date: Tue, 25 Jun 2002 20:57:28 +0200
from: Birgitte RASINE <lacontessa@attglobal.net>
subject: climate change simulation game
to: m.hulme@uea.ac.uk, alex.haxeltine@uea.ac.uk

Dr. Mike Hulme, Executive Director
Dr. Alex Haxeltine, Senior Research Associate
The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia
                                                                        
         
June 25, 2002


Dear Dr. Hulme and Dr. Haxeltine,

I write to you on the suggestions of Dr. Stephen Schneider of Stanford
University and Dr. Schellnhuber of the Potsdam Institute of Climatology. 

I am a producer of green media -- i.e.,  responsible, environmentally
and socially themed audiovisual content.  My production company, LUCITA
(www.lucita.net) is based in the US but functions anywhere in the world
where there is a need for responsible media. We are currently
engaged in a fairly thrilling project involving realtime player
interaction with climate models -- an online interactive game.  
Attached please find a onesheet that will give you basic information
about the project. Dr. Schneider is our principal climate advisor.  

The purpose of this game is to educate&engage primarily young people
worldwide in the intricate interaction between human consumption and
lifestyle patterns, and the global climate,
and it does so in a rather unique manner.  This game is one of the first
of its kind, if not the very first, not because it is educational or bc
of the issues it
addresses, but because of the way in which it integrates technology,
realworld issues and scientific data, and the player's role in the game.
 
We've got a solid international team onboard, composed of scientists,
business advisors, creative and IT professionals.  One of our academic
online distributors and beta testers is Earthscape of Columbia
University in New York City.   

We intend to release the game commercially to the mainstream game
consumer age 11 and up, but are also planning an academic/government
release and a
 children's version (considerably simpler) on CD ROM.  One of the reasons
for making an academic/government version of this game is that we would
like to use
players' own realworld input to help policymakers and various relevant
government and non government bodies (UN, WHO, World Bank, etc.), gain
an insight into the dynamics of simulated human and climatic activity,
particularly insofar as such insight can illuminate human adaptive
capacity in the face of significant or threatening climate behaviour.
 A good potential use of this game would be to gauge how effective the
Kyoto Protocol would actually be, in actual human socioeconomic terms.  

 I met with Dr. Schneider and Dr. Schellnhuber in New York City (on
separate occasions, in April and May, respectively), and they were both
of the opinion that Tyndall Centre should play an active role in our project.

If there are any others among your colleagues at Tyndall who should be
included in this email, please do forward this email to them as well.  

The purpose of this email is to start a conversation with you, determine
whether you would be interested in coming onboard, and, if yes, then to
define how the Tyndall Centre would collaborate with us and what
benefits/value you would hope to get out of this project.  What we are
looking for is to put together a team of climate modelers who would work
with us on the development of the game blueprint -- this means working
closely with our mathematical modeling and software programmers teams. 
This can be achieved in a number of ways -- we can work exclusively with
one institution or select modelers from a variety of institutions, such
as Tyndall, PIK, USGCRP, IPCC, etc.   

Given this, we would like to know the following:

1.) Beside the provision of relevant research and other data, to what
degree would Tyndall be able to, or would be interested to, work with
us?  It is of course far too early to discuss details such as who and
how much time on a weekly basis.  For now, we would simply like to have
an idea of whether you could potentially make your researchers/climate
modelers available for this project (see point 3 below).
 
2.) Has Tyndall worked on climate simulation games in the past?   

3.) What sort of salary/budget would you require for your modelers if
they were to work with us?  Would we hire them individually (directly)
or indirectly through Tyndall?  Please let us know your policy or
preference in this matter.

Lastly, we wish to state that we will always respect, and properly
credit, any intellectual property that Tyndall develops or holds, that
may come into play during our collaboration.  We will discuss this in
further detail at the appropriate time.


Please let us know your thoughts, requirements for collaboration, and
any other points you wish to address.  We look forward to your response.


Kind regards, 

Birgitte Rasine

ps. We are communicating in a similar fashion with Dr. Schellnhuber and PIK.

 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Birgitte RASINE           | tel Italy: +39 329 73 25 929
Producer                  | tel USA: +1 203.876.9813
LUCITA                     | fax : +1 203.876.9813
www.lucita.net          | email: lacontessa@attglobal.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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