By Debra J. Rosenthal for The Conversation.
Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Ohio News Connection for the Public News Service-Conversation collaboration..

Among the world's ever-expanding array of board games, a small but growing number deal with climate change. But are these games any good?

As a professor of English who specializes in environmental literature, I set out to learn how well these board games portray the perils that global warming poses to the planet. Are they an effective way for students to learn some of the science and stark realities behind the persistent heating of Earth?

I invited half a dozen climate activists and educators to try the games out to answer these questions and more. My thought was that if people learn best while they are active and joyful participants, then turning a serious topic like climate change into a board game might have value beyond the game.

No individual winners

Most board games - think of Monopoly or Catan - are zero-sum competitions: One player wins a clear victory over the others. But since climate change affects the whole world, climate change board games emphasize teamwork and group success. Either all players win together, or no one survives. These board games have a narrative arc that can spark discussion about values, perspective, conflict, emotions and decision-making.

And those are precisely the kinds of discussions my colleagues and I had while sharing pizza and salad over the course of the evening. Together, we evaluated the games for their ease to learn, their value for teaching about climate catastrophe, their ability to spark conversation and their suitability for high school and university students.

What follows is an account of the five climate change board games that we all tried.

1. Solutions

Solutions draws upon scientific solutions researched by Project Drawdown, which is a nonprofit that pushes for solutions to climate change. The game, played in rounds, requires players to draw two cards that each carefully describe a way to reduce global emissions.

Players discuss the two options and rank which one is better for the climate. Correct decisions reduce global temperatures, while incorrect guesses damage the planet. Players also roll the dice to determine further actions that could potentially make global temperatures rise.

We all agreed the game could be a valuable learning tool since it was easy to learn and based on accurate scientific information. The need to evaluate different solutions easily sparked conversation, and the information was suitable for upper-level high school students and university students.

2. Kyoto

Another game that we ranked highly is Kyoto, which has players simulate a high-stakes climate negotiation summit. We each represented a country, and the cards we drew determined our secret national interests. To win the game, we had to bargain with each other, pay fees, bribe and try to persuade each other to reach climate goals.

Initially, I doubted the educational value of the game because, due to the draw of the cards, players who represented the U.S. could only win the game if they increased global carbon emissions, as determined by the coal-industry-friendly cards. Who wants a game where players try to raise global temperatures?

But through discussion, we all realized that the game provides insight into possible barriers to achieving emissions goals, and how nations have to juggle meeting emission-reduction goals with their own economic self-interests. While the game takes more time to learn than Solutions, we decided it could still be very useful for students.

3. Carbon City Zero

We tried playing a free downloadable and printable version of Carbon City Zero, but it proved too time-consuming to learn the rules. After 45 minutes of struggling with the cards to figure out how to play, we gave up and moved on.

4. Somewhere Everywhere Water Rising

Family Pastimes, the company that makes Somewhere Everywhere Water Rising, is known for developing only collaborative games, and we have purchased many children's games from them in the past. In Somewhere Everywhere Water Rising, players take on the role of consultants who have to make collective decisions about developing land projects in the face of sea-level rise.

We liked the discussion it sparked, but ultimately concurred that the game specifically focuses on devastating sea-level rise, rather than systemic climate change that causes such rising levels in the first place. The game is easy to learn and relies on conversation, but we felt it had a lower educational value because it does not teach about the human activity that creates and perpetuates increasing global temperatures. The game might be more suitable as an extra credit activity, rather than the focus of a classroom lesson.

5. Nunami

Finally, we played Nunami, a lovely game created by an Inuit family from Ivujivik, Canada, with instructions in Inuktitut, English and French.

The game aims to teach players about balancing life in fragile terrain. There are cards for humans, animals, sand and snow. Although we deeply appreciated how the game strives to sensitize players to Inuit life on the tundra so that they can see what is threatened by climate catastrophe, it does not teach about the drivers of climate change and thus was not suitable for our specific classroom needs.

Picking the best

By 10 p.m., we had conquered the pizza, energetically played five different board or card games, and had a lot of fun discussing critical issues and meeting new people.

To our group, the clear "winner" is the board game Solutions because it encourages collaborating to make decisions with fact-based science. The setup of the game allows for interesting team-building conversations.

As I incorporate games into my courses on climate-change literature and first-year writing, students play Solutions and complete a writing assignment based on their various decisions during the game.

At our next climate change board game evening, my group of educators and activists plans to play Tipping Point, Daybreak, Carboniq and Climate Call.

Anyone want to join us? We'll deal you in.


Debra J. Rosenthal wrote this article in a collaborative reporting initiative with The Conversation, supported by the Joyce Foundation..


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School buses are getting cleaner in Washington state after this year's legislative session.

Lawmakers in Olympia passed House Bill 1368, which will fund the purchase of zero emission school buses.

Rep. Tana Senn, D-Mercer Island, said the program is getting off the ground quickly.

"As we work towards that long-term goal of all new school buses being zero emission, we're kick-starting this year with $40 million in grants to school districts in overburdened communities," Senn explained.

Going forward, Senn noted school districts will have to purchase zero-emission vehicles once the total cost of ownership is equal to or lower than the cost of diesel vehicles. The state is leveraging the state's Climate Commitment Act resources to fund the transition of its 10,000 school buses.

Devin Denney, director of transportation for Highline Public Schools in King County, which already has electric school buses in its fleet, said he has driven the electric buses and talked about some of their benefits from a driver's perspective.

"You're not competing against that engine noise, the kids aren't competing against the engine noise," Denney observed. "It's a much quieter bus all the way around. The major advantage, of course, is that there's no tailpipe emissions with an electric bus, so our kids' health is better protected."

Senn emphasized health studies have shown there are negative health effects from diesel vehicles for kids, and it is easy to understand why.

"If you think about kids waiting to get on their bus in front of an elementary school and you have this line of buses idling, letting out diesel fumes right at the height of a little child, it becomes obvious that this is probably not the most healthy thing for our children," Senn added.


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Today, in honor of Earth Day, climate advocates are asking California lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom to rally around a plan to put a $15 billion bond measure on the November ballot.

If passed, the bond measure would fund a range of climate resiliency measures.

Sam Hodder, president and CEO of the Save the Redwoods League, said March was the tenth month in a row to break monthly heat records.

"I think Earth Day is a terrific opportunity for the broader public to recognize how nature is critical for resilience, for our quality of life, for our mental and physical health, and for our communities more broadly," Hodder outlined.

Two similar bills to put a bond measure on the ballot are under consideration in Sacramento, Assembly Bill 1567 and Senate Bill 867, but they have been stalled since last summer. The bond would finance many programs, including some to restore wetlands that guard against sea-level rise, and to remove dead wood in forests to guard against mega-fires, which Hodder noted have killed 20% of the giant sequoias in recent years.

Opponents pointed out the state already faces a budget deficit and cannot afford to take on more debt. But only 5% of California's old-growth coastal redwoods remain, mostly due to aggressive logging many decades ago.

Hodder argued the giant trees can be critical ingredients in the fight against climate change because they trap so much carbon.

"Redwood forests sequester more carbon per acre than any other forest system in the world," Hodder emphasized. "We have the opportunity to transition the redwood forest from something that is vulnerable to climate change to something that is helping to solve and address the climate crisis."

Experts blame climate change for California's wild weather over the past few years, which has been marked by extreme drought, devastating fires and flooding rain.

A new report from the National Wildlife Federation warns that the effects of climate change in the Quad Cities, along the Iowa-Illinois border, will be severe.

But researchers got the public involved in studying to find ways to head off some of the most pressing concerns.

The report says climate change means a warmer, wetter future for the Quad Cities, which straddle the Mississippi River in Iowa and Illinois.

But rather than repeat what experts have already been saying about drastic flooding along the Big Muddy, Prairie Rivers Network River Health and Resiliency Organizer Nina Struss said researchers and Quad Cities residents brainstormed solutions to tackle the effects of climate change.

"Flooding and flash flooding were the top concerns," said Struss. "Extreme heat was also a big concern, as well as drought and other extreme weather events."

Researchers combined that information with hard science at the University of Illinois to create 3D models depicting what climate-induced flooding along the Mississippi could look like in the future.

The survey also asked people to identify which geographical areas and populations are most at risk from the effects of climate change, and worked with the community on solutions to mitigate some of them.

Struss said this research proposes what are known as nature-based solutions to combat the effects of climate change - restoring, preserving and even expanding existing ecosystems, like wetlands and tree canopies. But creating more eco-friendly infrastructure, too.

"Can we work to maybe have our pavements that we're putting in be more permeable, so that they can absorb that water and have that higher water-holding capacity?" said Struss. "Can we focus on areas to plant more native plants that have stronger root systems, versus ones that have shorter root systems, to help with that water-holding capacity?"

Struss said this research isn't a one-off. It will continue to change, she said, as the climate changes, the needs become more clear, and the effects more drastic.

She said progress in addressing climate change relies on more research, education and funding.




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