Changing Currents: Charting our Energy Future

About this event

Imagine you are rural solar power technician and an earthquake hits your country, causing wide scale destruction. How might this impact your family and community? What will you find difficult (or impossible) to acquire because of this event? What injustices become more visible to you? What new alliances might you explore to help you stay resilient? Could you work with local government, community members, or other stakeholders to find solutions? Climate Cascade developed out of a desire to better understand how macro level events impact food systems, energy systems, and the environment, and how the ripple effects of these disruptions impact the lives of societies and individuals. In this fast-paced futures game, players take on the roles of individual citizens of an unnamed country or region. In each round, a “shock” card is pulled, and players must consider how these shocks impact individual characters while also thinking about what a character might do differently because of the shock. What this means for individual players may be unique, but everyone comes from the same place, and disruptions that happen in this game will happen to everybody. In groups, players will then discuss together the collective opportunities and challenges that arise as their characters strive to build a more just and regenerative future for their societies. At the end of the session, which takes the form of facilitated gameplay, participants are invited to reflect on their takeaways: what they observed, learned, and what sparked in their imagination, and to consider how they might integrate futures thinking and collaborative problem-solving into their day-to-day roles. The objectives of the session are: › Simulate the complexity and uncertainty of the energy system and the plausible events and trends that could shape conditions and decision-making in the short- and medium-term. › Introduce participants to the concept of futures thinking and the idea that there are multiple potential, plausible, and preferred pathways and outcomes. › Build the anticipatory “muscle” of individuals and the collective. › Offer a fun, stimulating activity for people interested in the energy transition and/or in futures.