Azerbaijan’s BAKU (AP) Even in a virtual environment, activists and academics who are pressuring world leaders to save a scorching planet have discovered that it is not that simple.
Daybreak is a board game that the Associated Press took to the United Nations climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan. The game, which includes players cooperating to stop climate change—which is brought on by the release of greenhouse gas emissions from burning fuels like coal, natural gas, and gasoline—was requested to be played by experts from three different nations. Preventing the Earth from being too hot or being overtaken by destructive catastrophic weather events is the aim of the game.
According to the cards dealt, activists, experts, and reporters alternated between representing the US, China, Europe, and the rest of the globe, dealing with natural disasters, attempting to cut emissions through initiatives like wetlands restoration, and opposing the interests of fossil fuel companies.
The cards that hurt players the most are the yellow-red crisis cards. Additionally, a new card is added each round, like Storms: For every 0.1 degree Celsius (0.2 degree Fahrenheit) increase in temperature or sea level rise, each player adds one Community in Crisis: One Infrastructure Resilience is lost by each player.
These are counterbalanced by blue cards that stand for regional initiatives, like universal public transportation, which removes a token of polluting automobile emissions, or fertilizer efficiency, which removes a game token of animals that spew methane.
The temperature in each game exceeded the global threshold set by the 2015 Paris Agreement, which is 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since preindustrial periods, or around the middle of the 1800s. Until the temperature rises by 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the game is technically still in play. Nevertheless, participants’ shoulders slumped in defeat when their fictitious world blew past the 1.5 degree threshold, which has become deeply embedded in climate circles.
The second game lasted roughly 20 minutes, and after only one round of play, the world thermometer reached 1.45 degrees Celsius (2.61 degrees Fahrenheit).
How did that occur? According to Borami Seo, chief of food and agriculture at Solutions for Our Climate in South Korea, it happened very fast. In order to be able to assist the rest of the world, she deliberately selected Europe, which is probably the global leader in financial aid and climate policy.
She was unable to.
I believed that the purpose of this game was to instill optimism in us. Seo stated, “I’m not gaining any hope,” in a tone that was a mix of interest and annoyance.
Due to players having to move elsewhere during hectic climate negotiations, the first two games were shortened.
However, the third game lasted three rounds and forty-seven minutes. A hurricane struck during a period when the average worldwide temperature rise was 1.8 degrees Celsius (3.2 degrees Fahrenheit), according to Jake Schmidt, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, who was playing in much of the world. Players were required to add a communities in crisis game token for each tenth of a degree above 1.2 degrees Celsius.
All of my communities are gone: Schmidt had more cities in crisis than the 12 allowed by the game.
The world and the game were gone.
Schmidt said, “I’m sad.” We had toast fairly fast. My communities were destroyed after just three rounds. We had already reached 1.8. They should start at a lower base and go a little more slowly, in my opinion.
The temperature in the game is 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than it was before the industrial revolution. According to the United Nations, the real world is currently 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer.
Schmidt stated that eliminating the emissions was extremely difficult, but it also appeared feasible. However, he claimed that it increased his pessimism about climate change. It made him realize how difficult the issue is.
That’s the point, according to Matt Leacock, a co-designer of the game who made the board game Pandemic before the real one hit the public.
The majority of players shouldn’t win the game on their first try, in my opinion. Leacock stated, “I don’t think that’s a productive message.” Most people should lose, but I want them to take responsibility for their own mistakes, grow from the experience, and then want to play again because they realize what went wrong. I have a suggestion about how we can improve. Let’s give it another go and see if we can succeed.
According to Leacock, the game conveys a political message that the world has to be saved. “It is possible to win, but it is difficult and requires dramatic early action to stop the world from experiencing a runaway temperature rise,” he said. According to experts, that is necessary in real life.
A few years ago, in the midst of the actual pandemic lockdown, Leacock, who studied the science and politics of climate change negotiations and provided consulting to the World Resources Institute, made the decision to transform what many refer to as an existential crisis into a cooperative board game.
He was looking for a game that had the potential to change things.
Jennifer Howard of the Global Climate and Health Alliance took it personally in the first game, feeling the weight of the globe as disasters increased and temperatures rose.
According to Howard, you can feel your worry growing as you go more away from your objective and the number of crisis moments rises. Therefore, I believe that we will need to prepare for rising anxiety. What impact will that have on human behavior both locally and globally?
In the role of the United States, Howard, a Canadian emergency room physician, did everything in her power to support Nathan Cogswell of the globe Resources Institute, who was representing the majority of the globe and struggling.
A debt reparations card was then dealt to Howard, enabling her to give Cogswell anything she wanted. She said, “I feel very guilty for my historical emissions,” and she wasn’t going to ignore that. Of all the nations in the globe, the United States has contributed the highest emissions.
Cogswell seized Howard’s offer, as did the majority of the developing world, and he then brought a medical and political viewpoint to the discussions taking place on the board.
“I feel a genuine glow of goodwill,” Howard remarked. Did you know that giving, as opposed to receiving, actually improves wellbeing more? And I’m experiencing that at the moment.
However, it was ineffective. This time, the gamers were unable to save the world.
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For for information on AP’s coverage of climate change, visit http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment.
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Seth Borenstein can be followed on X at @borenbears.
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