Audio Interview: Board Game Teaches California’s Cap-and-Trade Climate Program

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Illustration by Anna Vignet, San Francisco Public Press.

With your die-cast as one of the top eight polluting industries, try to make the most money by the time the statewide carbon cap is reached. See more at: https://sfpublicpress.org/news/2013-06/make-money-save-the-planet

Public Press reporter Chorel Centers sat down with editor Michael Stoll and illustrator Anna Vignet to discuss the creation of a board game that allows teaches players how California’s year-old cap-and-trade greenhouse gas pollution control program works. It’s part of a trend of “gamification” of the news, using interactive formats to engage audiences and teach complex policy issues.

Players work as greenhouse gas tycoons in a race to make money before the caps on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases take full effect. The game is laid out like a Monopoly board.

The project was published in the summer 2013 print edition, and the prototype board game was printed on the back page of the first section of the newspaper. It accompnanied an extensive investigation on California’s cap and trade program, which aims to cut back to 1990 levels of greenhouse gases by 2020.

Listen to the podcast above, and try your hand at playing the game, or at least walking through it.

See other stories in the package at sfpublicpress.org/climatechange.

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This story is part of a special report on California’s cap-and-trade program, in collaboration with Earth Island Journal and Bay Nature magazine. It was made possible by the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

Buy a copy of the summer 2013 print edition through the website, or consider becoming a member and get every edition for the next year.