GEOlinoIt’s like Monopoly, except the world is ending.
A German science magazine has invented a game wherein tiny polar bear game pieces sit on melting blocks of ice — real melting ice that comes from the game’s own special ice tray — and players try to rescue the polar bears before the ice melts.
“It’s a race against time,” a male narrator with a plummy British accent informs us, “as the path leads across real, slowly melting ice floes.” There is no winner. The winners are the polar bears, or nobody. And, also, “the game is played not against each other but with each other, because, after all, climate change can only be stopped if everyone takes part.” Although technically, in this game it can’t really be stopped at all — the ice is going to melt no matter what, and the question is just how many will die. We appreciate the trademark German fatalism.
This is a pretty cool game. We’d like to see more in the same vein. Like where kids race to build a 7,000-foot wall around Manhattan before it is underwater. Or attempt to eradicate phthalates from the environment before a bunch of animals can no longer reproduce (game comes with real phthalates!). Or work to get everyone in Congress who doesn’t believe in climate change out of office. Etc.
