Scientists at the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab are using virtual reality in the hopes that it can change human behavior and curb climate change. The Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab, which was founded in 2003, has been using augmented and virtual reality to help influence human interaction. Some of their previous work includes integrating VR into the classroom, using VR to help users feel empathy, and studying the psychology of augmented reality.
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published an alarming climate report on August 9th that stated that human activity has had an irreversible effect on the environment. UN officials called the climate crisis a code red for humanity. The UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that “If we combine forces now, we can avert climate catastrophe. But, as today’s report makes clear, there is no time for delay and no room for excuses. I count on government leaders and all stakeholders to ensure COP26 is a success.”. The report comes after Turkey faced the harshest wildfires of the country’s history amid rising global temperatures.
The Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab, in collaboration with researchers from Hydrous, aims to improve environmental and ocean knowledge in order to face the climate emergency with study sites in 12 states. The study consists of trying to find the most engaging way to introduce climate awareness to school curriculums as well as seeing how different levels of immersion impact the emotional cognitive process. One such way they achieve this is by fully immersing a user in a pool while they wear a headset as they engage in a VR experience underwater about climate change’s effects on the ocean.
Fighting Fire With Fun
Other scientists have had differing ideas on how to tackle climate change with virtual reality. Vanessa Keith, associate professor at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation, goes into detail on a VR MMORPG set in a world post-climate catastrophe she has been developing. The game tasks you with using different emerging technologies to protect various cities from incoming climate disasters. You earn points and have a selection of various classes. Ms. Keith is applying this approach to addressing climate change to make the fight against climate change less daunting “Maybe it’s not reaching people because it’s just so daunting. Maybe we could get more people on board using fun because fear doesn’t seem to be working. People just shut down“.
While this research can help improve the understanding of environmental change in the world’s youth, the IPCC report explicitly states that in 20 years the world will be facing a climate catastrophe. While this research and software are altruistic in nature using virtual reality is going to do little to reverse the effect of climate change when world leaders are the ones who must act.
