12 PM | 24 Apr

2059: FutureCoast [#geekgirl]

[FUTURECOAST: Image Via Fast Company]

[Image Via Fast Company]

[Via Fast Company] “FutureCoast, launched in early February with the help of a National Science Foundation climate education grant and Columbia University, has at least a hundred other messages like the Last Lobster. Some are funny: Like the one woman in the seaside town of Brighton who can’t get home because the tide’s gotten too high and needs to seek shelter in a “flotel” for the night. Others are devastating. In one message, a woman with a trembling voice asks her friend in government if he might be able to help her locate her partner, who’s gone missing after having gone to interview protesters at a “refugee rights” demonstration.

The emotional tenor and imagination of the messages range widely, but the futures aren’t actually that far off. In the FutureCoast world, voice messages are leaking into the present day from futures between 2020 and 2065. And some, like the disappearance of certain flora and fauna, mass political unrest, and water shortages, are incredibly realistic–just go and read the latest IPCC report.”

08 AM | 01 Sep

Building Online Games To Save Nature

Geekgirlers: meet Pawan Maulik. Maulik is a game developer and reviewer on the Boom Town UK who actually cares about the state of the natural world. As a fresh 2008 Toy and Game Design graduate from the Ahmedabad National Institute of Design, Maulik found:

“…that people did not like to read pamphlets or literature about social messages on environment. I was looking for some way to make these things interesting for the younger generation. It was then that I started exploring the medium of online games and spreading social messages through them…The games that are under development right now are on global warming, tree plantation, power consumption, renewable energy and water conservation. The games would go into the public forum and be accessible in a couple of months. I am waiting for funding and as soon as it is through, these games will be available on already existing online gaming websites.”

Read more about Maulik and his projects here.