Climate Change Board Game Series

[marcusmarcusrc]

My research group is hosting a series of events for IAP, the most interesting of which to this audience being a climate change board game series over the next 3 Tuesdays. We have real education gaming professionals (thanks to shumashi!) giving the opening talk, and then we'll have kind of experimental sessions on actually designing and building games.

Hopefully it will be fun and educational, and those of you with flexible day time schedules should feel free to come (or tell your friends)



MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change

IAP Offerings 2008

Climate Change Board Game Series (Overview):

Do you care about hurricanes? Ice shelf collapse? International negotiations? Hybrid cars? Carbon taxes? Then come to the climate change board game series where we learn about; design; and play a board game based on climate change concepts. This series coordinates with the Climate Change Science Series (1/14 and 1/15) and the Climate Change Domestic Policy lecture (1/29). Snacks and lunch provided at all sessions.

Online Announcement

Climate Change Board Game I: Tuesday, 1/15, 10:30 am to 12 pm: E40-298

'Intro to Educational Gaming'

Climate Change Board Game II: Tuesday, 1/22, 10:30 am to 3:00 pm: E40-298

'Game Design'

Climate Change Board Game Series III: Tuesday, 1/29, 10:30 am to 12 pm:
E40-208

'Play the Game'

Climate Change Science Series: Looking Back on the Future of Climate Change

Concerns about climate change are not new. In this two part lecture series we take a look back at the development of our understanding of the science of climate change, from both a theoretical and observational viewpoint.

Session I: Mon, Jan 14, 1-2:30pm, E40-496

In the first session, we will give a brief history of climate science. The story of the growth in scientific understanding of the greenhouse effect and consequent concerns about global warming is intimately connected to the study of past climates, especially the great Pleistocene ice ages that ended roughly 10,000 years ago. We will explore this parallel, and attempt to trace out some of the significant milestones in the science of climate change, from Arrhenius to the IPCC.

Session II: Tues, Jan 15, 1-2:30pm, E40-298

In the second session, we will investigate climate changes in the observational record over the past 100-200 years with an emphasis on if and how these changes can be attributed to global warming. The talk will cover (but not be limited too) temperature, precipitation, sea level, and sea and land ice data. Time permitting, we will also cover how these climate variables are projected to change in the future with the requisite discussion of uncertainty in climate modeling.

Domestic Climate Policy Lecture

Led by graduate students studying climate change policy, this session will present the national emission reduction bills currently proposed in Congress. The differences between the bills, analysis of their potential climate and economic impacts, and important considerations such as uncertainty will be discussed.

Single Session: Tuesday, January 29, 1-2:30pm, E40-496


Contacts: Therese Henderson, x3-7492, tzh@mit.edu
Laura Meredith, predawn@mit.edu

Comments

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I have not read it myself, nor do I have any inside information, but I can pass on the realclimate review: (and for the most part, I tend to like their analyses in areas of my expertise)

"Thin Ice" by Mark Bowen gets a big thumbs up as well. It is more or less a biography of Lonnie Thompson but it is by no means limited to Thompson’s work. Much of the book focuses on various important figures in the history of the science of climate: Arrhenius, Tyndall, and Keeling among them. And while paleoclimatology takes the main stage, one could read this book alone for a very clear lay-persons understanding of the physics of the greenhouse effect, or for insight into the mind of the brilliant and provocative James Hansen, or the story or Roger Revelle and David Keeling's measurements of carbon dioxide concentrations. It is notable that Bowen has a PhD from MIT, so is no newcomer to science.

[katestine.livejournal.com]

Oh good! I read it last year and it was the toughest thing I read all year, bc it's not quite basic enough. I actually put it down twice bc I was frustrated. But it definitely gave me a better understanding of the climate discussions and I'd count it as one of the top 5 things I read, so.

I need to remember to go poke around realclimate sometime.