Visualizing climate-changed futures with serious play by FutureCoast

This is an impressive proposal. FutureCoast represents a novel way to bridge the psychological gap that many social scientists believe has stifled the adoption of climate-mitigating behaviors. It simultaneously employs the persuasive power of narrative forms and crowd-sourced gaming platforms to spur climate engagement. Very cool. (Also harnesses the psychological power of the future to be more motivating than the present). Given the somewhat advanced stage of this project, it seems feasible in terms of attracting buzz, users, etc. That's a real strength. But a couple of big questions remain for me: First, How will this project engage a broad audience, including those demographics who are unlikely to engage in online gaming? Second, and perhaps more important, in what ways is this project likely to translate into concrete reductions in CO2 use? It's not entirely clear to me what the pilot they are conducting entails, but if they are measuring attitude and behavior changes in their gamers over the duration of the pilot period, that would help convince me that the experience of engaging with FutureCoast is positively correlated with green behaviors over time, rather than this simply being a "preaching to the choir" situation. This is well put together proposal and seems well researched and piloted. The voice mail from the future concept is great. If it works well on smart phones it could work really well in places like Asia were smart phone voice platforms such as weibo are already really popular. This could also have great application in schools.

Edits underway! To understand what the pilot FutureCoast was like, go to FutureCoast.org and choose a few voicemails to listen to (there's a large array). In the fiction of our storytelling, the voicemails have "leaked to us from the cloud of possible futures." In reality, people have contributed the voicemails (anyone was free to do so by calling our toll-free number). We challenge them to create authentic-sounding voicemails from the future. Suggestions welcome.

I wish you the best! Please, check my proposal in Waste Management Contest, named "REACC: Recycled Debris for Adaptation to Climate Change"; and I would apreciate your support as I supported your proposal.

Thanks, Victor. I am indeed supportive of your project – the comprehensive approach to recycling the waste materials generated by destructive events strikes me as future-aware, since these events are likely to occur more and more often as climate change and its ripple effects happen to at-risk areas. (One can easily imagine the voicemails that will be left then!)

If you could consider requesting your future clients to store throughout the year the seeds of fruits they eat at home and spread those seeds, after commencement of Mansoon, the rainy season, on to unused land in & around the city, town, village, as an activity that would help improve green cover! Rather than wasting the fruit seeds by letting decay, this would help grow fruit-bearing trees as well. Following is a link to such a proposal. https://www.climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/1300103/planId/1310401

Ken gave me a preview of this project some months back; I was intrigued and captivated by the combination of imaginative story-telling and game-playing in a way that asks participants to move from theory to practice.

Good ideas, missingrache – the pilot didn't have the wherewithal to foster a community behind the curtain, but it's part of this proposal. It would connect to already existing climate science groups, so it would be a way for people to get engaged with the issue and find groups to find activities inspired by the storytelling.

I love the way the FutureCoast project allows people to creatively visualize the impacts that climate change could have on all areas of our lives. I was moved by the variety of the messages posted, and believe this project could have a huge impact. Good luck!

Great way to see how people envision their future under the threat of climate change. The voice-mails from the future are really interesting to listen to!

I love the areas where FutureCoast bleeds in and out of a contained project and into an experimental, almost "under cover agent" style movement. I joined the project to help make GIFs related to the voicemails, and started the FutureWatcherGirl Tumblr as a way to connect those GIFs and other specific FutureCoast content to related media, stories, and climate change-related artworks that people are already talking about. The FutureWatcherGirl Tumblr has grown significantly as a way to connect the dots around climate change (up to over 7000 followers at this point!), and I love how we've been able to position FutureCoast content as a somewhat hidden, yet entirely discoverable blip in the social-media-searchable climate change story. I believe many people have stumbled into the Tumblr, then probably clicked through a few things and ended up on a voicemail from the future, not knowing exactly what it was – it is this exciting, surprising place where I think a lot of people could be (will be?) sucked into the FutureCoast narrative – by mistake, through the spread of content through social media. On Tumblr, FutureCoast continues to have an impact as a rabbit hole of information to be uncovered that is both magical and frightening. People want new ways to talk about climate change, as devastating images of stranded polar bears and melting ice caps can only penetrate so far. I think FutureCoast fills a hole, bringing an element of discovery and play that, while still being serious and contemplative, adds a layer of intrigue to an otherwise stark, difficult-to-relate-to issue. Just my thoughts! Be sure to check out the FutureWatcherGirl Tumblr at http://futurewatchergirl.tumblr.com/ :)