Summary

The article advocates for the use of virtual reality (VR) to motivate public action on climate change by making the consequences more tangible and immediate.

Abstract

The article draws parallels between the global response to COVID-19 and the need for urgent climate action, emphasizing that just as the pandemic caught many societies unprepared, climate change poses a clear and present danger that is often ignored until it's too late. It suggests that current methods of communicating climate risks, such as charts and heat maps, are ineffective in engaging the public. Instead, the article proposes that translating climate risk scenarios into immersive VR experiences can effectively convey the direct impact of climate change on local communities, potentially leading to increased public engagement and demand for solutions. The article highlights that with advancements in regional climate models and empirical statistical downscaling, it is possible to create detailed and localized VR simulations of extreme weather events, which can help people visualize the risks to their own neighborhoods and properties.

Opinions

The author believes that the public tends to ignore expert warnings on critical issues like COVID-19 and climate change until a crisis is upon them.
There is a sentiment that the current presentation of climate change data does not effectively communicate the urgency or personal relevance of the issue to the general public.
The article expresses that making climate change risks more relatable and visceral through VR can lead to a deeper understanding and motivation for individuals to seek solutions and consider trade-offs.
The author suggests that the recency effect, where recent experiences hold more influence, can be leveraged by VR to keep climate risks at the forefront of public consciousness, thereby encouraging more immediate action.
The article implies that bottom-up public pressure, facilitated by VR experiences, is necessary to prompt government action on climate change.

The Next Major Step to Motivate Climate Action is VR

Image from the Disappearing Oasis — Contrast VR and European Forest Institute

In March, we all became painfully aware of how unprepared we are as a society to deal with something like COVID-19. Scientists and emergency response officials had warned about something like this. Response plans had been made but discounted and ignored. Resources were available but mishandled. Now we suffer the consequences as a society.

If we listened and took this seriously, our health care infrastructure could possibly have prevented or significantly limited the spread. Our supply chains would have been less fragile and our food system would not be in disarray. Actually, if we listened and adequately invested in our infrastructure and prepared, we wouldn’t need to be talking about our supply chain or food system or economic shutdowns. It would have been managed and this virus would have been a few headlines. There wouldn’t be a shelter in place, 22 million people would not be out of work and there would not be 723,000+ confirmed cases.

COVID-19 and Climate Change

Listening to scientists and experts is important. COVID-19 happens when we discount their opinion. Natural disasters are what happens when we do not listen. You see a lot of effort to try to draw parallels between COVID-19 and climate change. There really is not much of a parallel to draw. It is not a disease, like dengue fever, that is spreading due to warming climate conditions. The only parallel is that both are problems that are clear and present dangers and we largely ignore them until it is too late. Like Covid-19, we ignore our experts and scientists on the threat of climate change.

We see lots of indicators, much of the time they are happening “over there.” The over there is now happening more frequently “over here.”

SARS and MERS were some of our early indicators in the 21st Century that a big nasty bug like COVID-19 was possible. The experts warned us, we largely discounted it. We pushed those warnings under the rug, maybe thinking this is a one-time thing or that it is happening somewhere else, not here. So we have nothing to worry about. We do the same with climate change. We see lots of indicators, much of the time they are happening “over there.” If we do get hit by something, such as Hurricane Harvey, it is a “one-time thing.” At least that is what we want to believe.

How to get people to pay attention? Make it real for them

Climate change risk is increasing. The “over there” is going to happen more frequently over here. So, how do we get more people engaged? Our communities need to see what is coming. The experts and scientists need to get this information out of the academic papers, out of the lab, out of their heads and in front of the public. We do not need more of these charts or these heat maps.

Here is a quick dialogue interpreting a heat map:

Person 1: Look I am red and the state next to me is yellow. Now, what does the red mean?

Person 2: A 3 degree Celsius increase.

Person 1: Oh OK. 3 degrees doesn’t seem too bad. More summer days!

People do not relate. There is no connection.

How do we connect? Show the direct pain and discomfort that scientists know is coming. Show what a more intense hurricane looks like to my community and my house. Show what store shelves look like when drought decimates the Central Valley. Show what a more intense wildfire season can do to my favorite national park. It needs to be more real than charts and graphs.

How do we do this? First run the climate risk scenarios. Second, translate those scenarios into virtual reality (VR) and/or augmented reality (AR) scenes that take me to my community. This is possible and not horribly difficult to do.

Climate scientists are running these scenarios now. Every day we are getting a better understanding as to the climate risk to our communities. They are developing these scenarios with downscaled regional climate models (RCMs) and with empirical statistical downscaling (ESD). Some of the RCMs can be downscaled to 10 km or less. This means that it is possible to see the likelihood of a variety of extreme weather events hitting our communities. The models are rapidly developing to where we are becoming more precise on the likelihood and timing of the natural disasters, their intensity/severity and for some events the frequency. Some have become so accurate they are able to assess the physical climate risk of a specific piece of property, such as an electric power plant.

We have the scenarios. Typically, these scenarios are placed on a static map or specific to sea level rise, some more dynamic coastal maps.

For most of the public, this means nothing. If it does mean something, there is not a true understanding of what XX inches of sea-level rise means for their livelihood or how it impacts storm surge during a hurricane.

I am not completely discounting the graphs and the dynamic maps, as the one shown above. They very much have their purpose when we think about things like infrastructure planning and siting of new commercial hubs or neighborhoods. Insurance companies use these maps and data to better assess their risk and determine insurance premiums, for example. It is helpful information, but it is not really impactful information. It does not really motivate the public to much action. I live in Houston, about an hour north of Galveston, a barrier island. As illustrated above, the climate maps show it underwater in a variety of climate scenarios. People keep building there. They don’t make the connection between the maps and their lives.

They make the connections when they can feel it and see the consequences first hand. The image below is from FloodVR, a virtual reality experience in floodwater. It is not easy to watch, at least for those who have lived through some of these events.

From VRFlood. Start watching about 1:28 in the video.

To get people to pay attention, they must have an opportunity to experience it. It must be an immersive experience that tricks the human brain into thinking this is something real. When people have this visceral feeling about a dangerous situation, they start looking for solutions and they start discussing trade-offs.

We have the data, the experts have ran these models over and over again. We are beginning to witness the “over there” coming to our communities over here. We seem to forget quickly though. Being able to witness these risks and the dangers more often will keep these risks front and center and push us to take more immediate action. It is called the recency effect. What we experience most recently is where our thoughts are drawn. Where we place the most weight.

Pushing for action must come from the bottom-up. Our government needs the unequivocal signal that its citizens are concerned about their livelihoods and communities due to climate change. Virtual reality, to demonstrate climate risk, is one of those tools that can motivate people to action.

To end with a little PSA…