plant-for-the-Planet |
| Website | plant-for-the-planet.org |
Felix Finkbeiner (born 8 October 1997) is a German environmentalist and the founder of the international tree-planting and environmental advocacy organization Plant-for-the-Planet.
Finkbeiner is son of Frithjof Finkbeiner (businessman, activist and member of the Club of Rome [1] ) and Karolin Finkbeiner (textile engineer), with two sisters. He attended Munich International School from which he graduated in 2015. After living in London for three years, he graduated with a BA in International Relations from SOAS, University of London in 2018. Since September 2018, he is a PhD student of environmental sciences at the Crowther Lab of ETH Zürich, where he studies the most effective approaches to forest restoration under Tom Crowther. [2]
In January 2007, when Finkbeiner was nine years old and in fourth grade, inspired by hearing of Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai, he gave a class presentation on global warming in which he suggested to classmates that children should plant one million trees in each country of the world. Together with many of his classmates, Felix planted a tree on 28 March 2007 and launched Plant-for-the-Planet. After three years, the initiative planted its millionth tree. [3] At age 10, he spoke in the European Parliament and at age 13 at the UN General Assembly. [4] He also Joined the UN's Environment Programme Children's Board.
A decade later, he leads an organisation with 130 employees internationally and 70,000 members in 67 countries. [5] Plant-for-the-Planet has hosted over 1,200 Academies during which participants between 10 and 14 learn about global warming and the importance of trees, practice public speaking and make plans on how they want to contribute to tackling global warming. Felix regularly attends Plant-for-the-Planet global youth summits as a speaker and as a moderator, most recently at the Frankfurt Youth Summit in October 2023.
The organisation currently restores 22,500 hectares of forest on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico by planting on average one tree every 15 seconds. Furthermore, Plant-for-the-Planet leads the UN Billion Tree Campaign, as part of which 14 billion trees have been planted so far by contributing companies, organisations and governments. [6]
Plant-for-the-Planet's The Change Chocolate ("Die Gute Schokolade") is sold in 20,000 stores throughout Germany and Austria. The chocolate is Fair Trade and carbon neutral. The profits are used to fund the tree-planting efforts in Yucatán. Thus, with every five bars sold, one tree is planted. [7]
Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of 70,550.19 km2 (27,239.58 sq mi), Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total land area of Germany. With over 13 million inhabitants it is the second most populous German state behind North Rhine-Westphalia, but due to its large physical size its population density is below the German average. Major cities include Munich, Nuremberg, and Augsburg.
The Munich Security Conference is an annual conference on international security policy that has been held in Munich, Bavaria, Germany since 1963. Formerly named the Munich Conference on Security Policy, the motto is: Peace through Dialogue. It is the world's largest gathering of its kind.
Herbert Achternbusch was a German film director, writer and painter. He began as a writer of avant-garde prose, such as the novel Die Alexanderschlacht, before turning to low-budget films. He had a love-hate relationship with Bavaria which showed itself in his work. Some of his controversial films, such as Das Gespenst, were presented at the Berlinale festival.
The Trillion Tree Campaign is a project which aims to plant one trillion trees worldwide. It seeks to repopulate the world's trees and combat climate change as a nature-based solution. The project was launched at PlantAhead 2018 in Monaco by Plant-for-the-Planet. In the fall of 2018, the project's official website was published in order to register, monitor, and donate trees to reforestation projects around the world. The campaign is a continuation of the activities of the earlier Billion Tree Campaign, instigated by Wangari Maathai, who founded the Green Belt Movement in Africa in 1977.
Bavaria, one of the states of Germany, has a multiparty system dominated by the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU). Bavaria has long been a bastion of conservative politics in Germany, with the Christian Social Union has won every election of the state parliament since 1946 and having almost a monopoly on power. Every Minister-President since 1957 has been a member of this party. On the other hand the bigger and more liberal, or rather social democratic, cities, especially Munich, have been governed for decades by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) until recently the second biggest party. In 2018 the Alliance 90/The Greens which have been represented in the state parliament since 1986, became the second biggest political party in the Landtag and in 2020 the biggest party in the Munich City Council. From the historical point of view, older Bavaria was one of the most liberal, predominantly Roman Catholic states until the rather rural areas of Swabia and Franconia were added in 1814/15 at the Congress of Vienna.
Plant-for-the-Planet is an organisation that aims to raise awareness among children and adults about the issues of climate change and global justice. The Initiative also works to plant trees and considers this to be both a practical and symbolic action in efforts to reduce the effect of climate change. Its motto is "Stop Talking, Start Planting". In 2011, it reached a goal of planting a million trees.
Gustl Ferdinand Mollath is a German man who was acquitted during a criminal trial in 2006 on the basis of diminished criminal responsibility. He was committed to a high-security psychiatric hospital, as the court deemed him a danger to the public and declared him insane based on expert diagnoses of paranoid personality disorder. The judgment became the basis of controversy when elements of his supposed delusions regarding money-laundering activities at a major bank were found to be true. Mollath had consistently claimed there was a conspiracy to have him locked up in a psychiatric care ward because of his incriminating knowledge; evidence discovered in 2012 made his claims appear plausible.
Das GEDICHT ( ), established 1993, is the largest poetry magazine in the German-speaking world. It was founded by the poet and publisher Anton G. Leitner together with Ludwig Steinherr. Between 1994 and 2007 as well as between 2020 and 2023, Leitner served as its sole editor. Between 2008 and 2019, Leitner has edited the annual periodical with changing co-editors.
Anton G. Leitner is a German writer and publisher.
Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who serves as a member of the German Bundestag, the German federal parliament.
Rainer Koch is a German jurist and football official. From November 2015 to April 2016, he was the acting president of the German Football Association along with Reinhard Rauball.
Since 1996 the editors of the European editions of the Reader's Digest magazine have named "European of the Year" individuals who best embody the traditions and values of Europe.
Florian Pronold is a German lawyer and politician of the SPD who served as a member of the German Bundestag from 2002 until 2021. From 11 July 2009 to 20 May 2017, he was state chairman of the SPD Bavaria.
Georg Zeppenfeld is a German operatic bass.
Kerstin Griese is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as a member of the German Bundestag since 2000.
Danyal Bayaz is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as State Minister of Finance in the government of Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg Winfried Kretschmann since May 2021. From 2017 until 2021, he was a member of the Bundestag.
Uli Grötsch is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Bavaria since 2013.
Matthias Zimmer was a German author and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Hesse from 2009, winning a constituency in Frankfurt am Main for three terms until 2021.
Helmar Rudolf Willi Weitzel is a German television presenter, journalist and film producer. He moderated the television programs Willi wills wissen and Willis VIPs. In 2008 he made the movie Willi und die Wunder dieser Welt. Other TV shows he hosted were Willis Quiz Quark Club, Willi wills wissen – Gute Frage, nächste Frage!, Willi wills wissen von A–Z and Ein guter Grund zu feiern. Since 2013 he has been on the road in Germany with his live program Willis wilde Wege. Since January 2018 he has moderated the magazine Gut zu Wissen on BR Fernsehen.
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