September 9-10, 2023

A member of the curatorial team, Virág, took the artist Anna Witt on a research trip in Wendland. Based on our experiences from previous research trips, we traveled by private car, as the research locations were spread throughout the region. We forgot to photograph the car’s odometer at the beginning of the trip, so the emissions had to be estimated using Google Maps. Through one of the activists, we found a place to stay for the night. We had brought a tent, planning to camp as a symbolic gesture to reduce our emissions—but since the house (a former yoga retreat) had been built with sustainable materials and was powered by ecoenergy, we decided to stay there and use the opportunity to experiment with how these emissions would be calculated. We were invited for dinner and breakfast with vegetables from the garden. In the end, it turned out that the emissions from all the overnight stays in the project, except those in a certified eco-hostel, were calculated using one single emission factor (12.220kg CO₂e), so where we stayed or what we ate made no difference in the overall climate balance.

We discussed how Anna might be able to continue her research in the area in a climate-neutral way, while still maintaining the flexibility she needed—but found no convincing solution. In the end, thanks to a scholarship and teaching position in Braunschweig, she was able to deepen and extend her research by involving her students, independently of our project. As a result, much of her travel to Gorleben does not appear in our climate balance.

Estimated emissions for this trip: 130 kg CO₂e