Keep Cool (board game)

"Keep Cool" is a board game created by Klaus Eisenack and Gerhard Petschel-Held of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and published by the German company Spieltrieb in November 2004. The game can be classified as both a serious game and a global warming game. In Keep Cool, up to six players representing the world's countries compete to balance their own economic interests and the world's climate in a game of negotiation. The goal of the game as stated by the authors is to "promote the general knowledge on climate change and the understanding of difficulties and obstacles, and "to make it available for a board game and still retain the major elements and processes."citeweb |url=http://www.spiel-keep-cool.de/|title= The Authors: Science and Games |author= Eisenack, Klaus| coauthors=Petschel-Held, Gerhard |accessdate=2007-07-25]

Reception

After Keep Cool was released in stores, it was sold out in only four months, prompting a second edition of the game to be released. The game has become very popular in Germany, and the game's creators were surprised at the success. Petschel-Held explained, "With 'Keep Cool,' we've been able to open new channels for dialogue between scientists and the public," and Eisenack commented, "Feedback has revealed surprising insights and exciting discussions about conflicts of interest in climate politics as highlights of Keep Cool." Keep Cool has been used by NGO's, schools, universities, and gaming conventions, besides being used by families and the general public. The German Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMU) has now included Keep Cool as a part of its teaching materials.cite web |title=Success of climate change board game leads to second edition |url=http://www.pik-potsdam.de/news-1/press-releases/archive/2005/success-of-climate-change-board-game-leads-to-second-edition | publisher=Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research | date=2005-08-12| accessdate=2007-07-25] cite web|title=Climate change board game a hit | url=http://www.germany.info/relaunch/info/publications/week/2005/050819/economy2.html | publisher=The Week in Germany | date=2005-08-19 | accessdate=2007-07-25]

Gameplay

Countries

The game can be played with three to six players. The countries that players will use for the game depends on the number of players, as shown in table below.While there are only eight secret targets, there are eleven secret target cards, so it is very likely that at least two players in a game will have a common secret target.

Disasters

The very first thing a player does on their turn, even before the usual steps of collecting income and the rest, is draw a greenhouse card. Greenhouse cards are the random generators of disasters in Keep Cool. Most greenhouse cards are disasters which effect a particular region (consequently only one player) such as Malaria Pandemic in China or Cold Winter in Europe. Greenhouse also include rarer events, such as global disasters (e.g. Sea-level rise) and beneficial events due to global warming, like more rain in Iran. The degree of the disaster or beneficial climate event is dependent on what level of warming has occurred in the game thus far, which is measured by the carbometer. In the blue zone, many disasters and other events have little or no effect. In the yellow and orange zones, disasters are particularly more potent as well as the benefit received from positive climate changes. In the red zone, climate events are catastrophic and beneficial events from positive change are severely reduced.

Background

Countries

The different coalitions of countries used in Keep Cool are based on the groups of similar interests which have emerged through the conferences held by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Throughout the various conferences of the UNFCCC, the countries belonging to the group "USA & Partners" have been generally hesitant about signing on to mandatory emissions targets and commitments. The countries of the Former Soviet Union have had emissions below the oft-cited '1990 level' for many years now, so they play a special role in emissions reduction by keeping their emissions low. The countries of the European Union have tended to have stronger commitments to reductions. The remaining groups of countries all belong to the G77. The G77 countries are divided accordingly because of their different interests, i.e. countries like China and India want to rapidly expand their industry and use their own coal, and oil-exporting countries have made no commitments to reduce emissions.Eisenack, Klaus and Petschel-Held, Gerhard: "Keep Cool: The Scientific Background of the Game." 2004.]

Developing countries are singled out as their own group partly because of their control of the world's rain forests. Depending on whether developing countries protect the rain forests in their lands and reforest or if they decide to clearcut in favor of expanding farmlands and industry, the developing countries can either act as another source of carbon pollution (via clearcutting) or as a carbon sink (via conservation and reforestation).

Factories

Green and black factories in Keep Cool do not correspond to any actual types of factories in reality. Instead, they are symbolic of energy generation. Green factories symbolize power generated from renewable sources like wind, sun, and biomass. Black factories represent power from non-renewable fossil fuel sources like oil and coal. In Keep Cool, the only way to truly reduce emissions is to demolish black factories.

Protection Tokens

Protection tokens are meant to represent general measures to adapt to the effects of global warming. Examples include installing flood plains, building reservoirs, and constructing new buildings in areas further away from the coast. In Keep Cool, the cost of protection tokens increases upon every purchase--"Dykes cannot be raised infinitely."

Links

# [http://spiel-keep-cool.de| Official Keep Cool website]

Sources