Stabilization Wedges: The Game!

If you're not yet hip to this idea of 'stabilization wedges' -- the grand scheme of Profs Socolow and Pacala to level off carbon emissions in order to avert climate catastrophe -- here's a quick way to learn all about it. First, you can read Darren Samuelson's concise introduction to wedges at Environment and Energy's Climate Repair page. Second, you can play the board game, which (Attention educators!) is downloadable in pdf format here. Some 500 teachers will be given lessons in using the game in classrooms during the upcoming annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco.

So how does it work? According to the sidebar on the E&E page,

In a typical game, players form teams of four or five. Each team chooses seven wedges (each representing an energy technology or policy ) out of a portfolio of 15. Judges weigh each team's choices and declare a winner. Most games last about 90 minutes to two hours.

Sarah Wade, a Washington-based consultant who has organized about a half dozen wedge events, said the games help people understand that climate change can't be solved by focusing on one technology. It also forces participants to think outside of their comfort zone, selecting nuclear power, for example, over wind energy.

"Inevitably, someone has an option they put forward, but they don't really like it," Wade said. "That's one of the messages about climate change. This isn't going to be an easy thing to fix. We're not going to like all the things we have to do. But what are the best ones given what you want to achieve?"