Addressing the complexity of climate change through games

Climate change is one of the main issues of our time and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has declared the state of global emergency. Although a recent report reveals that the 93% of Europeans see climate change as a serious problem, it seems the issue is not recognized as so urgent by individuals or as something that can be tackled through individual actions. Towards the vast complexity of the phenomenon, the individual feels distant and impotent attributing the main responsibility of implementing effective actions to governments and industries. We believe the change of public attitude at a larger scale is as relevant as the utmost necessary governmental action plans. The present work addresses the topic of climate change in order to encourage the commitment of ordinary people to take care of the environment, enhancing the role that each individual can have locally to impact globally. The thesis focuses on climate as a complex system and tackles specifically the need to master the concepts and mechanisms typical of complexity as a way to foster conscious pro-environmental actions through science education. It is considered relevant the impact on educational approach to forge in the public an adequate mindset oriented towards a new causal logic where the concepts of complexity – such as emergent properties, feedback mechanisms and deterministic chaos – are cognitively accepted and embraced. Amongst the didactic tools developed by researchers in science education, the work focuses on four role-playing activities that have been analyzed in details, in particular to show how the concepts typical of complexity can enhance the role of individuals to tackle the issue of climate change. Indeed, the educational path proposed in this thesis was designed with the big scope to contribute to make people believe in the power of individual actions towards the global change comprehending the true aspects of complexity.