One of the newest ways to take climate change seriously is to play a game. Recently released by Princeton University, the Stabilization Wedges Game challenges players to take on a changing climate and set the course for a sustainable global energy future.
Worldwide, human societies will emit another 200 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere over the next 50 years. A combination of technologies, not a monolithic response, is needed to prevent these emissions. Such logic underpins the Stabilization Wedges Game: teams of players must choose eight of fifteen available policies, or “wedges,” each capable of preventing 25 billion tons of CO2 emissions over the next 50 years. The challenge is in negotiating, as a team, the various costs and benefits associated with each policy option: Is nuclear power better than carbon capture and sequestration? Is it wiser to increase fuel efficiency or decrease car miles traveled? No single answer exists, and players quickly confront the multifaceted challenge of global climate change.
The wedges game is designed for all ages and backgrounds—from high school students to industry professionals and policy experts—and provides an important tool for broad engagement with this pressing issue.