Week 1 in Copenhagen, Denmark

Hi, my name is Emily Castellanos and this is a little overview of my first week in Copenhagen, Denmark. My global seminar is focused on storytelling for a changing planet. Copenhagen is one of the world’s greenest cities and wants to be the first carbon-neutral city in the world in just a few short years. It was so cool to see how easy and safe it is to take public transit around the city. Trains and metros come about every three to five minutes, which makes it really convenient for getting around town. It was also really cool to see how common it is to ride your bike here. There were multiple times when I saw more people on bikes than in cars on the road. I think it really goes to show how the people living here are dedicated to living lifestyles that are beneficial to the environment.

My global seminar group did two excursions during our first week in Copenhagen. The first excursion was to Verdens Bedste Nyheder (World’s Best News). Here, we met with the CEO and Editor-in-Chief, who gave us a talk on how their type of news reporting is different from other news sources. They use an approach called constructive journalism that focuses on the positive aspects of whatever news topic they are covering, which often tends to be climate-focused. They emphasized that they do not try to sugarcoat their articles or dissuade people from the truth, but instead aim to share a bit of refreshing news.

Our second class excursion was to the Amager Resource Center, also known as Copenhill. This is a plant that burns waste and turns it into energy. Although it sounds problematic on the surface, this plant really helps address Copenhagen's issues with overconsumption and wastefulness. Another cool thing about Copenhill is that it has converted the roof of the building into an artificial turf used for skiing. It was really interesting and cool to learn how Danes take their waste management very seriously. Almost every household in Denmark has ten different waste bins that they use to sort their trash.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my first week in Denmark, and I’m excited for what’s to come!