Climate Garden 2085

Climate Garden 2085

The Climate Garden 2085 is an art-science experiment which was initiated by the Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center in collaboration with the Botanical Garden of the University of Zurich. This interactive experiment invites the public to personally experience climate scenarios and their predicted effects on agricultural plants, landscape and forests in Switzerland.

The experiment

Different climate scenarios are simulated in two greenhouses. In the first, the temperature is increased by 3 °C. This is the temperature increase that experts expect when we halve greenhouse gas emissions. In the second, the temperature is increased by +6.5 °C, which corresponds to the forecast warming without countermeasures. These values were calculated by MeteoSwitzerland and researchers at ETH Zurich for the north-east of Switzerland for 2085 (see www.ch2011.ch). Sunflowers, wheat, maize, sugar beet and other plants are planted both in the greenhouses and on an adjacent open space. In each greenhouse, the plant species are planted twice in two rows. One row receives 30% less water than the other. This makes it possible to compare what we plant and eat today with what might await us in the future.

Further information and specific instructions for implementing Climate Garden 2085 can be found in our instructions.