Stefan Kröpelin

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Stefan Kröpelin, 2019

Stefan Kröpelin (* 1952 in Munich ) is a German geologist and climate researcher who works in the Africa Research Unit of the Institute for Prehistory and Protohistory at the University of Cologne .

Life

Kröpelin comes from a liberal family, his father was a senior editor at Bayerischer Rundfunk, his mother was a lawyer in Munich. Because of political incitement, he had to leave school in 1968 and then graduated from high school in Berlin. In 1970 he made his first long trip to Afghanistan and the Dalai Lama in the Himalayas in an old VW Bulli .

In the 1970s, Kröpelin first studied computer science at the TU Berlin. After completing his intermediate diploma, he went on further trips. In doing so, he discovered his interest in geosciences. From 1979 he studied geography and geology at the TU Berlin and the Université d'Aix-Marseille . In 1985 he switched to the Geosciences Department at the Free University of Berlin . Here he received his doctorate in 1990 with a dissertation on the Lower Wadi Howar in Northwest Sudan as a Dr. rer. nat. Kröpelin has been working at the University of Cologne since 1995. There he headed the sub-projects Sudan and Chad of the DFG Collaborative Research Center 389 on the topic of “Cultural and Landscape Change in Arid Africa”.

Kröpelin is married and has three children.

Scientific achievements

As an African explorer, Kröpelin has carried out more than sixty expeditions to the Sahara . As part of the collaborative research center “Our way to Europe”, he is currently investigating the route and climatic conditions under which Homo sapiens came to Europe from sub-Saharan Africa over 100,000 years ago . In particular, he explored the oases of the Ounianga lake landscape , the gorges of the Ennedi massif and the Tibesti mountains , the largest mountains in the Sahara, with mountains up to 3500 meters high and at the same time the largest crater landscape on earth.

He was instrumental in the inclusion of two regions of the Eastern Sahara on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites , namely the UNESCO World Heritage Site Ouinanga Lakes in northeast Chad (added to the World Heritage List in 2012) and the UNESCO World Heritage Site Ennedi Massif in Northeast Chad (included in the World Heritage List in 2016). He is currently in charge of a third initiative: the Tibesti Mountains in northwest Chad. The establishment of two national parks goes back to him, namely the Wadi Howar National Park in northwest Sudan and the Gilf Kebir National Park in southwest Egypt .

When awarding the Communicator Prize of the DFG , it was pointed out that his research results in more than 30 television programs (broadcast by ARD, ZDF, Arte, WDR, SWR, among others) and 20 radio programs, some of which were also from non-German broadcasters such as Radio New Zealand or the US National Public Radio . In addition, he organized several exhibitions that were shown in over 30 cities in Germany and abroad (including the international traveling exhibition of the DFG on Sahara research "The water of the desert" (1995-2002), which was presented in 17 countries) . He also produced ten of his own films.

About 50 of his non-scientific articles have appeared in magazines such as "Spiegel", "Focus", "New York Times", "Wall Street Journal" and "Pravda". Another 30 magazine articles about his research expeditions were published in " GEO " and in the " GEO Lexicon ".

Statements on climate change

Kröpelin is one of the signatories of the open letter There is no climate emergency , which denies the human influence on climate change.

In a reply to the 2018 article " Coal, Coal, Coal" in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Kröpelin described the scientific consensus of climate research as "untenable". Scientists would risk their careers or funding if they did not follow “the scientific (or political) mainstream”. In this context, Kröpelin spoke at a conference of the climate change denial association European Institute for Climate & Energy of a "synchronization of most media and most of science".

Honors

  • 2017: National order "Officier du Tchad"
  • 2017: Communicator Prize from the DFG and the Stifterverband for German Science . The associated Communicator Prize hologram was designed by Michael Bleyenberg and shows a pattern of layers of sediment in the background, the foreground consists of an ensemble of people hunting and animals that are based on the prehistoric drawings.
  • 2014: Honorary member of the " Long Now Foundation "
  • 2012: National order "Chevalier du Tchad"
  • 2010: Zerzura Club Explorer Medal
  • 2010: Honorary member of the "Sudanese Geologists' Union"
  • 1998: Honorary member of the “Man & Biosphere Program” of UNESCO in Sudan.

Selected publications

  • H. Riemer, S. Kröpelin & A. Zboray (2017): Climate, styles and archeology: an integral approach towards an absolute chronology of the rock art in the Libyan Desert (Eastern Sahara). Antiquity, 9, pp. 7-23.
  • S. Kröpelin et al. (2016): Lake Yoa (Northern Chad): A Seasonal Footprint of 10,500 Years of Climate Change in the Sahara., AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco.
  • Mallaye B. & Kröpelin S. (2016): Ennedi Massif, Chad. A cultural and natural acc. World Heritage, 82, pp. 30-37.
  • Stefan Kröpelin, Michèle Dinies, Florence Sylvestre & Philipp Hoelzmann (2016): Crater palaeolakes in the Tibesti mountains (Central Sahara, North Chad) - New insights into past Saharan climates. Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 18.
  • Kröpelin, S. (2009): Holocene Environmental Reconstruction and Cultural History of the Sahara: Perspectives from the Sudanese Desert. In: Wüsten - natural and cultural change in space and time, WD Blümel (Ed.), Nova Acta Leopoldina NF 108, pp. 165–191.
  • Kröpelin, S. (2007): Holocene Climate Change and Settlement History of the Eastern Sahara. Geographische Rundschau 4/2007, pp. 22–29.

literature

  • Rüdiger Heimlich (2017): “Just please: Desert researchers”. research. The magazine of the German Research Foundation , 2017/2, pp. 4–9.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ There is no climate emergency. Retrieved July 7, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Sahara researcher Stefan Kröpelin: "A sense of proportion and self-skepticism are better for scientists than dogmatism, doomsday scenarios and too close to politics or even to the Pope". January 24, 2019, accessed July 7, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Stefan Kröpelin - The Green Past of the Sahara on November 24, 2018. EIKE - European Climate and Energy Institute, January 27, 2019, accessed on July 7, 2020 (quote from 46:20).
  4. ↑ Awards and honorary positions. In: Kölner UniversitätsMagazin. University of Cologne, June 15, 2018, accessed on July 3, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Communicator Prize 2017 to Stefan Kröpelin
  6. ↑ Frank Allgöwer (2018). Laudation for the awarding of the Communicator Prize 2017 to Stefan Kröpelin
personal data
SURNAME Kröpelin, Stefan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German geologist and climate researcher
DATE OF BIRTH 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich