Transcript:
Climate change is not a game.
But a board game created at the College of Menominee Nation in Wisconsin aims to help people understand how climate change affects tribal communities and how they can respond.
Smith: “So the game is, it’s a fictional reservation and a fictional tribe, but it’s inspired by the Menominee Tribe and Reservation.”
Sara Smith of the college’s Sustainable Development Institute helped develop the game, called Reztoration. Her team is beta-testing it and plans to release a free version next year.
Players are tasked with responding to floods, fires, droughts, and other climate impacts.
The cards they play determine how well the tribe can withstand and recover from these events.
For example, investing in emergency planning can help protect against a fire or flood, and developing a solar farm can help reduce the risk of power outages.
Players are forced to consider how different decisions affect the tribe economically, environmentally, and culturally. And they gain and lose points both as individual players and as a group.
Smith: “This is a very community-based game because if the community loses, we all lose.”
So Smith hopes the game provides a fun way to think through the real-life decisions and trade-offs that come with preparing for climate disasters.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media
