Post to Greenpeace’s giant digital mosaic, and play the FT’s 2050 zero-carbon game. Social media raising environmental consciousness
How the wall-mosaic works
It’s a cool way to put your commitment online - Greenpeace have set up a massive 50,000 picture wall (or “photo mosaic”), where you submit your image and message, and it becomes digitally colour-keyed into the larger artwork. You can also search the artwork for themes and friends.
Going through the early stages of the game
The Financial Times brought out a climate game last year, which is still going strong. They describe their aims in this piece:
The main goal is clear: cut energy-related carbon dioxide emissions from 36bn tonnes a year at present to net zero by 2050. Additional aims are to significantly reduce other greenhouse gases, led by methane, and to protect people, nature and jobs, all while ensuring the planet remains habitable.
The FT wanted to bring to life a process that can often seem abstract and dizzyingly complex. It requires changes in every sector of the economy, as well as in the way we live. How we might gamify this challenge was not obvious. It would involve distilling hundreds of decisions into a manageable and comprehensible series of questions, while also calculating the effect these actions would have on reducing emissions…
It means myriad results are possible in 2050. No more coal plants and electricity providing half your power? Sounds like you’re on the way to a successful net zero future. Solar-panelled roads, painted white roofs and protein derived only from insects? Go for it, but the planet might not thank you.
We hope the satisfaction in the game will come from the sense of control over the final results, but also the puzzle of working out how things interact. There are numerous ways to affect the emissions model to amplify different outcomes, and this might tempt you to play it again. Whatever world you end up with, it is worth cautioning that even players able to keep temperatures below 1.5C by 2100 will experience a bumpy ride.