Luca's Collaboratorium looks great - followers of this list might also be interested in the following class exercise, which seems highly complementary to this initiative ...
A big problem at Copenhagen is that no-one appreciates the scale and speed at which this problem is progressing, nor the scale and urgency of action needed. (I am not taking a position in this – what follows is entirely based on the quantitative science adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and thus endorsed by most governments).
Another group with MIT heritage – the Sustainability Institute - has developed a negotiation exercise that mimics the discussions that will be happening at Copenhagen, and in the process introduces some simple information on the issue – see www.climateinteractive.org. The materials to run the exercise are freely available at http://www.climateinteractive.org/simulations/copenhagen-climate-exercise/instructor-resources/. I have delivered it myself and it is easy to run and highly effective.
Following is a short description of the exercise ...
"...
In December, delegates from all nations on earth will meet in Copenhagen to negotiate an agreement to slow and reverse the emission of greenhouse gases, and take other actions to combat climate change and mitigate its impact on human populations. The negotiations will be challenging for all who take part. Developed nations as the major emitters have the largest scope to contribute but the greatest structural changes to make. Rapidly developing economies need to contribute whilst not threatening their growth. The least developed countries need to seek economic progress for their people, requiring substantial increases in energy use.
This session will give you a chance to experience exactly those pressures, by playing the role of the Copenhagen delegates and negotiating commitments to act on behalf of the main country-groups. A simulation, validated by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] and used by many delegates prior to that conference, will show you the impact of the deal that you manage to agree amongst yourselves - what will happen to greenhouse gas levels, global temperatures and sea levels over coming years, and what impact will this have on human populations? You will then have a second opportunity to negotiate improved proposals.
The session will give you a powerful understanding of climate change issues and the political challenges in confronting them. It will also demonstrate the power of simulation to both capture a complex situation in an understandable way and provide a tool for developing and evaluating strategic alternatives.
... "
BPS-Netter
I have received the following interesting request from Luca Iandoli iandoli@unina.it :
I have worked at MIT for awhile on the development of a mass collaboration tool called Climate Change Collaboratorium. The tool has just been released publicly and through it one can vote for the plans for greenhouse gases emissions reduction that will be on the table at the Copenhagen conference. Anybody can join, vote for a plan and even create a new one. I would appreciate management education colleagues to help this worthy endeavor. (See how below).
Luca
MIT Climate Change Collaboratorium
What agreement would you like to see in Copenhagen?
Vote for the proposal you think is best or create a better one yourself at http://www.climatecollaboratorium.org . Until December 11, people from all over the world are invited to this site to develop and vote on proposals that describe the agreement they hope will be negotiated in Copenhagen. The results will be delivered to the UNFCCC. Visit the Climate Collaboratorium and let your voice be heard!
Global climate change is perhaps the most pressing and important problem currently facing humanity. The goal of this MIT research project is to address this important challenge through the creation of a new class of web-mediated discussion and decision making forums, called the "Collaboratorium". The system use an innovative combination of internet-mediated interaction, collectively generated idea repositories, computer simulation, and explicit representation of argumentation to help large, diverse, and geographically-dispersed groups systematically explore, evaluate, and come to decisions concerning systemic challenges.
Find more at http://cci.mit.edu/research/climate.html