Zero Carbon Dragon Flight
Magical Beasts and VR to Combat Climate Change
Some years ago, I had the joy of experiencing Blackthorn Media’s “Dragonflight” virtual reality (“VR”) experience.
It was at a Games for Change event, at a VR Arcade. My first VR experience: to hop on a dragon and fly around. It was AWESOME!!!!!!!
Even though it ended up in my fiery death.
Today, I went online to to see how it was doing. Alas, it appears that Dragonflight hasn’t evolved beyond being a VR experience that ends in fiery death. As told by OldeCrow, a reviewer on Occulus Rift:
Am I missing something? The description of the game says “Dragonflight includes unique combinations of game dynamics — acrobatic flight compliments stealthly subterfuge, as you dodge from cloud to cloud, sneaking up on fortifications too large to approach out in the open.” All I can do so far is take a short ride on a dragons back pulling the right trigger on the touch controller to make fireballs come out. This is the only control that does anything. There are no flight controls. you cannot do anything listed in the game’s description.
It looks as if the company hasn’t developed the game any further, citing market forces. This is sad, although if it’s any consolation, the dragonflight demo experience is still available on Occulus, and also on Steam and Vive, if you’d like to try it.
So there the dragons be. Flying around in a holding pattern. With no particular place to go.
If I had a magic wand…er…crowdfunding campaign, here’s what I would do.
We’d crowdfund a reboot of dragonflight, built around the theme of racing to zero carbon. #DragonflightToZeroCarbon. A fun, flaming, enlightening metaphor of the actual life and death struggle we are going through on this planet. Offering inspiration, catharsis, and factual insight.
Reboot Dragonflight: Race to Zero Carbon edition
The present Dragonflight demo ends in you and your dragon’s fiery deaths. This is precisely what we are trying to avoid with the Race to Zero Carbon.
Given that humanity is hardly making a dent in the race to zero carbon (every year we’re putting more carbon in the atmo, not less), it looks like we’re on track for that fiery death. Can we avert it? How?
In a way, we are a bunch of fire-breathing entities (spewing carbon emissions with all our careless consumption). What is the journey from agents of destruction to transcendent guardians of the planet?
Two Races to Zero Carbon
As you know, there are two races to zero carbon in progress. Racing to zero carbon in the ground (pumping it all out), and racing to net zero carbon in the air (sequestering it back in the ground).
The race we are all enrolled in by default is the “Race to Zero Carbon In the Ground”. In this race, we are pulling out every last drop of carbon from the ground in order to burn it and add the emissions to the air. This game ends in everyone’s fiery death. This is the essence of Dragonflight as presently conceived, in which you fly around and blow $%!* up. A zero sum battle that leaves behind a swathe of destruction.
Been there, done that.
Now it’s time to play “Race to (Net) Zero Carbon in the Air.” To design a second ending where the dragon’s successful journey ends with it landing in a place with a beautiful mountain lake and trees and maiden/minstrel and other creatures. All welcoming you to a sustainable, zero carbon future…
Sustainable Dragon VR
Here’s how to tweak the module to give people a vision of what needs to happen to save our world.
In Dragonflight: Zero Carbon edition, we start with business as usual. Dragon as usual.
Think of the dragon. Amazing, wonderful, and fire-breathing. I.e., cool, but with very visible carbon emissions. Just like humans. Some of our coolest things (especially flight) emit a ton of carbon. It’s part of who we are, and of our quality of life.
The race to zero carbon isn’t about destroying ourselves, cutting off our supply of energy, eliminating our footprint through self-annihilation.
Not at all! It’s about transformation, creativity and accountability. Swapping out some fuel sources and processes. Taking a systems approach to everything you encounter. And what better perspective of our systems than a dragon’s eye view as we fly over it all.
You’re a dragon, seeking to transform your way of fueling yourself. Flying over the world and drinking in the true footprint of every energy choice. The ecological impacts. Resource depletion, competition with other dragons (who are stingy with their gold, so you can’t spend on some options unless you help them part with that gold), so many parallels to the problem set we are facing now. Keep track of your dragon’s emissions, connect it with growth of plants or other carbon sequestration projects that you can choose and defend. So yes, the dragon is spending carbon, but earning a better world with good choices and an appreciation of the whole system.
Also, the dragons emissions can be improved. You can upgrade to dragon catallytic converters and other innovations — change the composition of your mixture.
And also, the dragon can fly through the world eliminating other high carbon activities — because it’s about the net. Where there are high carbon activities going on, and he can attack them (like the miners destroying the tar sands) while defending folks who are trying to do zero carbon things.
Oh! Of course! The dragon is also an agent of strategic geo-engineering.
The game progresses. As you fly through the landscape, you go from a scarred, burning world full of slavery and bad choices, to an ever cleaner, greener world with fantastic, sustainable architecture.
What do you think? Is there potential to “release the dragons!” on behalf of climate solutions?
To zero carbon and beyond…with dragons!
Hey! We can add the VR Dragon to the ZC3!
An updated dragon demo can be a fun part of a Zero Carbon Coaching Clinic (“ZC3”)! A dragon experience can have a profound impact on shifting people’s mindsets with regard to the race to zero carbon.
Where would it fit in the ZC3?
The ZC3 is basically a walk through flow chart that will take people through all the steps to get to zero carbon. Here’s the layout:
The rectangles shown are basically tables that you walk around. They would have information on that field of play, and could be staffed by an expert or experts in those plays (“coaches”).
This set up is a way of putting all the options on the table, so to speak, and letting people come together to discuss and explore their options. The goal is to create a collective fact finding, problem solving and decision making space. To help people find their true preferences, and teammates. And to see if all of their plays add up to zero.
It’s an immersive approach, unlike anything we’ve seen before. Most people are either in denial about climate change, so they don’t think about it, or they feel guilty and worried that they’ll have to change their lives — so they don’t think about it; or they are stuck on one solution, in a silo, and haven’t taken the time to see all the options.
A ZC3 takes you through everything. Once and for all. Gives you a systematic, candid look at what it will take to go all the way to zero.
You go in a fearful rookie, you come out transformed. Sober yet giddy. It’s intense.
In addition to the information at each station, there are many ways to augment the experience: climate therapists standing by, a carbon confessional, bugs to eat (crickets on a stick) because…adaptation. You could invite George Washington and historical re-enactors (because this is a new revolution, except this time it’s not the British, but British Petroleum). And so on. Every ZC3 will feature local creativity and improvisation.
Enter the dragon.
Where does the dragon ride fit in?
At the end, when folks have gone through all the options, they come to the finish line with their “playbook”. In the playbook, they’ve been jotting down choices about which options they would want their team (the State, as a whole is your team) to adopt to get to zero.
In the end zone, we can have a winged angel holding scales to weigh your options and see if your choices could get you to zero. If yes, you win! You get a dragon ride! Here, we’re using the dragon as incentive to do the math : )
Of course, even if your plays add up, they may not appeal to your fellow citizens, so you still have many steps to go before getting to zero carbon in the real world — but it’s important to celebrate this step.
And of course, if you get to the scales and your plays don’t add up, you go back and reconsider/tweak your plays.
What about the folks who give up? I suppose we also need a VR showing the impending hellscape we’re unleashing if we can’t figure this out. And what’s involved in adaptation.
Actually, it’s probably best to have the chance to explore all of these worlds.
As you can tell, we’re still workshopping things here. Suggestions welcome. We were thinking of having a “Captain Kirk” and “Spock” to greet folks at the finish line, welcoming them to a sustainable, zero carbon future.
But now, having been through that dragon ride — well that’s just perfect. At the end of the course, when you have faced the options and wrestled with the math and maps of your footprint — what more delightful reward than to FLY! On a Dragon!
A dragon that is moving away from the fiery world, to a sustainable dragon world.
Hey! Another idea
I woke up in the middle of the night with this one. A way to add a ticking clock. You’re on one dragon in this game. Another dragon (your mate?) is in a cave. A huge, splendid cave with all that dragon treasure. But the trouble is, it has caved in. And the dragon is getting asphyxiated by its own exhalations, and no fresh air supply. And you need to do all your things before the air supply runs out. You’ve got a psychic connection to see how each other are doing. You can use stuff in the treasure to retrofit yourself…OK, not sure where I’m going with this. It’s just the carbon monoxide alarm went off the other day (don’t panic, it was just an expired battery), and got me to thinking about indoor air quality.
Contact me to help make this happen!
To zero carbon and beyond!
