Greenpeace v Big Oil, the CC-released environmental game

Just in time for the holidays, Greenpeace has released a Creative Commons-licensed, free, print-and-play game that satirizes and dramatizes the Greenpeace fight brewing against big oil in the Arctic.

If you're the oil company you'll need to head straight for deep water. Sure it's risky, but that's where the money is. Set aside those moral scruples and go for the money. Do try and avoid the endangered species though, if any species becomes extinct, the PR backlash could shut you down and it's game over for both sides. If you're playing as Greenpeace you need to protect the ocean by setting up marine reserves. You can slow the oil companies down with direct actions (like occupying their rigs) but it's the creation of marine reserves that will finally end their deep sea drilling ambitions.

Of course this isn't just a game. The world's oil companies really are trying to drill in some of the riskiest and most environmentally sensitive areas in the world. Marine reserves - think national parks at sea - really are the answer. World Park Antarctica is closed to industry because you helped us win the campaign to protect it. There's no reason we can't do the same in the Arctic, where oil companies are licking their lips as, without a trace of irony, they welcome the shrinking of the ice caps due to climate change. See, retreating ice frees up more places they can drill for oil. Unfortunately that will lead to more climate change. You see the problem here. We like to call this humanity's "Stupid Test."

Free "print & play" game: Big Oil Vs Greenpeace to save the Arctic

(Thanks, Brianfit, via Submitterator)

• [seenoweevil]

  @technogeek – history of … ? defending the environment?

• [Anonymous]

  Ultimately any reserve will fail. There will always be some price X for oil at which economies are flailing enough and profits are high enough that a special dispensation will be given to drill. $200/bbl? $500/bbl? $1000/bbl? All reserves will do is delay until other sources are used first.

• [JohnC]

  No intelligent thoughtful person (or anyone who has watched Penn and Teller’s Bullsh!t) with even a glimmer of a conscience *could* support Greenpeace or Peta.

  There comes a time in the lifespan of every cause when the organization itself becomes far more important than the cause it was created for.

  Very often, almost inevitable, to the detriment of the cause itself.

  It’s the natural life cycle of activism and any organization that’s been around for more than a decade needs to be shunned completely.

  • [Anonymous]

    No intelligent thoughtful person (or anyone who has watched Penn and Teller’s Bullsh!t)…

    Without knowing about Greenpeace in particular, it terrifies me that people would form their opinion about environmental groups based on what Cato Institute fellows have to say about them.

• [megnes]

  This reminds me of a favorite board game from my youth, Save The Whales. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/19781/save-the-whales

  It’s a co-operative game for up to 4 people, moving amazing little models of whales around a beautifully illustrated board so you can save the whales from the horrors of oil spills, trawlers, whale hunters and krill die offs. It’s an amazing game, and I’m glad I stil have my copy.

• [ADavies]

  JohnC – Your point seems to be about the same as “don’t trust anyone over thirty”. Well, I’m over 30. And I work for Greenpeace.

  Maybe I can interest you in another look at Greenpeace. We’ve been getting a lot of good stuff done in the past few years…

  http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/about/victories/

  And check out the blog from my friend Dave today about saving a big chunk of forest in Finland.

• [Beelzebuddy]

  The most important point: does this game allow me to guffaw about destroying the environment like a Captain Planet villain? Can I build deepwater oil rigs which are doomed to fail, and then pump the oil straight onto water fowl and cute dolphins before grinding the lot into paste to be canned as tuna? Or is the moral lesson a heavy-handed “oil companies win, WE ALL LOSE” aesop?

  *reads*

  “EVERYONE LOSES if one species goes extinct.”

  Literally, that’s actually how they capitalize it.

• [technogeek]

  Pity it’s Greenpeace, and that the game specifically references Greenpeace. Given some of their history, I really can’t support them.