We played a climate game that is supposed to help you find the highest-impact changes you can make in your life to take effective climate action. Could games like this actually help address the climate crisis?
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
This week, two of our reporters played a game that’s designed to help us make better decisions related to climate change. But can something like this really make that much of a difference?
Isha Thakkar and Charlie Adams from our Possibly Team have more.
Isha Thakkar: Hi, Megan!
Charlie Adams: Hello!
Megan Hall: So, tell me about this game?
Isha Thakkar: Well, first of all, we had to try it out! We played the “Choose your own adventure: Climate Action” game created by Professor Kimberly Nicholas. Designing games isn’t her main job…
Kimberly Nicholas: I’m a climate and sustainability scientist and professor at Lund University in Sweden.
Isha Thakkar: Kimberly says the game gives people tailored advice on what they can do to help with the climate crisis.
Charlie Adams: She takes lots of research and calculations behind the scenes, and then combines it with your personal information.
Megan Hall: What kind of information?
Isha Thakker: The game asks about what country you live in, your level of education, and how much you money you make to identify what she calls your “ climate superpower.”
Megan Hall: What does that mean?
Charlie Adams: Your superpower is where you have the power to make the most change. And it turns out that different people are all going to have different ways to most effectively fight climate change.
Isha Thakkar: For example, when I played the game, my climate superpower was “citizen.” This means that the most effective thing that I can do right now is pretty easy: voting.
Charlie Adams: It depends on the election, and there have to be significant differences in the climate policies of the candidates, but Kimberly says, a study about the 2019 Canadian election found that…
Kimberly Nicholas: A single vote can have three times more impact than your entire household consumption choices, and that’s because climate policy gets made that can, for example, close or keep open coal-fired power plants, make it easier for people to walk and bike to work instead of driving, and therefore reduce emissions.
Isha Thakkar: So, the game recommends supporting candidates that are backed by environmental groups like the League of Conservation Voters.
Megan Hall: Awesome! Are there other superpowers?
Charlie Adams: Yes! One that many have is being a “consumer”. For example, if you make above $38,000, you are in the top 10% of incomes globally.
Isha Thakkar: Depending on where you live, that might allow you to be more picky about your buying power and what you choose to spend – or not spend – money on.
Charlie Adams: Kimberly says, there are 3 main ways that these consumers can reduce their carbon emissions:
Kimberly Nicholas: So really consistently there, we found reducing or avoiding flying, driving and eating meat had the biggest difference in reducing today’s emissions for this high consuming group.
Charlie Adams: This is exactly what Kimberly has been working on in her own life:
Kimberly Nicholas: I’ve reduced my flying by about 90%. So that’s made a really big difference, and I’ve been involved in work to try and help others do the same and to make it easier to fly less in academia, for example, and identify policies that reduce flying overall.
Isha Thakkar: It’s so easy to get stuck and confused about what decision to make, what Kimberly calls “analysis paralysis.”
Kimberly Nicholas: So I think, you know, we need to have good, solid, evidence-based information to help us make good decisions, but sometimes we can just get lost in the information and make no decision at all.
Charlie Adams: That’s why games like the Choose your own adventure: Climate Action game can be helpful –
Isha Thakkar: Maybe not to convince you about why you should be taking climate actions, but provide research-based answers to exactly what climate actions you can take.
Charlie Adams: In the end, Kimberly says the game works best for people who have already been educated on climate change and global warming.
Isha Thakkar:: This game might not help you change your mind, but it can center your attention to the ways you can most greatly reduce your carbon emissions.
Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, Isha and Charlie!
That’s it for today. If you want to try the climate game for yourself, you can find a link at askpossibly.org.
You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at askpossibly.org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or X at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.
The post Can a game help you take effective climate action? appeared first on TPR: The Public’s Radio.