Focus on climate crisis
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Reporting on climate change is one of the major journalistic challenges of our time. The climate crisis is also one of the most important issues of humanity for SPIEGEL. For this reason, we support an international initiative that seeks to take a look this week: "Covering Climate Now" has been initiated by the Columbia Journalism Review and the Canadian newspaper "The Nation", with more than 200 media companies worldwide including the Guardian, El País, La Repubblica, The Times of India, Bloomberg or Vanity Fair. SPIEGEL is dedicating the cover story of the current issue to the climate crisis this week and every day pays special attention to mirror.de
In a meadow in the middle of "Central Park" children are confused. They do not play in Manhattan, but in the South Korean town of Songdo. The fact that they named their park after the famous role model clarifies the dimension in which the planners thought here.
Songdo is not some settlement in South Korea, it wants to shine into the world, be a "city of the future" and attract investors. Because Songdo is a so-called Smart City.
"Smart" in Songdo means that thanks to modern technology, people here should live in an environmentally friendly, resource-efficient and safe way. Since 2003, land has been dumped on the west coast of Korea and a city has been completely rebuilt. It is a flagship project only 50 kilometers west of the capital Seoul, which has brought much attention to South Korea.
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"Smart City" Songdo: The Green Island UtopiaOn many roofs of skyscrapers, which line the park with their glass facades, solar modules are installed. There is rainwater storage, wastewater is recycled. The buildings are certified according to the LEED standard for particularly sustainable construction. Their inhabitants have to drop their garbage bags at special stations, and the sacks are then sucked in and transported to a recycling plant via a pipeline system.
Wide bike lanes and wooden pavilions for a picnic
Through the city cycle paths drag; If you do not have a bike, you can borrow one. In Seoul, riding a bike to work can be life-threatening, but in Songdo people, many with child safety seats on the luggage rack, ride safely across wide paths. Countless playgrounds have been created between the residential towers. 40 percent of the area of Songdo remain "green".
Maria Guardia has lived here for a year and a half with her son and daughter. The Costa Rican woman thinks it's great that she can cycle or run with them everywhere - after all, she also wants to be a role model for her children. She wishes that Songdo does more.
"Ultimately, we live in a bubble here," says Maria. "Very wealthy people live here - and they like to buy a lot." What they do not need is thrown away. She sits on a chair in her apartment and points to a globe. "We just found him at the garbage cans the other day, he was just a bit crooked, we did not fix him in a single minute, now he's pretty again." It would be nice to teach the children to be mindful of things and to reuse them, she says.
High plastic consumption in South Korea
Later, when Maria passes the refuse collection facilities of her building, styrofoam boxes are stacked there, in which chilled products are delivered. They do not fit in the chutes. In the delivery service and plastic mad South Korea, which has the world's highest per capita plastic consumption, environmental protection is sometimes not easy.
So is it a problem that the city is designed to be environmentally friendly, but people have not yet adapted their behavior? "Yes, it seems so," says Maria.
Songdo is also surprisingly automotive-centered for a city that is considered a green high-tech utopia. Eight to ten lane streets are winding through the city, with a surface of 54 square kilometers about the size of Manhattan - but not nearly as lively. Off the skyscrapers is a lot of brown marshland.
Cities are important in the fight against climate change
Much is not finished yet in Songdo, it is also to be understood as a laboratory. Simon Wilson of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) says it's hugely important to change cities in the fight against climate change. The GCF is the central instrument for promoting sustainable, low-emission development projects worldwide. The GCF is headquartered in Songdo.
Urban areas account for about 70 percent of global energy use and about 75 percent of emissions, argues the GCF, and is investing $ 100 million in a project to make cities in the key energy, waste, water and transport sectors more sustainable.
The ghost town is filling up
Songdo is already one step ahead of grown-up cities. Although she is neither "the city that will banish all the problems of the modern world". But she is not the empty retort city or "Chernobyl-like ghost town" she was known to be.
Like many artificial cities, this one faces the challenge of attracting residents. Around 260,000 people are to live here once, currently there are only 150,000. But now it's busier in Songdo. In "Central Park", mothers and their children have a picnic and seniors rest their feet in a saltwater pool. There are festivals, modern art centers, a cinema.
"I like to come with my friends over the weekend," says Yoo Hannah, 31, who works in the Stadtmuseum. But she does not want to live here. "It's just too expensive."
A city that thinks with you - and sees everything
Because the "Smart City" you have to be able to afford. With luxurious apartments and prestigious schools and universities rich Koreans and foreigners are lured. And they also value safety.
Katharina Peters
Operations center of the city Songdo: 24 hours watching the whole city
Sensors and a total of 980 cameras not only measure the flow of traffic or air pollution, they also monitor - or monitor - the entire city. Cameras also preemptively scan buildings and create thermal images to detect fires. All number plates of cars that come over the five bridges in the city are read out.
Loudly arguing in a park should know that the sensors can overhear - and if a dispute gets too loud, a staff member at the operations center might ask about the speaker attached to the camera mast: "Need help?"
At the Operations Center, all the information collected comes together. Employees watch the city 24 hours a day on dozens of monitors. You are in contact with the police and the fire brigade.
For many Europeans that sounds daunting. Koreans, however, are generally open to digital data usage. "Some people even asked us to install cameras in their apartments," says Oshikawa Eli, operations center manager. "But we only monitor the public space."
Theoretically, there are also the technical possibilities of introducing face recognition and drone surveillance in Songdo - but one should not do that for legal reasons. Oshikawa knows the concerns about data protection, especially delegations from Europe asked a lot about it. Maybe, she says, it also depends on what phase of one's life one is. "If I know that my child can safely go to school alone, that calms me down."
"In Songdo," says Oshikawa, "it's not about robots, drones or driverless cars, it's about people who want to be happy."