La Fresque du Climat Tourism - A game as a lever for climate action

Communication on climate change is currently experiencing its biggest challenge. How to raise awareness and engage actors in the path of climate action without being pessimistic, alarmist, boring or fatalistic? How can the discourse on sustainable transition adapt well to transform our feeling of powerlessness or guilt into participatory will and concrete actions?

What if it was through the game rather than through words?

TouriScope is trained to animate the Climate Fresco (see the details of our service), whose exponential success in Europe is now spreading to North America. It is a collaborative card game focused on understanding climate change whose objective is to make citizens aware of climate issues and encourage them to take action. And it works!

A fun and friendly 3-hour workshop, it allows participants to take ownership of the challenges of climate change and to become aware of their capacity for action. Recently arrived in Quebec and at a time of many discussions about more sustainable and responsible tourism, why not use it as a first tool to raise awareness among your employees, colleagues and partners?

Learning through play also works for adults

The Climate Fresco Association, created in 2018, was created from the observation that climate change is a complex collective problem and, even today, very poorly understood by the entire population. But also from the conviction that to feel concerned, you must measure its extent. However, it is proven that children learn better by playing. So why not adults too!

Who are the players?

Everyone can participate, from citizens to professionals, through territories, municipalities, institutions and destinations. It is an effective educational tool that communities, government institutions, businesses, businesses, schools, territorial development organizations or sectoral associations use to educate and mobilize.

Deculpabilize in order to act

Convinced that to act, you must understand, the Association relies on the simplicity of explanations and on collective intelligence to bring about serene and non-judgmental exchanges. The aim is to (re) put everyone on the same level of understanding.

What exactly are we playing?

Participants must place maps in a specific order to represent the “climate system” in which we live today (hence the idea of Fresco). Each map presents an issue, an impact or a consequence of climate change and is accompanied by a short legend that allows you to define in a few words what we are talking about. Once this complex system has been put together in the right order, participants are invited to switch to solution mode and see what actions they could take collectively and individually.

Part 1: we look at our maps:

The first part of the game therefore consists in first creating a “fresco” of the climate, that is to say a cause-consequence frieze, by positioning the cards next to each other according to a principle of causality or rebound effect. Structured in several “game phases” (4 in total), the animator gradually gives each of the players one or two cards that must be placed. Each card represents a cause, an impact, a risk, or a consequence in turn.

If participants can know several issues through their personal knowledge, they will especially be surprised to learn more and as much in such a short time. For example, do you know what exactly we are talking about when we talk about energy balance or ocean acidification? Do you know about radiative forcing? And do you really know which industries emit the most CO2?

Part 2: we make connections. It gets complicated (just a bit)!

Once the maps are positioned in an order (causes, impacts, risks, consequences) that makes sense for everyone, the animator invites us to make more complex connections. This is where collective intelligence once again demonstrates all its added value, because the fact of being able to exchange, ask questions, oppose ideas, reinforce someone's point automatically puts us in a position of openness and listening.

This phase of the game is very stimulating, because we realize that with everyone's different knowledge (however minimal it may be), we end up being able to identify logical links and make scientific and realistic connections.  

Part 3: we compare the sectors that emit GHGs

Thanks to existing data in each country where the Climate Fresco is given, participants have the opportunity to compare certain sectors of activity with each other as well as more precise components. As we know, this calculation is a crucial issue in achieving GHG reduction goals and in taking concrete actions. And visually, it has the expected impact...

Part 4: let's take action!

After a period of fruitful exchanges in a learning context, we move on to action and imagine simple actions within our reach, at the professional level or in the private sphere. By using a prioritization matrix based on the level of effort versus the effectiveness of the measure, we are more likely to become aware of the most promising actions.

From citizen participant to citizen animator

Raising awareness of climate issues among as many citizens as possible is the objective. And since an informed citizen is worth two (or three or four or millions), the founders thought of the game in such a way as to create a virtuous circle of learning citizens capable of appropriating new knowledge and transmitting it in turn. In short, anyone can take the training to lead this workshop and raise awareness in turn.

A workshop that Touriscope has adapted for the tourism sector!

Because we need a shared understanding of climate change in order to take constructive action. Interested organizations can contact us now to organize this workshop. Our trainer can travel or the workshop can be done online.

Learn more about our service The Climate Mural - Tourism

Useful links:

La Fresque du Climat Quebec - Official Facebook page
The Climate Mural - International association website