Climate change is real, its here, it’s happening now. Every day we are confronted by new proof from nature, new scientific studies and more anecdotal stories told by our friends and relatives about how our world is changing before our eyes. Allergies are worse, rain and snow are coming down in heavier downpours and drought continues to plague much of our country. But if you are like us, your neighbor, friend, brother or grandma may still insist on challenging you about the facts on climate change.
Grab the kids in your life and sit down with Al Gore, while he explains a cool new tool, Reality Drop, developed by our friends at The Climate Reality Project that you can use to help present the facts. Let Mr. Gore show you and your family how to spread the truth about the Climate Crisis and “destroy” denial. Reality Drop is also a game, so your kids can rack up points and “win” while we all win by facing denial head on and making sure that truth wins out!
While you’ve got their attention, help your kids (and your neighbor, friend, brother or grandma) understand what price we are all paying when we let polluters go “free” by not putting a “Price of Carbon!”…This short video narrated by Reggie Watts for the Climate Reality Project is fun, to the point, and easy to understand…
So do something today…help spread the truth about the climate crisis, beginning at home..
At ClimateMama we owe our start, our inspiration, and a debt of gratitude to the Climate Reality Project it’s staff, leaders and it’s chairman Al Gore. Our own Climate Mama, Harriet was personally trained by Mr. Gore and the Climate Reality Project staff six years ago. This training was the beginning and impetus for the development and launch of our ClimateMama organization. Along the way there have been many wonderful surprises, great friendships and amazing programs and projects that Climate Reality has shared with us, and that we in turn have been able to share with you.
We want to tell you about some new and exciting developments that we think will make you smile, help you learn and give you real and simple ways to share more about the reality of the climate crisis, how we can all be part of the solution, AND have some fun along the way! (Because we believe that all should be able to enjoy our journey to change the world and make it a better place…)
1. Catch our own Climate Mama in an up close and personal Town Hall encounter with Al Gore. Harriet was invited to participate in SiriusXM’s “Town Hall with Al Gore” hosted by Ari Rabin-Havt—host of SiriusXM’s The Agenda, Senior Advisor to Media Matters and a leading voice in progressive politics—The Town Hall program with Al Gore, was recorded in New York City at the Sirrius XM studios. The program will air on various channels and at various times: 3/2 4 pm ET , Saturday 3/2 10 pm ET , Tuesday 3/5 5 pm ET , Tuesday 3/5 10 pm ET.
Find out how Mr. Gore answered Harriet’s question: Our community at ClimateMama is made up of many parents who are choosing to face reality head on and who are often very knowledgeable about the current and anticipated impacts of our changing climate. We recognize the path we are hurtling down. When we sit back and let ourselves put our arms around the big picture, the perils that our planet faces and which we and our families are headed towards, it often feels overwhelming. Knowing the uncertainties we face and the hard choices we will need to make in a very short time, how do you nurture yourself and what advice would you give others on how to build the inner strength needed to keep “fighting the fight” and believing in a hopeful path for our future?
Tell us what you think and what you do to nuture yourself and build inner strength as you find and fight for solutions to combat climate change?
2. Grab the kids in your life and check out the latest tool and fun program and game developed by Climate Reality called Reality Drops. Do you ever find yourself at a loss when confronted by a friend, colleague or stranger who questions your facts on the climate crisis and seems to have “contradictory” facts of their own? Not to worry, Drop some Reality on your friends and family today…!
“Just like the tobacco companies in the ’50s, the fossil fuel industry has engaged in a well- funded and coordinated effort to mislead the public about the scientific reality of climate change,” said Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States, and Founder and Chairman of the Climate Reality Project. “Reality Drop provides an easy, intuitive way for people to arm themselves with the facts, educate their friends, family, and networks, and call on the media to report the truth.”
3. Take two minutes with the kids in your life and watch this short video that helps us understand why we should Put a Price on Carbon.There is a lot of talk about why we should be doing this and how that would help us solve the climate crisis, this helps put it all in perspective. We are allowing fossil fuel companies to use our atmosphere like a sewer, free of charge. This is hurting our economy, our health, our children, our future and our now!
Tired of the kids in your life (young and old) playing “Call of Duty?” Let them know there is a “new game in town” and that the US Navy is calling out to them to play it! This is a real life war game, looking to recruit players who will help find ways to improve the U.S. Navy’s combat capability and energy security, particularly by “promoting energy efficiency and diversifying its energy supply (use of alternative energy) while working to reducing reliance on fossil fuels from overseas.” Does it sound like science fiction? In fact a 2010 Defense Department Report identified climate change and energy security as “prominent military vulnerabilities,” noting that climate change in particular is an “accelerant of instability and conflict.” As such, the US Navy is charging ahead to try to reduce these vulnerabilities and is now asking for our help!
At a recent meeting organized by the Environmental Defense Fund, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the audience that “climate change has raised the need for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, hitting national security in the process.” This comes at the same time that climate deniers in our government, led by Senator Inhofe are trying to cut alternative energy programs from the military’s budget.
Grab the kids in your life and watch this short video developed by the US Navy. Find out where we “could be” 10 years from now if we don’t continue the aggressive and forward thinking ideas that the military is currently working on to reduce it’s dependence on fossil fuels.
Now suggest that your kids do the “patriotic thing” and join forces and “play the game” to try to help “crowd source” ideas and ways to lessen our dependence on fossil fuels! (be advised, this game is for those “older kids” in your life, the ones in or out of college, or on their way there shortly)…Also, this version of the “game” may only be “live” for a few days so tell them to check out MMOWGLI today!!
Looking for a few “out of the box” fun (yet subconsciously educational) things for your kids to do this summer? We are thinking of those middle and high school teens that want to spend most of the day sleeping and then way too much time on the computer. Give them something thought provoking to think about when they are surfing the web. For great suggestions and ideas of on-line climate games, make sure to check out our earlier post.
One “of the moment” US real life environmental heroes has his story unfolding “as we speak.” For a civics lesson on peaceful protests, think Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, and have the kids in your life check out Tim DeChristopher.
Our ClimateMama, Harriet Shugarman had the opportunity to meet and hear from Tim at the Netroots Conference earlier this year. According to Harriet: “Tim is incredibly articulate, forthright, and down-to-earth. He could be your friend, neighbor, son, or brother. Listening to him tell his personal story is so compelling. He matter of factly tells how he was in the right place, at the right time, followed his instincts and showed us how one person can make a difference.”
Time to get those teenage brain synapses connecting. Have the kids in your life play the Climate Hot Spot Scavenger Game hosted by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Let your kids give you the evidence that shows all of us that our climate is changing NOW.
Looking for fun and educational things to do with your kids this summer, or have them do on their own on “inside days?” Here are our 3 favorite web-based games that teach lessons on environmental awareness, climate change, activism and sustainability..! All of this “learning” happens while the kids in your life are having fun and playing a game that doesn’t involve shooting a weapon or capturing aliens! From elementary school kids and pre-teens through teens and grown ups, join us and test drive our favorite online climate change games!
OurClimate Mama Seal of Approval was recently awarded to MiniMonos (Little Monkey’s in Spanish!) an award winning international online game, from our friends in New Zealand.
MiniMonos is a virtual world for kids as young as 8 years old that love to play games and love the planet. According to the creators of MiniMonos: “ We created MiniMonos so that children could have a place of their own, a place that allows them to explore and grow without constant pressure to buy stuff. We also wanted them to have a place that embodies core values like sustainability and generosity, without turning those values into a boring lecture.”
Children create monkey avatars who live in tree houses. The monkeys need “caring,” their tree houses need decorating and the neighboring lagoons need to be kept clean! Children make friends with other players and also completes real life and virtual eco-projects, all in the name of fun! MiniMonos provides a safe social networking and gaming site, ala “Club Penguin” but works to integrate real world eco activities, like setting up a school recycling program, with activities in the “virtual world.” The site already boasts over 125,000 users in the “preteen set” from around the world.
Our next suggestion is for the older kids in your life – middle, high school and beyond. Climate Challenge comes to us via the United Kingdom. According to the BBC science and nature home page: The Game’s focus and aims are as follows:
Apart from the primary goal of creating a fun game, Climate Challenge’s producers aimed to:
• give an understanding of some of the causes of climate change, particularly those related to carbon dioxide emissions.
• give players an awareness of some of the policy options available to governments.
• give a sense of the challenges facing international climate change negotiators.
Players must respond to catastrophic events caused by climate change as well as natural and man made events, which may or may not be linked to climate change. This aspect of the game is meant to give some idea of what could happen as the Earth’s climate changes and also introduce the unpredictable nature of some natural events.
Let us know what you and (the kids in your life) think; the game is fun for anyone – you don’t need to be a European National to play!
Our 3rd suggestion is called E-mission, a Facebook game that lets the player “fight climate change” by protecting a costal habitat and reducing CO2 emissions in the real world. Players work to “keep their habitat clean,” earn points, get rewards, play with friends and help save the environment! The game has been created by DoSomething.org with support from the US Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Star – the game reminds us of MiniMonos, but for older kids!
Test drive these games, check in with the kids in your life, let us know what you think!
You are a mother, a father, a grandparent, an uncle, an aunt, a teacher or a child at heart. When you hear the Native American saying, “We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children”, it makes you stop for a moment and think. You love nature, travel, adventure and believing in a world that is special and unique. Climate change and global warming are words that alarm you, that often seem too big to get your arms around. You care about what’s happening to the world and notice small changes in your own life that seem to point in the direction of a threatened environment. But you wonder if these changes are real, and if they are you can’t imagine what you can do to help change what is happening.
Climate Change so often seems too big to get our hands around. We wonder where we can start and how we can actually make a difference. Each one of us has a different path that we will follow. Some of us cut a wider swath than others, but each of us has a role to play. We would like to introduce you to some amazing individuals, Climate Mamas and Papas who are making a difference, who are, through their daily lives, affecting the lives of all of us. They inspire us, empower us, and challenge us to reach for the stars, to strive to do the best we can to help change the crash course we are currently on with our environment. Lets meet some of these amazing people and find out what inspires them. Meet our featured Climate Mama, Desiree Di Mauro today!
The Climate Reality Project is one of the world’s leading organizations dedicated to mobilizing action around climate change. With a global movement that is more than 2 million strong and a grassroots network of trained Climate Leaders, Climate Reality is "spreading the truth and unleashing the cultural momentum to solve the climate crisis."
climate change games 
