November/December 2008 Issue

Five Ways to Game Global Warming

These online ecofantasies put the fun back into saving the planet.

Image: Courtesy Electronic Arts

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The ultrahyped Spore isn’t the only game where global warming is part of the virtual landscape.

SimCity Societies
(Electronic Arts with BP)
the goal: Evolve from farm to megacity, using BP’s “alternative energy” module to avert climate disasters.
cool factor: Punish carbon-heavy cities with Transformerslike robots. tiny.cc/SimCitySocieties

Planet Green Game
(Starbucks with Global Green USA)
the goal: Bike through town, “greening” public spaces, learning about real-life projects as you go.
cool factor: Soothing indie-rock soundtrack steals focus from pedantic quizzes. planetgreengame.com

Planet Slayer
(Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
the goal: As Greena the Worrier Princess, you save the planet from flocks of airborne shopping bags, winning…a hug from a koala.
cool factor: Cloying teen-girl color scheme triggers a Pavlovian aversion to excess packaging. tiny.cc/PlanetSlayer

Michael, Michael, Go Recycle!
(parenting community Kaboose.com)
the goal: Pick up cans and garbage, Pac-Man style. Bump into “litterbugs” to make green leaves come out of their heads.
cool factor: Kids will see right through this virtual chore. tiny.cc/MichaelRecycle780

Climate Challenge
(British Broadcasting Corporation)
the goal: Balance progress and popularity to stay in office from 1990 to 2080: Save Europe’s environment; win votes by hosting the Olympics again and again.
cool factor: Playing power-crazed politician is addictive. tiny.cc/ClimateChallenge

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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