TH!NK ABOUT IT

I was recently invited to write a featured article for the TH!NK ABOUT IT - Climate Change project in Europe (http://climatechange.thinkaboutit.eu/think2/).  It is a site that focuses on raising global awareness around climate change as the upcoming Copenhagen Summit nears.  The following is the entry I submitted.  To find on the ground information from Copenhagen, keep an eye out for Nashville's own Amanda Little (www.amandalittle.com), who will be blogging for Grist (www.grist.org) from Copenhagen!

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I have always been fascinated by games.  As a child I loved the mystery of "Hide and Seek", the playful bursts of  "Red Rover", and the brainy challenge of "Memory".  Sometimes I would even create new games - ones that combined both my interests and particular skillset.

Now that I work as a sustainability consultant, I often find myself thinking of global warming and the resulting climate change in terms of a game.  I do not mean a playful exercise  for fun but one of disciplined calculation and strategy, i.e. game theory.  Regarding climate change, what game are we humans playing?  Sometimes it feels like we are playing a classic game of Chicken between us and the Earth's ecological system.  

In Chicken, while each "player" prefers not to yield to the other, the outcome where neither player yields is the worst possible one for both players.  From the IPCC and other scientific bodies, we know with "very high certainty" that the Earth will not yield.  If we do not yield, the outcome for our species may reflect the tragic outcome of the game of Chicken (think: two cars speeding towards each other and neither swerve).

Maybe what we really need to do is to redefine the game from one of Chicken to something else.  A new game.  Something that combines our interests and our cumulative human skillset.  What game should we play?  How do we construct the game in a manner that ensures that everyone, every country on Earth is invited and participates?  

The upcoming conference in Copenhagen will go along way to answering these critical questions.  To me, inaction or the lack substantive progress in Copenhagen will signal that the game of Chicken is still on.

For more on game theory and climate change, have you viewed Greg Craven's video?  If not, please do:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zORv8wwiadQ&feature=fvw

Jeff

jeff@jgowdyconsulting.com