ClimarisQ

Game Goals

Explore the effects of mitigation and adaptation choices to extreme climate events at the local, regional and global levels. Could you achieve a greener trajectory than the IPCC RCP 4.5 emission scenario? Explore the feedback mechanisms (notably physical, but also economic and social) that produce extreme effects on the climate system.

The Game Mechanism

Make decisions on a continental scale and see the impact of these decisions on the economy, politics and the environment. Deal with extreme events (heat waves, cold waves, heavy rainfall and drought) generated by a real climate model. Try to balance the “popularity”, “ecology” and “finance” gauges as long as possible. Fullfill all the missions to explore different climates.

The game-over displays both the PPM (parts per million) of CO2 deviation from the intermediate scenario of greenhouse gas emissions established by the IPCC (RCP4.5), as well as the number of survival game turns. These elements stimulate thinking about climate change and motivate the player to do better next time. Thanks to the hazards introduced by the extreme events and cards, every game is different!

Educational Purposes

ClimarisQ is a game and an educational tool that helps to understand:

1. The urgency of collective action to limit the adverse effects of climate change (The importance of limiting greenhouse gas emissions).
2. The multiplicity of interacting climate components as well as the nonlinearities of the processes underlying climate dynamics (Delayed effects, amplification, rebound effects).
3. The problems of predicting and projecting extreme weather events (Unpredictable locations and timing but predictable frequencies).

A game for Secondary Education

The concept, questions asked and difficulty of ClimarisQ are tailored to the high school level and curriculum. The game, which has already been successfully tested by high school classes, stimulates debate about the choices to be made in the face of climate change. We propose two modalities for playing ClimarisQ in schools: “single-player” and “multi-player”.

One hour of class dedicated to ClimarisQ is fully* sufficient to i) explain the game mechanics (~10 minutes), ii) play (~20 minutes), iii) discuss the results. The game-over displays both the PPM (parts per million) of CO2 deviation from the intermediate greenhouse gas emissions scenario established by the IPCC (RCP4.5), as well as the number of rounds of survival play. These elements stimulate discussion that can be guided by teachers based on the information presented in this website and/or by contacting the ClimarisQ team, which is always available to give advice on the project.

*if students have a set of computers connected to the internet.

Climate Extremes

ClimarisQ simulates our Perception of Climate Change

Although the increase in global average temperature poses a direct extinction risk to many living species, human perception of climate change is through extreme events such as observing rainfall irregularities,(late start of the rainy season, early cessation of rainfall, and higher frequency of pockets of drought), or experiencing increasingly hot temperatures that have significant effects on agriculture and health. ClimarisQ simulates extreme climate events and their impacts on human societies using real climate models.

Extreme events and climate change

The link between the development of our knowledge of climate and the prediction of extreme weather impacts remains a challenge for scientists interested in climate. The question of the link between global warming and the increase in extreme weather events recorded by meteorologists therefore has no definitive or absolute answer. It differs according to the type of event concerned. While there is little doubt about the link for some events, for others, a great deal of data is still needed before a possible causal link can be established. In ClimarisQ, the economic and societal challenges posed by the events are represented with a simulator built from IPCC models.

Extreme events in ClimarisQ

ClimarisQ includes a realistic extreme event generator (heat and cold waves, heavy rainfall, and droughts) built from data from several IPCC climate models and validated with reanalysis data (~observations) ERA5. The characteristics of extreme events implemented in ClimarisQ are the average intensity, the duration of the episodes and their frequency. These three indicators were derived under the IPCC RCP8.5 scenario which is the most pessimistic climate scenario with a radiative forcing of +8.5W/m2 and greenhouse gas emissions compatible with a “business as usual” scenario. The implementation work (internship of Soren François at LSCE under the direction of Davide Faranda) consisted of two different phases: i) characterization of extreme events in the models with respect to observations of the XX century, ii) realization of a simulator of extreme events by CO2 concentration. The realization of this generator is based on the data of the climate model selected from the analysis of the different models performed beforehand. The creation of this simulator relies on a mathematical model based on the exteme value theory allowing a rigorous description of the probability of extreme events. Also this generator uses data from 15 major metropolises on each continent (North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania) which by the important concentration of people, their position of major economic poles, constitute sensitive and essential areas in the study of climate extreme events. The link between the development of our knowledge on climate and the prediction of extreme weather impacts remains a challenge for scientists interested in climate.