The Climate Change Story We Need to Tell Now—in the Metaverse and with Augmented Reality
Last week I read through the latest U.N. climate change report. The warning is the most dire yet—we must make massive changes in our emissions within the next three years to stave off the worst climate change disasters. This is a summary of the main points of the report.
The good news is we have everything we need to keep global warming below the 1.5 degree Celsius temperature rise benchmark. The tough news—it’s unclear whether we collectively care enough to make the needed changes.
I appreciate these reports and the scientists who put them together. The science and these warnings are critical for businesses, governments, and individuals to understand. The problem is that they’re the only narrative that’s being put forward, and unfortunately it’s not working. We aren’t making the changes we need to make on any level to have the impact we need to have. It’s time for a different approach.
The challenge with climate change warnings is that they’re so complex and ominous that it’s difficult for any of us to imagine what all of it means to us on a personal day-to-day level. And by the time we have that experience in the real world, it will be too late.
In the fall, I’m starting a graduate program in sustainability leadership at the University of Cambridge. As part of the program, I need to create a thesis project and here’s mine: to create an immersive, multi-sensory interactive exhibit that will help people, companies, and governments experience what a sustainable world looks, sounds, smells, tastes, and feels like.
We have two powerful technologies that can provide experiences that could open hearts and minds with the hope of shifting behavior—the metaverse and augmented reality. I don’t want to only use them to put people into a world ravaged by climate change. I want to immerse people into a fully sustainable world that’s healthy, clean, and bright. I want people to experience what this world will be like if we rise to the occasion now, and I want them to exit the experience invigorated and excited by this call-to-action.
I wish the facts and the science were enough to shift human behavior. The U.N. has been putting out these reports for years now. The doom should be enough to scare the wits out of us and get us to change our ways. It’s sadly not enough, and while that’s disappointing, we need to pivot. We need to change tactics.
Our fate, the fate of future generations, and the fate of all the species with whom we share this planet depend on what we do now. We have no time to waste. They’re depending on us, and we can’t afford to fail them. We need to tell the story of the best ending possible, and then empower people to build the bridge with us to get there.