Interactive and playful: this is how the Climate Arena in Sinsheim approaches the topic of climate change. Here you can find out about the state of research and learn what each and every one of us can do to combat climate change. It's not only thought-provoking, but also feels light and playful thanks to the interactive exhibition design!
Your visit to the Climate Arena you can start, for example, in the "Glacier": KIM, the "Climate Information Module," welcomes you to the small multi-media cinema. The little black-and-white robot flies around you, and with his company you embark on a thirteen-minute journey into the world of renewable energies. KIM explains, plays games with you and doesn't leave your side. Watch out, it's about to get adventurous: shrunk to the size of millimeters, you fly through a hydrogen tank - at least virtually, and that really is an impressive experience!
The modern experience exhibition in the south of Sinsheim was opened in 2019. At various stations, it deals with the topics of climate change, resources and sustainability. It does so - a feat with this big topic - in a playful and simple way. One side of the arena is about what can happen if we don't take care of our earth. What we can concretely do about it is the subject of the other. True to the motto "Experience what you can do," it shows how each of us can take action.
112 screens are installed in the glacier alone, many more in the rest of the exhibition. Quite a few of them ask visitors to join in, press and select. Dr. Bernd Welz, Chairman of the Board of the Climate Foundation for Citizens, which created the Climate Arena, explains that there are also practical reasons for this: "Almost every day there are innovations for a more sustainable life and new findings in climate research. The digital display allows us to adapt the content quite easily." On the tour, visitors also learn that climate change is a natural phenomenon and depends on CO2-content in the air. But mankind is now emitting too much carbon dioxide, and to such an extent that things are getting dicey.
What the world might look like in the future, we would reduce the CO2-emissions can be seen on the "climate page" in various scenarios that can be navigated with a kind of "space glider. On the "People" page, for example, you can learn from an interactive animation how a city with more green spaces and electric transportation could be much more climate-friendly. When you visit the climate supermarket, you can select the products you want from an electronic shopping basket and calculate the associated CO2-footprint. "Whether it's food, clothing, electronics or furniture, with every purchase I make I make a decision that increases or decreases my personal ecological footprint," explains Wenz. But a new purchase can also be climate-friendly; old electrical appliances, for example, are often enormous power guzzlers.
The Climate Arena wants to offer for the whole family - after all, everyone can do their part to create a greener world, some now, others in the future. For adult guests, panels at the stations on the tour explain the problems and suggest solutions directly. The highlight: at almost every station there are cartoon drawings at knee height, in which a mouse and a frog outline the issues in a very simplified way. In this way, even children of elementary school age learn something about climate change.
By the way: Despite all the latest technology, the Klima Arena does not draw a single kilowatt of electricity from the Sinsheim grid. The building is a plus-energy house: In one year, it produces more energy than it consumes. The photovoltaic systems on the roof of the parking garage, for example, contribute to this. Fascinatingly, a so-called ice storage tank is stored under the building. This is a tank with 220,000 liters of water in which six kilometers of pipes have been laid. By extracting cold and heat from the water, the building is heated or cooled throughout the year.
Cover photo: View into an exhibition area of the Klima Arena © Gregor Lengler
