IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU

If you listen to NPR, you heard about this while driving to work yesterday on: Marketplace. Now you have no excuse not to find out what the world would be like if everybody lived like you.

Along those lines, now that the NY Times has scrapped its subscription snobbery and returned to live like the rest of us pandering and praying for your clicks on our ads, you also might want to read what Thomas Friedman thinks about a world in which everybody lives like us: Doha and Dalian.
Consumer Consequences
September 20, 2007 (American Public Media)

WHO
American Public Media (producers of National Public Radio programs such as “Marketplace,” “Weekend America” and “Speaking of Faith”); Environmental think tankRedefining Progress; Realtime Associates; Game players (making choices made everyday by American consumers)

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WHAT
Consumer Consequences is an elaborate interactive computer game in which players experience the impact lifestyle choices make on the environment and the economy.

WHEN
The game is set in the now. Players see the impact on the now.

WHERE
Play the game at Consumer Consequences




WHY
- The stated intentions of the game are to let players see what the impact is of their own choices and to explore whether the American lifestyle is sustainable.
- The game multiplies each choice a player makes by the 6.6 billion people on earth and gives a “number of earths” it would require to sustain that choice for everybody.
- Choices include what commercial, residential, industrial and transportation infrastructure to build, what to do about energy, waste and resources like forests and undeveloped land
- The consequences of players’ decisions is based on the “ecological footprinting” idea developed by game co-designers Redefining Progress (w/Realtime Associates). In the course of the game, players get the opportunity to alter choices and reduce their carbon footprints.

QUOTES
Consumer Consequences FAQ: "As you answer questions, you'll see "scrims" like you might see in a theater slide across the screen and snap into place. They reflect the waste you produce… the commercial, residential, industrial and transportation infrastructure you require… the fossil, nuclear, and renewable energy you consume…and how your lifestyle impinges on forests and other undeveloped land. When you first start playing, every scrim is set to 'minimum.' As you play, the scrims respond to show you what the world might look like if everyone lived as you do. You'll also see small graphics (like solar panels, a car, a bus stop, etc.) pop onto the screen in response to some of your answers."