American Corner Ceadir Lunga: A Game About Climate Change

Active Peace and “Keep Cool”

August 23, 2017

Last Wednesday, young people from the Active Peace Program came to our American Corner to promote the game “Keep Cool.” This board game provides a learning experience for the players about how the economic policies of many countries affect climate change. Recent scientific studies show evidence that the world is undergoing Global Warming, which is a troubling issue because it results in the melting of the icebergs in Antarctica and the Arctic, increasing sea levels and threatening to flood many countries, and the increase in temperature worldwide. Therefore, learning about the negative effects of climate change and how we can help prevent it will be important, especially for young people.

The game Keep Cool simulates countries in the world trying to achieve their economic goals (for example, building more factories for the oil industry). The players are given a country or organization: the US, Europe, South American countries, OPEC, and the USSR, and each one try to play against each other or choose to work together to achieve their economic interests. In addition, choosing between economic interests and climate protection is complicated by catastrophic situations. For example, a drought may come to Venezuela, destroying their crops. A landslide may occur in America. There may be a flood or disease that follow. Therefore, the game simulates the reality of policy makers about the tradeoffs between economic growth and global climate change.

The way to win is if a country can achieve their economic goals. However, there is also the risk of destroying everything if the global climate changes dramatically, and everyone loses!

Sponsored by the Active Peace Program, the young people came to the American Corner and played the game. It was a lot of fun, and there were many laughs when South America and India had to pool their money – an alliance – so they can better play against Europe and America. There were instances when players playing as Europe and America had to give out loans (of fake money) to the other players, all the while trying to keep the world from collapsing under climate change!

The game reflects the mission of the Active Peace program in developing the capacities of young people in diversity, teamwork, conflict resolution and critical thinking.

The young people who attended all came from diverse backgrounds. Some were from our own city of Ceadir Lunga. Some were from Chisinau. We even had visitors from the Transnistrian Republic.