The author of today’s post, Sheryl Canter, is an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.
When you talk about the consequences of global warming, people can feel overwhelmed and fear there’s no solution. But there is! And a new game illustrates it.
It’s based on work by Princeton University’s Stephen Pacala and Robert Socolow, which they describe in their paper “Wedges”: Early Mitigation with Familiar Techology [PDF]. Their study showed that existing technologies can lower emissions sufficiently to stop global warming. (Bill discussed their work in his post on green technologies.)
Pacala and Socolow identified 15 existing technologies that they refer to as “wedges”. Only seven are needed to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions, so we can choose what combination to use.
To help people, particularly students, understand wedges and explore different scenarios, Princeton University has created the Stabilization Wedge Game, where teams of players can “build a portfolio of stabilization strategies and assess their impacts and costs.”
Try it with your friends or family — you’ll come away understanding better how we can stop global warming. Here’s the background page, and here are the instructions and the game [PDF] – you set it up by printing out and cutting up colored wedges.