Everything to try out in the climate workshop
How can cities and people adapt to climate change? The Federal Environment Ministry is showcasing solutions at Grüne Woche and inviting visitors to join in.
At the entrance to the ‘Climate Workshop’ is a sobering scenario. Five German cities with their current average temperatures are depicted on round wooden panels. If you turn them round, you can see the respective climatic twin city. This is intended to visualise: In 2075, it could be as hot in Hamburg as it is currently in Bordeaux in south-west France; the average temperature would rise from the current 10.2 degrees to 15.1 degrees. Cologne (currently 12.8 degrees) would be as warm as Split in Croatia (17.9 degrees average temperature). The figures are based on a study by the Federal Environment Agency.
However warm it ends up being, climate change is an incontrovertible fact and it brings with it a series of adaptation tasks. The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) has therefore organised its presentation in ‘grünerleben’ Hall 27 at Grüne Woche under the motto: ‘Climate workshop. Together for a good life’. In the open pavilion designed with light-coloured wood, the ministry has set up numerous stations that deal with adaptation to climate impacts and how urban and rural areas can respond to climate change in a very practical way.
A climate-friendly children's playground in no time at all
How do we protect health in a changing climate? How do we design our cities? How do we secure our agriculture? How do we restore nature? These are the topics on which there is a lot to read, listen to and try out. There is a large table with an interactive city model right behind the Climate Twins mobile. For example, visitors can use a crank to transform a classic concreted car park into a climate-friendly model in which perforated paving stones provide infiltration areas. Or replace a barren, sealed children's playground with a climate-adapted playground - with green areas, sun sails and a water feature. Between the individual elements, text panels explain the many possibilities and how they help to cool down cities and offer residents a better environment.
Nature in a jar - also to take away
Every day there will be a stage programme with talks and quizzes. One major topic is health in times of climate change - from pollen allergies and the psyche to the question of how sports clubs and associations should react to rising temperatures. But improv theatre, children's participatory theatre and information on near-natural residential areas or sustainable urban planning are also on the agenda.
Simone Kellerhof is all about experiencing nature haptically: At the ‘Nature in a jar’ station, the founder of ‘Material Mafia’ makes bottle gardens with visitors. A jar is filled with soil, moss, bark and gravel and then a small bluebell or green plant. The lid is then closed - and the plant no longer needs to be watered. ‘A separate ecosystem is created because air and moisture circulate in the glass,’ says Kellerhof. Adults in particular find this amazing. Children usually know nothing about photosynthesis.
