Game Change Rio: Ruin the World or Save our Planet?

Game Change Rio does not aim to change the world on its own. But it offers a great way to engage with the complexities facing our planet today. Based on a huge array of real-life data, players can explore the countless options to ruin our world for future generations or save the planet. Once more of us begin to understand the issues involved, we have a better chance of changing the game. So what are you waiting for?

Give it a try on www.gamechangerio.org and disseminate this tool to mobilize for Rio+20!

By the way, changing the game is great fun! As you will discover, seeing the demise of ruthlessly polluting industries is just as fun as slaying some fantasy monster and providing water to the inhabitants of an arid strip of land is almost like saving the gorgeous heroine’s life.

Some 20 years ago, the Earth Summit, the United Nations Conference held at Rio de Janeiro, sounded the alarm on the future of our planet. Very little has happened since and we are still steering head-on into disaster.

Yes, the notion of sustainability has entered the mainstream; nations adopt sustainable policy frameworks, and hardly any company would dare to issue a mission statement that did not include sustainability, however vague. But short-term thinking still dominates and the mantra of growth at any cost still prevails. Most indicators show that we’re still headed in the wrong direction.

Rio+20 this June was called to address this global inertia and make change happen after all. But this follow-up conference is up against many vested interests and only if we all mobilise, can we hope for a game change.

And the game that needs to be changed is highly complex. To help us all to better understand this complexity, we have developed “Game Change Rio”.

Game Change Rio gives you access to real-life data that so far has only been available to experts and policy makers. Based on the Millennium Institute’s Green Economy Model, which was commissioned by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the game includes all relevant sectors of the world’s economy and the natural resources available. All of these elements are linked according to a theory called System Dynamics and effects of policies are seen in their full complexity. The model has over 5,000 indicators, and with the 125 policy cards developed, the game has over 100 million possible outcomes.

Game Change Rio, the idea of Biovision, CodeSustainable and the Millennium Institute, supported bywww.fairplanet.net and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, aims to raise awareness for the issues that need to be addressed if future generations are to enjoy life on this planet and goes on to propose solutions to the problems we are facing. The game is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Spanish and also Portuguese.

All the best, and see you soon in Rio!

Matt, Sebastian, Michael, and the Game Change Rio Team.