Weeks of rain in summer while a heatwave continues elsewhere or T-shirt temperatures in winter while it is freezing cold elsewhere - is this bad weather or a consequence of climate change? What is the difference and, above all, what options are there for action? There are various excursion destinations in North Rhine-Westphalia that provide information and inspiration on the subject of climate change: Museums offer educational exhibitions and educational programmes, a guided city tour presents places and sights that have a positive impact on the urban climate and an app draws attention to specific climate changes in the forest on family hiking routes.
Tip 1Teutoburg Forest climate experience
Climatic influences have always been clearly visible in the Teutoburg Forest / Eggegebirge Nature Park, as two climate zones - Atlantic and continental - have always met here. A new app now guides you through nature on family-friendly trails and points out traces of man-made climate change interactively and using augmented reality. Two routes are currently available in the "Forest and Climate" app, with more to follow.
The newly opened Climate Experience World in Oerlinghausen is another excursion destination in the region that makes climate change and adaptation options tangible. On the one hand, recycling and sustainability played a major role in the construction of the exhibition building, while on the other, the content focuses on the background, consequences and concrete options for action relating to the complex issue of climate change.
Tip 2Climate change in Düsseldorf
How can cities adapt to climate change? A guided tour of the city on the Rhine provides answers and presents examples: The approximately two-hour tour "Klima (wandeln) in Düsseldorf" takes you past sights, reports on the city's history - and shows how climate change is being tackled in concrete terms, for example by means of contemporary trees, cooling water features or buildings such as Kö-Bogen 2, which has the largest green façade in Europe.
Anyone travelling through the state capital on a Monday can end the day with a kind of climate concert: On "Green Monday", the Tonhalle combines music from the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra with an activity that makes the concert more sustainable, such as switching off decorative lights. Afterwards, all visitors are invited to give feedback on the measures and discuss further ideas.
Tip 3Energeticon sheds light on the energy transition
The switch from fossil fuels to renewable energies is the focus of this experience museum in Alsdorf near Aachen. On the site of the former Anna II mine, the Energeticon's multi-layered exhibition illustrates the factors that make the energy transition necessary and how it can succeed, for example by generating electricity from wind, water, sun and biomass. Visitors can test, tinker and get active at 30 interactive learning stations. For example, they can take a spin on a wind wheel and generate the energy they need to get around or get to the bottom of intelligent power grids.
