Last week I went to Bremerhaven, a city that is just across the river Weser from where I live. There is a very nice riverfront there where you can go for a walk. You can see this in my photograph. In Bremerhaven there are a few popular attractions you can visit. My visit last week was to the "Klimahaus" which in English means "climate house". The centre is full of exhibitions, that are suitable for all ages, that teach you about the world around us, with a focus on climate change.
The main exhibition was a virtual journey around the world. In this journey you learn about several different places. The exhibition tells you geographical and cultural information about the place and how climate change is affecting this place and people that live there. Just to give you some examples of how great and realistic it all was, one of the places you visit is Antarctica where it really is freezing cold and you can walk through an ice tunnel! There is also a floor based on Niger where you can walk into a huge room that looks and feels just like a desert!
It was an incredibly well made exhibition. Each entry ticket also allows you to check your individual carbon footprint. To do this you enter information about yourself such as if you fly often, buy local produce or cycle to school. You are then told the approximate size of your carbon footprint and why it is that size. My footprint was average sized and I was very surprised. I am very environmentally friendly; I don't eat meat or fish, I buy local produce, I cycle or use public transport and of course, I recycle. What made my footprint bigger was the fact that I had recently flown somewhere by plane. I knew that it was very bad for the environment but I didn't realise quite how bad. Now that I know, in the future I will consider travelling to other countries by train or coach in an attempt to reduce my carbon footprint.
How big do you think your carbon footprint is? What do you do to care for the environment?
