Where would you look for people – and industries – that are good at thinking through what it would mean to be responsible for looking after Planet Earth? Let's put aside religions, which have tended to be more interested in the afterlives of their believers than in the afterlives of future generations of humans and other species. So who comes to mind then?
For some, the world's financial centres will surface pretty quickly, but one of the best books I have read in a while offers a different answer. Written by Jane McGonigal of the Institute for the Future, Reality is Broken argues that the designers of online games – and those who play them – "have a head start on this mission".
The Civilization game, for example, challenges players to guide different cultures – the Aztecs, Romans, Americans or Zulus – from the start of the Bronze Age, 6,000 years ago, through to 2100 AD. These games encourage players to take a long-term view, to apply ecosystems-thinking (seeing the world as complex and interdependent) and to run many experiments in search of solutions. A more recent example is Red Redemption's Fate of the World strategy game.
The sheer size of the gaming industry is astonishing. In the US, there are more than 180 million active gamers, each playing on average over 13 hours a week. Add console and mobile-phone games and there are more than four million gamers in the Middle East, 105 million in India, 10 million in Vietnam, 100 million in Europe, and 200 million in China.
Young Americans spend more than three times more time playing computer and video games than they spend reading books – and are pretty good at collaboration. Aiming to achieve "epic wins," players don't just feel good – and the evidence suggests that generally they do – but are also inspired, by the right games, to do good.
At a time when natural resources are running out, the initiative and energies of gamers represent one of our greatest renewable resources which can grow as we use them.
John Elkington is executive chairman of Volans (www.volans.com) and non-executive director at SustainAbility (www.sustainability.com)
