Kids today with their annoying Ipads

Have you all ever seen kids as young as 4 these days playing with ipads and smartphones? They are soooooooo annoying.

I know it is kind of ironic that i am complaining about kids these days with their ipads, but i really don't remember being that young or obsessed as they were about playing mobile video games. So much so that they are often looking down rather than up at their surroundings.

I often played video games at home. Back then the only mobile video game available was on the gameboy console which i did not get until much later in life. Yet, today i see kids as young as 4 years old being attached to their smartphones and tablets.

The parents are of course not blameless. They often give kids access to the ipads because they do not want the kids bothering them. Gone are the days where parenting skills are necessary. After All you can just rely on your ipad to help take care of your kid.

This is clearly a problem, as we have already discussed previously. I mean you have kids who seem to be more interested in what is in their screen rather than what is around them. I will definitely not get my kid an ipad.

Learning about the environment through video games. An Oxymoron?

Wow, the last 2 weeks of school has left me guilt ridden. I mean, the lesson highlighted the fact that part of the reason why people are losing touch with our environment is due to their increased exposure to media, in particular television (though i feel that kids these days tend to play more video games than they do television). So,it may seem kind of ironic that i am sharing about environmental issues through video games. With that, i felt that i should probably clarify in this post about my entire reason behind discussing environmental issues through video games.



Can video games actually be effective when trying to promote environmental issues?

Writer of  Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, Richard Louv (2005) describes how our children is losing direct contact with nature. He identifies indirect interaction with nature through the media as Vicarious environmental experiences. He argues that this is one of the less effective interaction with nature a children can have.

Video games would definitely fall under this category. However, my goal of writing this blog has never been about providing the sort of experiences that we get directly from nature. Those kind of experiences are irreplaceable. There is definitely some regret that i feel when i think about the fact that i did not spend as much time as i should outdoors when i am younger.

However i truly believe that videogames can still be an effective way to communicate environmental issues. Afterall, much of the video games that i have discussed thus far has some basis in reality. If we can harness the interactive nature of video games, I believe that interest can be generated about the environment. And it is clear that i am not the only one who thinks this is the case

One of the most interesting papers i have read recently is titled " Why conservationist should heed pokemon"(Balmford et al., 2002). In the paper, it was found that children were better able to identify pokemon characters as opposed to commonly found fauna in their local environments. The paper concludes that more should be done to engage children. Sadly, growing up, no one ever introduced to me the idea of environmental issues through games. Much of my opinions of the environment was shaped by reading news articles, movies and television shows. Video games are inherently different from other forms of media because it has an interactive element to it. It can show players how their actions have a direct consequence to the environment. It is unsurprising that video games have been used to taught other subjects in schools since it is such an effective medium. 

Fortunately it would seem, there are organisations that are working on such a project. The Science for Nature and People (SNAP) organisations is working on their "Gaming for future of environmental communications". This is clear indication that people are exploring new unique ways to bring across the message about saving the environment.

Come on companies, there is gold to be made in making video games with an environmental message and it would also be the right thing to do to ensure that there are children in the future to play your video games.

Fallout : War and the environment

Fallout 4 cover box

I can't wait for the release of Fallout 4 next month (although exams are clearly in the way of me actually playing the game). I just thought that fallout would be an interesting game by which we can explore the impact that war has on the environment, which i believe tends to be one of the most overlooked impacts of war.

Of course in the fallout series, much of the world's population and environments were devastated from nuclear war (although such a war is unlikely at this point we should definitely hope that it doesn't happen). Although many of things portrayed within the video games are probably fictional (like the presence of super mutants and other oddities), it gives us a good visualisation of how inhabitable earth would be if we were to destroy our environment from our wars. We, as a species, now have the ability to irreversible change our environments in ways unimaginable from our weapons of mass destruction.

Bioshock: Feasibility of Artificial environments

Behold Rapture, a city under the sea, much like that envisioned in many different sci-fiction shows of the past. Here, the city is built upon the energy of hydrothermal vents found deep in the sea. And lo and behold, this city is indeed a technological as well as aesthetic beauty. Makes you wonder whether or not we could build such a structure with our ingenuity- to be able to conquer an environment that we were never meant to.

Figure 1: Picture of Rapture. The city under the sea in the video game bioshock.

If anything, we know that living away from our natural environment is probably a gargantuan if the results of the artificial environment "Biosphere 2" was any indication of the importance our natural ecosystem has on the sustainability of the lives of humans.

The world's first and largest artificial environment was constructed in 1987 at the St. Catalina Mountains in Arizona. Dubbed "Biosphere 2" in recognition of it being the only other known environment to support life as far as we are aware, it was built to try exlore the feasilbility of building artificial environments in space as well as to explore whether or not organisms could survive and thrive under such conditions.

Within "Biosphere 2" all supports thought to be necessary for live to thrives was present- from plants to animals. There were even unique environments build within "Biosphere 2" itself such as desserts and oceans".

Various abiotic aspects of the environment could be controlled within "biosphere 2". Factors such as temperatures, humidity (everything that could affect the ability for different species to thrive).

During the second mission, it was noted that the oxygen amount of within Biosphere 2 was rapidly decreasing. This led to many problems to the health of the people inside Biosphere 2 as the oxygen level dropped to 14%.

It was later found that the reason for the rapid drop of oxygen within the environment was a due to the imbalance between the rate of photosynthesis and respiration within the enclosed system.

Learning points from the experiment

I found the idea of an artificial environment really cool but the problems faced by the crew of "Biosphere 2" showed us how suited for life the earth really is. The earth is in a stable state precisely because of the environment and all the natural processes such as carbon sequestration of the Ocean. If any one thing goes wrong than it could lead to many problems as observed in Biosphere 2.

As we known in the past, climate change from natural processes have led to a series of natural extinction events. For example, one of the reason suggested for the Permian-Triassic extinction event was due to the environment being notably anoxic. The huge change the the oxygen concentration in the atmosphere led to death of many organisms on earth.

Knowing the fragility of the environment shows us the importance of taking care of our environment. If anything, indicators of the six mass extinction event show us an even greater need to take care of our environment.

Resource management games (part 2) : On advancing technology

I'm back... Now time to talk about my second favorite mechanic of resource management games. The progression of the technology tree. While the new units for war that comes as a result of technology is the most fun part, i feel that the more interesting part to explore is the increased speed of extraction of resources the farther up the tech tree one goes.

A little bit like real life, the more adept man gets with his tools, the faster and greater he is able to affect his environment around him.

Obtained from Civlization V

In the game, resource tiles grow in value as you discover newer technologies. this is a result of technologies which allow nations to extract more from the earth compared to before.

Similarly, richer more developed countries have the ability to affect change on an extremely large scale. Where the use of technology determines how much you can extract from the environment.

This mechanic has always been something fascinating for me, as i hope it will be for you too.

Video game creatures in the real world?: The Story of the Plastic shelled crab

I saw something incredible on the web that i wanted to share with you guys today. The incredibly cute "Toothpaste Cap Hermit Crab" equipping his plastic shell in an almost video-game like manner.

(photo 1: A hermit crab using a toothpaste crab as a shell)

While it is a bit of a departure from my usual content, i felt that the significance and implications of this picture is too great to ignore.

We have always viewed plastics as rubbish, something of a hindrance to animals around us. Its negative effects on the ecosystem especially in coastal bird populations have been extensively documented and with no uncertainty, we know that plastics is bad for ecosystem and the earth.

(Fig 2: plastic pollution in the gut of birds)

However, i have never stopped to think about how much plastic can affect animal behavior. Will animals in the future be able to adapt to the amount of pollution we humans produce everyday? I doubt so but i truly think that this is a question we should ponder on. Even if the answer to that is yes, it doesn't mean that we should continue plastic pollution.

Animals living within anthropogenic structures is not a phenomena of course. We see animals of all kinds from bird, bats adapt to urban environment as well as sea creatures using shipwrecks as a structure in which they grow in (the effects of which in the ecosystem is still being debated).

(fig 3: Bats in anthropogenic structures)

(Fig 4: Fish living in shipwrecks)

This particular photo grabbed my attention in a different way. I felt both sad and happy at the issue. Happy because it seems that the hermit crab is alive and is able to use the plastic as a self-defence mechanism. At the sad time, this photo is depressing because it shows us just how much of an impact that we have on the environment. It also suggest to us how polluted the beach must be such that the hermit crab would resort to using the toothpaste cap as a shell rather than using natural shells from its predecessor. To add to that, if this hermit crab were to be eaten by prey, it would be certainly the case that the plastic might be consumed by its predator thus leading to more damage to the ecosystem.

I hope that this photo provides us ample reason to act upon reducing plastic pollution in our environment

Resource management game(part 1): On 'Banished' and resource management

One of my favorite genre of games is the 'city builder' where you have to obtain and manage you resources from the land in order to build structures and units of increasingly higher technological tiers. One such game is 'Banished'. 'Banished' is particularly unique compared to the other games i have played so far because the players are set in a situation where they are suppose to build a city in a fairly hostile location in the forest with a limited access to technology. I felt that this game is useful in helping us discuss the issue of management of our limited resource as well as environmental determinism.

On resource management

I think that one of the most interesting things i have learnt so far was the idea that we can view resources from perspectives other than through the extraction of raw materials. The idea of 'ecosystem services' come to mind. For those who do no know, ecosystem services refers to the direct and indirect ways in which the ecosystem can be beneficial to us humans. There are 4 main ways in which the ecosystem can provide us resources (Geury et. al, 2015):

1. provisioning
2. support
3. regulating
4. cultural

For resource management games, they mainly focus on the provisioning service; what the environment can provide us. For example, in the game of 'Banished', the forest provides the wood for resources as well fish to sustain your villages. However this comes at a price as the population of deer in the forest that you could hunt for food would also decrease as more and more trees are chopped down. Another thing the forest may provide is finding the cure to an ailment affecting your village but only old ancient forest provide it and not secondary forests that the player could build.

I think no game better captures the feel of having to 'trade off' one resource for another, as we see in the real world. When we have to trade of vast ancient forests in order to build farms, as seen in place like Indonesia and Brazil, are we losing something in process? Are there more far reaching implications such as the impact of burning on climate change and drought? (Lindsey, 2004) Our primary rain forests houses some of the most important natural resources to man. How we use it is a responsibility that we share as a species.

On wastage of our resources

In my studies as an undergraduate, one of the most interesting ideas that i was informed on was the issue of pollution. Its highlighted to me by my professor that pollution is a 'wasteful approach towards management of our resources'. I found this idea particularly interesting. Why? because you don't really think of pollution issues through the lens of wastage of our natural resources. However, upon deeper introspection, it makes sense. I mean after all if we kill off all our marine life through things like oil spills (Graham, 2003), or introduce toxic chemical like mercury into soil which results in our food becoming potentially toxic to human (Zhao, 2014) , or as i have explored in my previous post the pollution that comes from mining activities, then we are simply wasting everything that mother Gaia provides for us. This is clearly a problem we need to fix. 

I am fairly disappointed that more games do not explore the issue of pollution as wastage of natural resources issue. The only game that i have played so far that came close was the game 'Civilization V' wherein tiles that have nuclear radiation as a result of nuclear war could not be use. While radiation is an important an important issue to look at and a fairly big pollution issue, i wish more focus was given to everyday pollution such as that of plastics in our ocean, heavy metal pollution of our soil or even air pollution (something i am facing as i write this post)

The bigger picture

Indeed, humans society has always been managing what limited resources that they have since the inception of civilization. Modern humans have such a global reach onto resources that they can access from the environment. It is our duty to ensure that the the way we use of resources is sustainable for the sake of our future generations.

Minecraft: Wonders at the expense of gaia?

(image taken from http://wallpapergal.com/2015/08/13/minecraft-wallpaper-56a/minecraft-wallpaper-56a/)

Minecraft, a game touted as one of the best sandbox to create and share your creations to the world. At its most basic, this game involves mining for various resources from the world, using these resources to make tools to make things of increasing complexity, rinse and repeat.

Does the game remind you of something? 

In the real world, we humans extract various minerals from the earth, similar to the game albeit, i would argue, in a far more destructive manner.

For instance, we mine the earth for rare earth metals in order to make most of our modern structures. Rare earth metals are even an important component in some clean technologies such as in the creation of solar panels.

(Taken from http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/02/a-visit-to-the-only-american-mine-for-rare-earth-metals/253372/ which provide us an insight in America's only rare earth metal mine)

Mining can be extremely toxic to the environment. Pollution comes from 3 processes in rare earth metal mining, extraction of ore (which cause destruction of the land), refining of ore (which often produces toxic air pollutants) and the disposal of waste (if done improperly can result in toxins seeping into soil and water )

In the chinese Xinguang No.1 Village, it has been noted that the water is extremely polluted due to leakages as a result of improper waste management of the ore. A byproduct of Rare Earth Metal mining is also thorium, which is radioactive. As a result, the incidences of cancer within the population working and living near the mines are much higher than the average population.

Unlike mining in the real world, there is always the option for a player to restart in the case that one dislike the state the world is in. Pollution also does not occur in the game byond the misplaced player creation.

We have only one earth, resources are not limitless like that of mine craft and the way we obtain and extract resources can pose severe long term risk on to our environment.

Perhaps for the sake of future generations, we should pay more heed to the pollution cause by our modern consumerist culture. We can still build magnificent structure for ourselves like those built within the world of minecraft, but we need to make sure that they way we do it does not come at the price of our future.

Pokemon and animal cruelty!? Questions about Humanity's Relationship to Nature

                                                     

(Image taken from www.peta.org)

I remember first reading about the controversy between PETA and Pokemon back in 2012 and thinking... 'Are you kidding me?'. Perhaps i was biased, after all, the Pokemon series has been and always will be one of my favorite series of video games.

For the uninitiated, Pokemon is a series wherein you capture and train Pokemon (analogues of animals in our world) and pit them against each other in a bid to become the best Pokemon trainer there is... Wow, reading that summary really does make it seem as though the series seems to condone animal violence.

However, i feel that this interpretation of the video game is fairly extreme and unreasonable. Beyond the fact that Pokemon is simply a VIDEO GAME, i view the relationship between Pokemon and trainers a mutually beneficial, similar to how our human society has domesticated animals, providing a safe environment in exchange for benefits from the organism in question. Furthermore, throughout the series, it has been reiterated constantly that groups that exploit Pokemon for the own selfish means are viewed as the villains of the series. Therefore i feel that PETA view of the Pokemon series is fairly extreme even if there was some truth to it.

However, I feel that the real world is a far more nightmarish place compared to the Pokemon work.

(Animals kept in fairly inhumane conditions, where they spend all their lives being caged up. Source http://revolutionaryecology.com/2015/05/05/animal-liberation-a-revolutionary-imperative-part-2-of-2/)

Why is it in the real world we can consciously treat animals and other living things in such a manner? Viewed as nothing more than livestock.

Are organism simply commodities for us to exploit? I've read that perhaps the reason why we can treat animals in such a manner is because we view them as 'lower beings' that are separate from us. This disconnect of humanity to nature is something that allows us to treat other inhabitants on earth as nothing more than resources.

(Our disrespect to Gaia extends beyond animals but also our forest. Source https://www.flickr.com/photos/rainforestactionnetwork/5680734393/in/album-72157626632532618/ )

To me, it is pretty clear that we as a species have overstepped our bounds and members of Planet Earth. From stories about abused circus animals to the destruction of vast tracts of our rain forests. The situation in the real world seems a lot more dire than the image conjured up by PETA on our exploitation of the environment.

While we ponder upon the question about how we view the environment, we should also ask ourselves the way forward. How should our attitudes be towards nature and our environment?

I will definitely talk more about it in the future as we highlight various other issues.

Till Next time

Hi everyone!

I am Alif, a Y1 Environmental Studies major studying at the National University of Singapore.

The aim of this blog is to combine my 2 passions together.

The Environment and Video Games

While seemingly an unorthodox combination, i am of the strong belief that video games, like every other forms of fiction has a say on environmental issues that affects us.

Therefore it is with this belief that i wish to share my passion in order to create awareness through the medium that i love.

So grab on your controllers and recycling bins and come on a journey of video games view through the lens of a budding environmentalist

Cheers,
Alif

(photo taken from http://minecraftbuildinginc.com/mother-of-trees-largest-ever-and-a-town/ )