Category: Blog

Sometimes I need to balance out my bright and happy summer activities with a good ol’ brood – and my favorite way to do that is with one of my favorite eco-dystopian classics: Final Fantasy VII. A great game that also unknowingly teaches us a lot of different lessons about how unchecked environmental exploitation can lead to a world that doesn’t look so great. Like, Cloud’s-hair-not-great.

If its been a while since you played the game or you were too distracted by the love triangle in the remake, you may have not even realized that an overarching conflict of the game is based on a basic principle that we see all the time in the real world: The Tragedy of the Commons.

What’s that then? The subtitle of the 5,989,777th spin-off of Final Fantasy 7? Nope! Well, at time of writing. The Tragedy of the Commons is actually the name of an economic theory that describes how humans tend to behave when different people or groups are dependent on the same “common” natural resource. It says that without any social structure or rules, people will tend to act in their self-interest (big surprise there) and take what they need from the “common” resource regardless of what other people are doing. 

The problem? Well, this usually means that the resource is then overexploited and either temporarily or permanently damaged. It is ultimately mutually destructive for everyone in the long run unless everyone cooperates which usually means less short term personal gain. (For anyone who is familiar, Tragedy of the Commons is considered an example of the Prisoner’s Dilemma, because it is a social problem based on collective action).

As an example, let’s think about the universe of FF7 and our favorite evil corporation: the Shinra Electric Power Company.

Shinra started its humble beginnings in weapons manufacturing (like all good, honest corporations do) but then discovered a way to harvest the planet’s *lifestream* and refine it into an energy source called Mako. The lifestream is considered the spiritual energy of the planet and is described as the collective knowledge and emotional memory bank of all life that has existed and is needed to create new life. So, Shinra is taking it and making it into Mako and selling it. Because everyone needs energy and Shinra is the only company that makes Mako, they don’t just make money, they make A LOT of it. They use that power to get more power and end up basically controlling everything.

How is this a Tragedy of the Commons? Well. The lifestream isn’t “owned” by any one person. But it is important to EVERYone. However, one party – in this case Shinra – is harvesting more than their fair share and endangering the very existence of the lifestream. Not only that, but they are selling it back to the very people that it collectively belongs to and making a profit. They know that they will run out of lifestream and are actively searching for new sources, but I won’t elaborate in case there are any of you who live under a rock and don’t already know the story. Or you’re waiting for Square Enix to release the next part of the remake. In which case, enjoy finding out how the story ends in 2322!

The result leads to a world where all the characters, even the villains, have been negatively impacted by the ecological, social, or economic backlash of the Shinra corps. Even Sephiroth (*cue One Winged Angel theme*) owes his tortured back story to Shinra. You may think, “ok great but that would NEVER happen in the real world.” But sadly it does! Even though we all seem to have brains, we don’t always use them in a way that makes a lot of sense.

Think about the Earth’s atmosphere. Doesn’t all of humanity and all life depend on it? But we are also actively mucking it up. By pumping greenhouse gases and toxins into our atmosphere, we damage or fundamentally change it in a way that is worse for EVERYONE. If we know this, why does it keep happening? Because individuals have something to gain – usually short-term economic profit of some kind.  We all benefit from creating less greenhouse gases, but it entails collective action that isn’t always easy.

Ultimately, the concept of the Tragedy of the Commons can seem basic and easy to overcome but it gives us a glimpse at how seemingly simple problems unfold to become very complex based on ecological, social, and economic structures. FF7 creates a whole world filled with characters with very different motivations and reactions to the terrible situations they’re in, but the true source of the conflict often leads straight back to the Shinra Electric Power Company and their monopoly on society. Including its source of life – the lifestream.

How can we combat this existential dread in our own lives? Well in addition to learning the latin lyrics to One Winged Angel (ok that’s voluntary) you can learn more about where you get your important resources, like food and clean water. It sounds inconsequential, but if you know where you get your food or clothes or water then you are one step closer to understanding if those systems are unsustainable. Then you can advocate for better systems or choose better options (if they exist)! You can also support organizations that try to make better systems. Some like Kiss the Ground or Greenwave try to create food systems that can provide enough food for a growing world all while not harming the environment – which makes sense since we need the environment to make any food in the first place. 

That, and keep following Climate Replay for fun articles and events. No really, please hang out with us, this stuff can get depressing. Why did I choose FF7 as my summer game again? Take me back, Animal Crossing! Endlessly repeated sea bass joke, all is forgiven.

Have you played Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney? It’s an excellent game where you play a defense lawyer who exposes lies in the most dramatic way possible. You do this by carefully reading witness statements, finding contradictory evidence, and then pointing in their big lying faces while yelling “OBJECTION!” at the top of your lungs. It’s excellent. And also surprisingly good training for spotting real-world lies. Like this one:

What does my inherent laziness have to do with greenwashing? Well, these methods can also be handy for verifying too-good-to-be-true statements from corporations who appear to be helping fight the climate crisis and reduce their emissions. Statements like ‘we aim to be net-zero by 2050’ or ‘we’re working hard to produce sustainable plastic by year X’ or ‘don’t worry, this toxic waste we’re dumping in the ocean is just a birthday present for the dolphins ;D’. Statements that sound good on paper but don’t hold up to scrutiny, and have us yelling, Phoenix Wright-style:

So this week, we thought we’d apply some Phoenix Wright logic (er, minus all the stuff where you talk to ghosts – it’s a long story) to some of our ‘favourite’ pieces of greenwashing PR. Here’s some increasingly common lies to look out for.

“We aim to be X by 2050” without any concrete steps or accountability actions.

A modern classic! According to several scientists we contacted for this article, 2050 is still 29 years away. While some major green initiatives obviously take a lot of time, 29 years is a suspiciously distant deadline that could easily be used to justify complacency when more immediate action is vital. Like, say, an oil company that says it’s aiming to be sustainable by 2050 but is still drilling for new oil and gas.

Imagine if I’d been given 29 years to finish this article. it would have looked like this for 28.9 of them:

One of the most devious bits of greenwashing involves a symbol you probably see on a lot of your food packaging:

Hey, that looks like a recycling symbol! And ‘looks like’ is exactly what the pro-plastics lobbying group who created this symbol were going for. This ‘resin identification code’ actually identifies what type of plastic it is. The product it’s on can potentially be recycled. but whether it actually will be is completely dependent on the plastic recycling infrastructure in your area. Those arrows are deliberately misleading, designed to make you think that you can just chuck the packaging in the recycling without a second thought and then brag to all your friends about how you’re basically Ghandi 2. This excellent video by Climate Town is a hilarious primer about the whole depressing history of this. Recommended!

We’re more likely to buy something if we think we can easily recycle it, which is essentially greenwashing 101; lying that something is good for the environment or sustainable to boost sales. The truth is that the amount of plastic that is recyclable is shockingly low. We’ve only recycled 8-9% of all the plastic in the world that’s ever been produced. Plus, when plastic is recycled, it’s a lower grade. Recycled food grade plastic can’t be used for food grade plastic again, for example, because it no longer meets a certain health requirement. 

Sometimes you might see bio or compostable plastics – but, again, these are still plastic. Bio plastics source from “bio” materials like corn which would probably be better served as food for hungry people…but we still end up with the same plastic products that live indefinitely in the environment or landfills. Compostable plastics can technically degrade, but require industrial scale compost facilities that don’t exist in all cities. Do you have industrial compost options where you live?. Because chances are, you don’t. Which means it won’t be recycled. 

Obviously we’re not anti-recycling here at Climate Replay. Wait, are we? *checks Climate Replay constitution* Nope. Phew! But recycling is being exploited here by private companies falsely implying that we can keep mass producing plastics because recycling is the solution. It isn’t! Again, only 8-9% of all the plastic in the world got recycled! Would you read this article if I’d only spelt 8-9% of the words correctly? Exacctly!

Plastics are made from oil and gas products but don’t carry the negative PR of oil or other fossil fuels. That’s why fossil fuel companies are pushing them more and more with these misleading claims that they’re easily recyclable and fully endorsed by puppies and God or whatever. But plastic is about as closely linked with sustainability as this article is with Phoenix Wright (don’t worry, I’ll crowbar in a few more forced references soon, I promise x). You should just avoid using plastic as much as possible. Isn’t that right, Phoenix?

Thanks, Phoenix!

“Waste to Energy”. What if we could just set fire to all the trash and it would transform into a great source of energy? That sounds good! Too good! Too good to be true! Oh, darn…

Yep, what the three words of a buzzy phrase like ‘waste to energy’ fail to mention is that the energy conversion is very inefficient. Plus, there are still toxic byproducts. We also don’t want to create a supply chain for burning garbage, especially because burning things is pretty horrible for the environment.

“Creating a circular economy”

This one is a little tricky because the idea of making a circular economy for all our products is a cool goal. The idea is that a product should have a circular life cycle rather than one that ends up in a landfill/the environment. However, some companies will use this language to distract the conversation. They will say they “support a circular economy” but not talk about how they will actually, say, reduce their plastic production. They may even fight *against* systems that promote a circular economy like bottle deposits or refill stations for products like liquid soaps. It’s also another great example of pushing recycling as a magical fix to the entire problem, which it definitely is not.

You can find some outstanding circular economy flexing on the site of Aramco, the world’s biggest oil company. Look, it’s got a fun picture and a photo of a scientist and everything! And it’s not like an oil company would ever do something actively misleading. I’m winking as I type this. Just letting you know in case you can’t see me.

These are just a few examples of greenwashing, but sadly there’s tons more out there. If you see statements from businesses bragging about how green they are, try searching the terms they use and see what comes up from trustworthy news sources. If it’s a load of greenwashing nonsense, call it out! Fake green initiatives designed solely to generate good PR absolutely deserve to be countered with negative PR.

If you see greenwashing, and can prove it’s greenwashing, yell at them for greenwashing! Shame is the only reason a lot of these companies are having to pretend they’ve gone green in the first place. If a little more shame is what it’s going to take to get them to actually go green, then shame away! For example, I’m still so ashamed of that ‘LIE-O plastic joke’ from earlier that I’m off to make a donation to eclologi. Bye!

Authors: Frances Withrow and Tom Stone.

I’ve always dreamed of being able to fly, even though I’m so unhealthy that I sometimes pass out just from thinking about walking. Luckily for slobs like me, mankind recently invented something called the ‘airplane’, a mysterious metal tube that can fly me all over the world if I ask it nicely. Hooray!

But unfortunately, flying is about as good for the environment as deep-frying the polar ice caps. That’s why I decided to play possibly the greatest piece of anti-flying art ever made, a ‘game’ called Airplane Mode.

This is a flight simulator that doesn’t let you anywhere near the cockpit. Because it’s trying to simulate the feeling of being a passenger on a commercial flight. Get ready to experience a two-and-a-half-hour fake flight in real time!

Once seated, you can engage in the usual pre-flight activities. Like admiring the runway, fiddling with the arm rests, turning the fans over your seat on, and trying to remember why you pitched putting yourself through this for a Climate Replay blog post. All while the captain apologizes for a delayed take-off. Delayed? Oh marvelous.

Let’s pass the endless time by looking at why flying is miserable for the environment, even though some of the statistics you can find make it seem not that bad. Like how air travel accounts for just 2.5% of global carbon dioxide emissions. But that’s only because a lot of people can’t afford to fly, due to our stupid inequality-riddled planet. It’s the 20% of the world’s population who can and do fly that are to blame for that 2.5% – and 2.5% is still bad!

According to this jolly BBC News article, “a return flight from London to San Francisco emits around 5.5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) per person – more than twice the emissions produced by a family car in a year, and about half of the average carbon footprint of someone living in Britain.” Oh no! I live in Britain! Wait, that’s not why that information is depressing.

Speaking of depressing, I decided to try and entertain myself in Airplane Mode by seeing what the screen in front of me has to offer. But I suddenly get interrupted by an unskippable safety video. I bought New Pokemon Snap on the weekend. It’s unopened. I’m ‘playing’ this instead:

Is the safety demonstration video short? No. It is not. Shall we learn more about why flying isn’t good for the planet instead of watching it? LET’S.

The struggle to decarbonize air travel is something we haven’t made nearly enough progress in. There are some interesting-sounding solutions on the way, like how Airbus have announced plans to have the first zero-emission aircraft by 2035, using hydrogen fuel cells. Nice idea, but according to several calendar experts I consulted for this story, 2035 is still 14 years away.  Electric planes will also likely be limited to very small aircraft due to the limitations of battery technologies and capacity. But you know what? That’s fine! Make a plane so tiny I can chuck it in the garbage! Because look what I’m still watching:

Finally, we take off. I find my bag under my seat, which contains a book, some headphones, and a packet of pills. I immediately take one of the pills without checking what it is, just in case you were curious about what level of geniuses are writing for this website. 

The bag notably doesn’t contain a Nintendo Switch, so I guess I won’t be spending my two+ hours taking candid photos of Pikachu throwing up outside a nightclub and selling them to the tabloids (is that what you do in New Pokemon Snap? Again, I wouldn’t know). Instead, I have to settle for the games available on the screen in front of me:

I sit back and do a Sudoku in the in-game magazine while listening to one of the in-game podcasts and actually start… enjoying… myself? No, really! I’d be lying if I said the experience wasn’t oddly relaxing. Airplane Mode definitely captures that boring-long-flight sensation of being held hostage by the few entertainment choices you have, so you actually give them a chance. 

Is that an achievement? Absolutely! Do I ever want to play it again? Um…

Speaking of the sky and legal grey areas, did you know that the international aviation sector was not included in the Paris Agreement on climate change? 65% of the aviation sector’s CO2 emissions are in international airspace and, therefore, do not necessarily “belong” to individual nation states. But without tackling aviation (oh, and shipping, another sector with international emissions) meeting the 2C or 1.5C warming limits of the agreement is going to be more difficult. That’s another win for the ‘don’t fly’ column.

And here’s another MASSIVE one – I missed the bit in Airplane Mode where someone gives me my virtual orange juice because I was too busy getting stuck on the sudoku puzzle. Is this the worst moment of my entire life? It’s certainly a contender.

I think the sleeping pill I took earlier is about to kick in, so let’s wrap this up. Flying is horrible for the planet and you should avoid doing it when you can. That, and we need to hold airlines accountable to reduce their greenhouse gas production. A lot of airlines have been promoting carbon offsetting, wherein customers can ‘offset’ the emissions their flight causes by supporting green projects that theoretically cancel those emissions out. While offsets have potential and support great projects, they also reek of greenwashing PR. They make airlines look like they’re doing a lot more than they actually are/should be, with investigations finding offsetting not nearly effective enough. There’s no such thing as a green flight and you should limit or avoid flying whenever possible.

Covid-19 has forced a lot of the games industry’s biggest events, like the Game Developers Conference, to move online. This doesn’t just dramatically reduce the amount of flying involved. It also lowers the barrier for entry for developers who might not be able to afford a flight and accommodation in San Francisco. That’s great news! We should be encouraging more of this.

Am I implying that I’m pro-Covid-19? Of course not. That’s just the sleeping pill talking. But I am pro “breaking down income barriers for gaming conferences” (try it! It’s a fun corner to stand in!).

Airplane Mode is available on Steam now. Give it a go, and permanently cure your love of flying! 

HOPE. DISCONTENT.  Now we’ve got your attention, welcome to the second entry in our world-famous series, Play Games, Save the Planet! This is where we rave about great games that support good causes, depict the climate fight in interesting ways, or have a fantastic message. Last time, we talked about Alba: A Wildlife Adventure, a delightful, warm hug of a game! This time we’re looking at Frostpunk, which is more like receiving a hug so someone can stab you in the back with an icicle. Uh, great?

You’re the leader of a group of settlers in a dismal, frost-flavored future where the world is a barren, icy wasteland. You know those terrible ice levels in platform games where the floor gets stupidly slippery and all the fun you were having slides away? It’s like civilization is living in one of those. Yippee!

It’s a city-building game where you don’t have enough materials to build a city. Instead, you have to quickly instruct your hungry, freezing survivors to gather the worryingly finite amount of nearby resources, build shelters, ways of cooking and gathering food, and a medical outpost for when everyone inevitably catches a cold. Oh, or frostbite. Why did I pick this game to play again? Did I decide living through a global pandemic was too uplifting?

Oh, yeah! Because the bleakness is exactly why it’s worth playing. After a few hours of Frostpunk, I paused to take a walk outside on a pleasant sunny day, breathing a sigh of relief that I don’t live in a chilly hellscape. I’d quite like to keep doing that! I do not thrive in a chilly hellscape! Because remember at the start of this paragraph, when we were both young and optimistic, and I told you that I ‘paused’ the game? Well, that wasn’t quite true.

I was actually banished:

Frostpunk is either very tough or I am very stupid. For now, let’s assume the former. This is a game about desperately gathering resources, carefully managing the ones you have, and getting your workers to fetch you more and keep the whole settlement running without mutinying against you. Within two in-game days, Frostpunk was tantalising a very nasty part of me with an offer to let me sign a law that would make my people work 24 hour shifts. Not even a could-you-stay-an-extra-hour-and-I’ll-get-the-donuts-tomorrow middle ground, Frostpunk?

This blog post is full of what we’ll charitably call ‘jokes’. Frostpunk hates jokes. This is a dour, serious game, from the soundtrack that sounds like a violin bursting into tears, to the endless whining of your populace (yes yes, I’m sure burying your friends is pretty tiring when you’re starving to death because of my incompetence, but come on – we all have problems). That’s particularly galling since the two main bars you have to watch throughout are these:

Hope? Hope? How am I supposed to do that in a game that doesn’t even have a ‘recommend Alba’ button? Apparently one of the ways you can raise hope is by building a Propaganda Centre. Yeah, it’s fair to say that the makers of Frostpunk think about as highly of humanity as I do of the Koch brothers.

So the game’s about as welcoming as someone beating you with an exit sign. But it is undeniably compelling. 11 Bit Studios get our weeping respect for committing to an incredibly grim vision of the future and sticking to it 100%. You can build propaganda in-game, but there’s no room to blast climate change denial here. This game makes it clear that living in a videogame’s ice level will be horrible.

Most video games try to be fun, for obvious reasons. But some of the biggest sleeper hits in this medium have shown that games are surprisingly good at exploring the darker side of humanity. Silent Hill 2 isn’t ‘fun’, but is a horrifying and fascinating exploration of guilt and grief. Dark Souls’ combat is entertaining, true, but that’s just a thin layer of joy wrapped around a world trapped in an endless cycle of pain and despair. It’s the sort of thing I imagine the makers of Frostpunk play when they fancy a laugh.

We should be proud of games that commit to a grim vision and entice players to immerse themselves in it. Frostpunk isn’t explicitly a ‘climate change game’ (the cause of the world’s cold snap is more sci-fi based) but the parallels with climate change are obvious. The game’s exploration of what’ll happen if we let the world fall into such a state of icy ruin, and how cutthroat humanity could become, makes for a fantastic, galvanizing experience. One that should make anyone who just shrugs and accepts climate change as inevitable (and therefore not worth trying to stop) realise that’s truly not an option.

We said this series would cover games that had a ‘fantastic message’. This might be a slightly darker interpretation of the word ‘fantastic’ than you were expecting, but Frostpunk’s dire warning of the struggle to survive in a colder tomorrow is still a message well worth heeding. Just try not to shoot the depressing messenger, eh? Although we are running out of food and shelter…

It might not be the game I turn to when I fancy an uplifting evening of gaming, but I’m glad I get to play things like this, instead of some patronizing platformer funded by the oil industry. Something like ‘Frostfun’ (which, thankfully, I’ve just made up) where you play an irresponsible snowman who happily bounces around HappyHappyIceLandHooray, encouraging children to use fossil fuels to help all the elves learn to smile again. Wait, why am I not pitching this? I could be so rich…

Frostpunk is available on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Game Pass for PC and Xbox. Give it a try this weekend and see why a future where we don’t stop using fossil fuels will basically be a LIVING HELL. Happy Friday everyone! 😀

My favorite way to prep for hot girl summer is to visit my long-neglected weed-infested island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. In the year-plus-change since we all collectively had a mental breakdown and turned to Animal Crossing to dull the existential dread, I’ve realized this game has taught me two important things. 1. No matter who says they don’t like drama, we ALL love to arbitrarily judge island villagers, and 2. Seasons matter.

For a game where so little happens, Animal Crossing has an irresistible hook to keep you crawling back. Every month there’s something new! The trees, bushes, fish, insects, and weather all change throughout the year and sometimes even throughout the day. Not only does this keep the game fresh, but it’s also based on real life natural systems. Neat idea, but one that’s going to get a lot trickier due to humans playing games (see what I did there?) with the climate.

Where different trees grow and when they bloom, or where different fish live and when, depend on things like temperature, available nutrients or prey, and the amount of sunlight. Climate change is disrupting the balance of these things at alarming rates. Even some of our favorite things in Animal Crossing are already changing in the real world.

For example, players and real-life humans in the northern hemisphere recently got to enjoy the romantic flowering of the cherry blossom trees. Hopefully, you were able to get senpai to notice you this year, but if not there is always 2022! Did we get senpai to notice us? That’s hardly relevant now is it. Anyway, soon Animal Crossing will need to officially change the week of the cherry blossoms in-game if they want to emulate real ecosystems. All around the world from Japan to the US, the iconic trees are blooming earlier and earlier.

In Kyoto, they found records to prove that this year’s bloom was the earliest on record in over 1,000 years! And like a party guest who turns up six hours early, with a barrel (?) full of old casserole (???) this is far from good news. You see, the trees are very sensitive to temperature and as spring months are getting warmer, the trees are blooming sooner and sooner. Some scientists worry that with continued rise in temperatures earlier and earlier in the year, the trees may not bloom at all. Then none of us will be able to complete our long neglected DIY recipes. Looking at you, Cherry Blossom Wand 🙁

So you may be thinking, “bah! I don’t need any of the special things in Animal Crossing. I love the consistent things. Like a good ol’ sea bass.” Ah yes, much like an emotionally-stunted ex who realized they “made a mistake,” the irritating-but-predictable sea bass is always there when you are looking for something better. As annoying as they may be, they are a staple in Animal Crossing, but in the real world they are trying to swim away from increasing water temperatures.

Black sea bass off the Northeast coast of the US have already started to show up farther and farther north than any historical records show. They aren’t alone – some studies estimate that some fish will shift their normal ranges as far as 1000 km away. Wow. So it turns out boring-but-reliable sea bass can be just as cold and distant as our ex after all. Pfft who cares? Who’s gonna go long distance with a fish anyway? Help, we’re drowning in this metaphor and don’t know how to get out.

But the problem is that people DO travel that far for fish. The people fishing for them! And it’s getting harder and harder to travel that far. You may think, “hey, just let the people who live closer catch those fish” but unfortunately it isn’t that simple. Just like we have created arbitrary hierarchies for which Animal Crossing villagers suck and which ones don’t, we’ve also created arbitrary systems to try and manage our fisheries. Usually those systems are based on physical or political boundaries rather than where the fish are. These are the things I think about every day for a living…I’m definitely not distracted by Animal Crossing OR trying to take the ghost of partners past joke too far.

Managing moving fisheries based on unmoving physical or political boundaries, of course, results in conflict. Look up the great mackerel war of the late 2000’s between Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Britain over access to this fish in the North Sea. As temperatures were increasing, the fish were migrating farther and farther north (sound familiar?) causing conflict between who was allowed to catch what between the disputing parties. In this case, there was no solution. The fish were fished beyond a sustainable amount and the population collapsed.

We don’t have to stand by and simply watch this problem advance. We can fight to ensure that we may frolic annually in cherry blossom blooms (we MUST make that cherry blossom wand) and continue to fuel our rage at predictable exes… I mean sea bass. The best way to do this is to learn more about the problem, support those who are trying to change it, and advocate for those changes however you can. To learn more about changing communities and species under climate change, follow blogs like ours and scientists like Malin Pinsky. You can also support organizations like the Clean Air Task Force:

Here at Climate Replay, the only air we’re not interested in clearing is with our aforementioned ex, so we think the Clean Air Task Force is brilliant. Go check them out and see how you can advocate for climate solutions in your communities!

Thanks to Mariah Pfleger for providing an excellent screenshot of Pietro, the not-at-all-excellent clown.

Today we’re going to be talking about everyone’s favorite JRPG. The one that was surprisingly dark and had an eco-friendly message that was way ahead of its time. That’s right! It’s Final Fantasy 7 Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door on the Gamecube! 

The year was 2004, and Nintendo had briefly lost their minds. How else to explain why they published a game starring Mario that features a noose in the opening hub area.

This is in Rogueport, the seedy underbelly of the Mushroom Kingdom, and the opening of one of the funniest games ever made. One level has you solving an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery on a train, after someone assumes Mario is a detective because they mistake him for Luigi (who also isn’t a detective?). Even that’s not as delightfully strange as the level where Mario becomes a pro-wrestler, or becomes a pirate, or visits the moon, or when you play as Bowser, desperately trying to find a way to be relevant to the main plot:

At one point Mario learns to fly by folding himself into a paper plane, an idea so silly-yet-brilliant that it should be ripped off in every game ever. It’s a wonderful anything-goes adventure with a cast of characters so winning that I don’t think it’s unreasonable to demand that they suddenly exist in real life and all hang out with me. Please. I am very cool.

But what’s this got to do with Climate Replay or sustainability? Who cares, go play it! Oh, wait a second. We care. And delightfully, so does the game…

On your adventure, Mario takes a trip to Twilight Town. Now I know that name sounds a little sinister, but this is still a family-friendly Mario adventure so I’m sure it’s not that bad and that everything has a smiley face drawn on it. Let’s take a look!

Okaaaaaaaaaaaay, so Twilight Town does look like the kind of place a resident of Silent Hill would think twice about visiting. But I’m sure it’s not that bad once you get used to it. It’s not like there’s a terrible curse upon the town wherein whenever a bell tolls, one of its residents gets turned into a pig…

Everyone calm down. This is still a Mario game and we all know how this works. Obviously he tracks down the villain, hops on his head a few times, saves the day, the end. It’s not like the villain actually possesses Mario, steals his identity, and traps him as a shadow doomed to wander the Earth, friendless and alone for the rest of his da… you can see where I’m going with this can’t you?

To defeat this monster and get his body back, Mario needs to learn the villain’s true name, Rumplestiltskin-style. Er, obviously. To do this, you have to take advantage of your new shadowy existence to spy on the local villagers. Actually, that would almost make sense, which is not this game’s style. So you have to spy on the local crows. Whatever you say, game!

This is where the sustainability stuff comes in. All the crow conversations are hilarious, but one of them also reveals what crows are really worried about (it’s at 0:34 in the video below),  the depletion of fossil fuels:

The first crow mentions it’s making them depressed, and their crow companions agree. But then they immediately start talking solutions! Hydroelectric and solar energy both get shout outs. In a Nintendo game. In 2004.

It’s a funny moment in a game overstuffed with them, but also one that feels weirdly radical today. In a time where Ubisoft endlessly claims all their games are ‘non-political’ (including The Division 2, a game where your main base of operations is the white house), it’s pretty incredible to see fossil fuels categorically shouted out as a problem. The context might be ridiculous but the seriousness of why renewable energy is vital isn’t the punchline. More games should be doing this! 

It’s not a perfect moment, mind. The problems we face today aren’t so much caused by the depletion of fossil fuels, but the fact we need to stop using the ones we have because of their devastating effects on the planet. Perhaps Mario Odyssey 2 could make up for this by having you butt-stomp all the world’s oil back into the ground? Perhaps it’s ideas like that which explain why Nintendo never called me about a job interview? I guess we’ll just never know.

Here at Climate Replay, this game got us stroking our chins and wondering what other games talk about climate change? It could be a large part of the game, or even a bizarre, throwaway moment like this one. Do you know any? Then tell us! We’re working on an upcoming post about the history of climate change in video games and would love you to get involved. You can share climate change moments you’ve spotted in in games on our Discord server or drop us an email at [email protected] with the subject line #hangmario. I mean CLIMATE GAME.

Shall we end on a screenshot of the Twilight Town’s mayor’s incredible oinking after he was turned into a pig? I think we all know the answer to that:

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to let us know what climate change stuff you’ve spotted in your games!

Welcome to Play Games, Save the Planet! A new series where we rave about great games that support good causes, depict the climate fight in interesting ways, or have a fantastic message. Or in the case of today’s game, do all three! Yes, we’re kicking things off with a game so delightful it made me smile, and I’m British. They throw people out of my country for far less. It’s Alba: A Wildlife Adventure!

We’ll take a look at some of the terrific organisations developer ustwo games have gotten involved in. But first, let me introduce you to a game so pretty that my eyes officially aren’t worthy of looking at it…

Out now on Apple Arcade and Steam (and coming to lots of other platforms this year), Alba is the best childhood summer holiday you’ll ever take. Young Alba visits her grandparents on a sun-soaked Mediterranean island. Wait, did I just spell ‘Mediterranean’ right on the first try? Whoa, suddenly my crippling Creative Writing college debts were all worth it! Even if playing this game is the closest I’ll ever come to affording a vacation….

Anyway, Alba soon learns that this picturesque island has a lot of problems. Its decrepit Nature Reserve has clearly seen better days. But instead of fixing it, Mayor Toni has plans to convert it into a luxury hotel. WHAT?!!?!??!?!?!??! >:O

Alba and her friend Inés aren’t going to stand for that rubbish. They found the brilliantly-awkward acronym AIWRL (Alba Inés Wildlife Rescue League) and start petitioning island residents for signatures to prove they don’t want no stupid hotel. You also prove the island is home to all sorts of fantastic indigenous life in need of protection by taking photos and cataloging the animals with a nifty app on Alba’s phone.

Fair warning: getting snaps of all the animals gets addictive. Really addictive. It’s easy to forget what you were meant to be doing because you’re too busy scampering across the island trying to track down that elusive owl you need for your collection. It’s even educational. Thanks to this game I now know that the latin for squirrel is inamabilis sciurus, and therefore I finally feel complete inside. About time!

If you’re playing on iOS, you even move Alba’s phone around to position her camera by moving your phone/iPad. This is, and I’m not interested in any counter-arguments here, clearly powered by magic. I’ve burnt people at the stake for less.

Excellent touch screen controls on iOS make exploring a breeze, and who wouldn’t want to take thousands of photos on an island this pretty? It’s a gorgeous place to explore, all accompanied by the various barks, tweets, and baas of the animals, and a wonderful soundtrack by Lorena Alvarez that’s officially the best thing to happen involving sound since the invention of the ear. 

Having said that, some of the animal design is a little unrealistic. I mean, what the heck is this animal supposed to be?

UGH. Irredeemable JERKS have coated the whole island in garbage! I’d be throwing up right now, if that wouldn’t just make the problem worse. Luckily, the game won’t stand for this. You’re encouraged to pick up the trash whenever you come across it. 

We raised an eyebrow at putting the garbage in bins instead of recycling it, but then Alba’s grandma gave us a recycling bag and we put that eyebrow safely back down. Encouraging recycling is a great moral for a game, especially considering the moral of too many other games is ‘guns solve everything’. Which is… yeah. Not great.

It’s got a witty script, great characters, is super-relaxing to play without being dull (an incredibly tricky balancing act to get right) and anyone who thinks God of War’s Kratos is the most intimidating hero in video games has clearly never crossed the wrath of little Inés:

Who knew recycling, community organizing, helping animals, and rebuilding nature could be so fulfilling? And that writing isn’t fulfilling at all in comparison? Lesson learnt for my next life, I guess. In the meantime, at least I get to enjoy such a warm-hearted adventure. One that my stone heart, covered in a thick layer of lockdown ice, desperately needed. Thanks Alba!

But it’s not just a fun game with some great things to say. The developers also support some fantastic organisations that you can find on their official website. I’m gonna research them now then continue writing this article! Oh no what if they all turn out to be evil 🙁

UPDATE: They didn’t turn out to be evil. Phew!

First off, Alba developer ustwo games have partnered with Ecologi, a tree-planting organization. This isn’t because ustwo games have lost their minds and have started trying to get their game to run on actual trees, like I initially assumed, because I’m an idiot. They’re actually trying to help Ecologi plant 1 million trees!

At time of writing, they’ve already managed 652, 923 trees. Every time someone purchases or downloads Alba, they’ll plant another. So even if you end up hating the game, you soulless monster, why not download it anyway?

Not content with merely helping plant hundreds of thousands of climate-helping trees, ustwo games are also a founding partner in Count Us In. They’re trying to inspire 1 billion citizens to reduce their carbon pollution and deliver global change. Well, as long as all 1 billion readers of this article (I round up) are inspired, that shouldn’t be a problem.

But even that’s not all. Because ustwo games, who, frankly, are just showing off at this point, are also part of the Playing for the Planet alliance, a UN initiative (you can find out more about them by clicking this sentence instead of reading it. Though I concede you could click on it and read it, I suppose).

Finally, ustwo games is a B Corp. That’s not just me trying to insult them and not being able to think of anything good (“haha you’re not an A Corp! Oh God I’m so lonely”). To quote directly from Alba’s website, ‘B Corps are for-profit businesses that meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Through Alba, and these amazing initiatives, we hope to create a measurable positive impact in the world.’

Sounds good to us! What do you think, Inés?

…I was actually more fishing for a compliment on my article. But what the heck, I agree!

You can find out more about Alba, and purchase it, by clicking this sentence and heading to their official website.

Climate Replay is not affiliated with ustwo games. This is just a passionate, borderline-creepy fanpost!

Happy 51st Earth Day! What lovely gift did you get our planet this year to show how much you love it? Nothing? Nothing at all? Hey, same here! Well, we found some flowers left in a dumpster. Earth can have those. Our treat.

Actually, that’s appalling. How about we chuck in a brief history of Earth Day too? That should hopefully be enough for Earth to resist dumping us for another year…

The very first Earth Day took place in the United States in 1970 and not a moment too soon. Because in the decades leading up to it, Americans were breathing in more air pollution from inefficient automobiles and unregulated industrial factories – not to mention that you could advertise cigarettes like this. Basically, if you lived in America in 1956 it was probably healthier to just not bother breathing at all. Remind us to get a doctor to fact check this article later. If there’s time.

So to explain the origins of Earth Day, we’ll have to travel back to 1969! A time before any good video games had been invented. Isn’t that going to be tough, considering Climate Replay is all about using video games to talk about the Climate Crisis? 

…

…No. Not at all.

In 1969, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson managed to tear himself away from Lunar Lander for a few minutes so he could propose the very first Earth Day, a collaboration between government and citizens. This was in the aftermath of a massive oil spill in January of that year in Santa Barbara, California. Literally the only good thing about the tragic Santa Barbara spill is that Mark Whalberg didn’t make a movie about that one. So it’s easy to see why US citizens in 1969 would find a day dedicated to not drowning our planet in toxic gunk so appealing. 

Senator Nelson was inspired by the student anti-war movement. He wanted to combine that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution. And since the kind of energy he’s on about here was completely green, Climate Replay approves! Good work, Senator!

Senator Nelson announced an idea for a teach-in on college campuses to the national media. He persuaded Pete McCloskey, a Republican interested in conservation, to serve as his co-chair and recruited Denis Hayes, a young activist, to organize teach-ins. 

They chose April 22, a weekday that fell between Spring Break and Final Exams. Good idea! That’s also two days after my birthday! What’s that? How is that relevant? Well… it’s not, I guess. Fine. Jeez. We’ll move on.

Denis Hayes recognised that this movement could involve more than just students. Therefore, he built a national staff of 85 people to promote events across America! The name was also changed to ‘Earth Day’, a name that caught on with the national media. Because it’s a good name! Imagine if they’d gone with ‘Soil Day’ or ‘An Earthy Evening with Gaylord, Pete and Denis’. We’d have probably banned them from Earth entirely, and rightly so.

In 1970, the first official Earth Day kicked off! 20 million Americans, 10% of America’s entire population at the time, took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to protest the impacts of 150 years of unchecked industrial development without any consideration of the human and society impacts. Air pollution being bad is a great thing to shout about, because if you start coughing and can’t finish your sentence… perfect! That proves your point! 

Earth Day achieved a political alignment between Republicans and Democrats, and also between urban and more rural populations. And between socioeconomic classes. Awww, look at our species getting along for literally the first time ever! This is something we’re absolutely aiming to achieve with Climate Replay by the way. We don’t care about your income or your background or even if you’re not really a fan of Lunar Lander. This climate fight needs everyone.

Earth Day had a massive impact. By the end of 1970, the Nixon administration had established the Environmental Protection Agency and passed the Clean Air Act. Imagine trying to oppose something called the ‘Clean Air Act’. How would you even make that argument? “I think filthy air is tastier?” “Farting is the only time I feel truly alive?” OK, buddy. You do you.

We’re going to skip forward to 1990 now, and not just because I can’t bring myself to use another 1970s video game screenshot in this article:

In 1990, environmental leaders and Denis Hayes organized for a global Earth Day. Yeah, come to think of it, having a non-global Earth Day does slightly miss the point. They mobilized 200 million people across 141 countries, providing a global stage for environmental issues. Expecting another pithy one-liner? Well TOUGH because we think that’s brilliant!

So that’s Earth Day! It’s widely recognized as the largest secular observance in the world, marked by more than a billion people every year as a day of action and advocacy for better global, national, and local policies for our planet. Why not click here to head to its official website to learn more? Tell ‘em Climate Replay sent ya! Don’t tell them about our dysentery jokes.

Today marks the 51st Earth Day. Let’s try and make sure Earth’s still around for a few more, eh?

Thanks to Frances Withrow for researching this piece.

Dedicated to Mary, who tragically broke an arm in the making of this article.

Hi! My name’s Cory and I’m beyond excited today to kick off the Climate Replay blog by telling you all about… well, Climate Replay! We’re a group of gamers working together to build a sustainable tomorrow, and we’d love for you to be involved.

We have lots of exciting plans ahead, some of which we’re ready to talk about today, and more that’ll be announced in the coming months (what better excuse to sign up to our email newsletter?). First, let me share a bit about us.

Not only is climate change the biggest crisis and most concrete threat to humanity, it’s also the most immediate. According to the IPCC, we have less than 10 years to halve our global greenhouse gas emissions to have a chance at success in mitigating the worst potential outcomes. Scary as this is, it is something achievable. But trying to do it alone would be about as smart as taking on Ornstein and Smough with no batteries in your controller. Which is why we’re organizing gamers through Climate Replay!

Most people want to help fight climate change, but it can be intimidating to figure out what information to trust or which organisations are most effective and worth your support. That’s why we’re going to do the heavy lifting for you, researching and vetting the organisations we’re planning to work with and raise funds for!

The climate movement has had incredible momentum in recent years. We have seen changes in attitude at every level, and actions that are being taken not only make way for initiatives like Climate Replay, but show why organizing together makes a difference. Plus, solar is now the cheapest electricity in history! In fact, our website, provided by game server hosting company Creeperhost, is running 100% on locally generated solar power. Nice! Amazing things are happening, and we want to build on that.

We see an opportunity to use the gaming community as a unifying force in the battle for the health of our planet. Everything we’re doing with that community is built around our three guiding principles: Fun, Inclusivity, and Education.

Fun? Yes, fun! We legitimately want to make it entertaining and engaging to learn about climate change. That’s why we’re putting together articles, videos, and interviews with climate scientists that make the essential climate change facts as fun, informative, and easy to understand as possible. But without being patronizing or sugarcoating the crisis our planet faces.

Don’t want to learn anything but still want to help? Sure… why not! We’re planning to raise funds and awareness for great organizations by putting together fantastic charity livestream events with your favorite content creators. We also have plans for game and art jams that raise funds while also inspiring and enabling climate-positive creativity!

We’re also actively looking for ways to promote sustainability within the gaming industry. 

Do you have more ideas how we can use video games to fight climate change? Want to join a positive, inclusive group of like-minded gamers and get access to the most adorable emojis ever? 

Then come say hi over on our Discord server! Unlike these cute ducks, we don’t bite.

Change needs to be made in all industries, and the gaming industry is no exception. We believe there’s a role for everyone in Climate Replay to help us create that change. Join our community and help us help the planet!