Climate ChangeGame— Where you can DO something about global warming!

See the movie. Now change the world. See what we—and you—can really do about global warming.

The Climate ChangeGame puts you in charge of the global climate in a fast-paced multimedia simulation. It's an epic, multidimensional race between the rising temperature of the Earth, human greenhouse gas emissions, and climate change abatement activities.

The temperature is rising. What can you do? What are you going to do? Will it be enough soon enough? What happens if you, and the rest of the players, don't succeed?

The Climate ChangeGame, grounded in the latest scientific findings on climate change, puts 20 to 150 or more participants in charge of the global climate. Players act as leaders of governments, corporations, and as individuals as they make decisions that impact the global climate. While doing this, they learn about the options we have and what they can do to help avert climate change disaster. This simulation gets you thinking and acting from a new and empowered perspective. The game unfolds over an intense three-hour period.

Players, in teams representing the various actors and systems responsible for climate change, respond to the increasing crisis of global warming. Teams include Governments, the Private Sector, and Individuals. Each of these sectors starts with a different set of policy options and actions they can implement that will impact climate change. During the course of the simulation new options emerge from player interactions and creativity. Each team is divided into Status Quo and Change Maker players—who battle it out to reach the global warming tipping point. Players learn about the challenges (and opportunities) of coming climate change, as well as develop and test out various strategies and actions that could mitigate, slow, or reverse the slide into the changed climate future in which we will all be living.

The simulation works well as a vehicle for deepening understanding of this complex issue, the exploration and development of options, and motivation for action. It's also good from the point of view that it is a socializing event— it places (often times) strangers together on teams where they communicate and work together solving problems while having fun.

In summary: It is a great way to learn a huge amount about the global climate issue in a short amount of time in a real world setting while having fun. The simulation addresses the question— Now what? What actions can we do that will make a difference? And it then provides players with the opportunity to take those actions.

(This program is delivered by Medard Gabel, author of six books on global problems, energy, food, climate change, and other topics. Trained by Al Gore as presenter of the "An Inconvenient Truth" program, and developer of numerous simulations for governments, corporations and organizations. Mr. Gabel has presented programs for the UN, US Congress, GM, IBM, Motorola, and colleges and universities around the world.)

For further details on how this simulation works and how it can fit into your program, call or email today!

The Climate ChangeGame can be used in a variety of settings—

  • A fun activity that allows students and others to learn about climate change in an experiential manner
  • An interactive way of deepening our understanding of climate change, and what we can do about it
  • As a motivator to get people involved in climate change activism
  • As a leadership development and group problem solving activity
  • As an EarthDay event

HOW MUCH OF THE CLIMATE ARE YOU RESPONSIBLE FOR? Click here to find out.


Why the Climate ChangeGame? Watch this.
“2005 was the warmest year ever recorded, beating the previous record high set in 1998. This continues a general trend of rising temperatures dating back to 1980 (see chart below). Carbon dioxide levels today are nearly 30 percent higher than they were prior to the start of the Industrial Revolution, based on records extending back 650,000 years. According to NASA, the polar ice cap is now melting at the rate of 9 percent per decade. Arctic ice thickness has decreased 40 percent since the 1960s. The current pace of sea-level rise is three times the historical rate and appears to be accelerating.”(1)

“Glaciers are melting ten times faster than previously thought, atmospheric greenhouse gases have reached levels not seen for millions of years, and species are vanishing as a result of climate change. There are extreme weather events, long-term droughts, and rising sea levels.

“The massive ice sheets in the Arctic are melting at alarming rates. This is causing the oceans to rise. Most of the world’s population lives on or near the coasts. Rising ocean levels, an estimated six feet over the next 100 years or sooner, will cause massive devastation and economic catastrophe to population centers worldwide. As temperatures rise, disease-carrying mosquitoes and rodents spread, infecting people in their wake.

“The United States, with less than five percent of the world’s population, is responsible for 22% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. A rapid transition to energy efficiency and renewable energy sources will combat global warming, protect human health, create new jobs, protect habitat and wildlife, and ensure a secure, affordable energy future.”(2)

(Top) Global annual surface temperature relative to 1951-1980.
(Bottom) Temperature anomaly for 2005 calendar year.

The phenomenon of global warming is irrefutable: over the last 60 years increasing temperatures have resulted in:
• Major reductions in the mass of alpine glaciers in Alaska, Asia, Africa, the Alps, Indonesia, and South America
• An increase in permafrost thawing
• A reduction in the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice
• Later freeze-up and earlier break-up dates of ice on rivers and lakes
• An increase in calving rate of Antarctic ice shelves
• Shifts in the distribution of plant and animal species in both latitude and altitude
• Changes in the phenology of plant leafing and flowering
• Storage of heat in the near-surface ocean
• An increase in overall sea-level 10 to 20 centimeters in the past century
• Increases in ground temperature.

“Anticipated effects include sea level rise, repercussions to agriculture, reductions in the ozone layer, increased intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, and the spread of disease.

“Since the mid-1970s, the total annual power of hurricanes has increased markedly because their average intensity and duration have increased; in addition, there has been a high correlation of hurricane power with tropical sea-surface temperature. Ocean pH is lowering as a result of increased carbon dioxide levels. Lowering of ocean pH, along with changing water temperature and ocean depth will have a damaging effect on coral reefs.

“There has been a net decline in 142 of the 144 mountain glaciers with records from 1900 to 1980. Since 1980 global glacier retreat has increased significantly. Every region had a net decline from 1960 to 2002. Upwards of 90% of glaciers reported to the World Glacier Monitoring Service have retreated since 1995. A relatively small rise in sea level would make some densely settled coastal plains uninhabitable and create a significant refugee problem.

“Global warming may extend the range of vectors conveying infectious diseases such as malaria. A warmer environment boosts the reproduction rate of mosquitoes and the number of blood meals they take, prolongs their breeding season, and shortens the maturation period for the microbes they disperse.

“The United Nations' Environmental Program recently announced that severe weather around the world has made 2005 the most costly year on record. Nicholas Stern in the Stern Review has warned that one percent of global GDP is required to be invested in order to mitigate the effects of climate change, and that failure to do so could risk a recession worth up to twenty percent of global GDP. Stern’s report suggests that climate change threatens to be the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen.” (3)

Worldwide climate change tipping points include:
• At a 3.6-degree rise, all Indian Ocean coral reefs go extinct, and 97% of the rest around the globe are "bleached" or severely damaged. All Arctic ice disappears.
• At a 5.4-degree increase, half of all nature reserves become unable to conserve native species. The Amazon rainforest disappears.
• At 7.2 degrees or higher, coastal flooding is seven times worse than in 1990. Malaria threatens 330 million more people a year, and hunger jeopardizes 600 million. Australia no longer can grow food. (4)

Changing the world one game at a time.

LEARN MORE ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE HERE

1. Climate Change Resources, American Association for the Advancement of Science
2. The Earth Institute, Columbia University, Climate and Society. 2007.
3. Climate Change, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
4. Stop Global Warming.org
5. The Climate Project
6. Global Warming, Wikipedia
7. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
8. Al Gore's Nobel Prize acceptance speech

“The future is already here. It just hasn't been distributed yet.” —William Gibson

For more information and booking:  or call 610.566.0156 or schedule a program