Pardee Fellow Featured in AlertNet

Dr. Pablo Suarez, Pardee Visiting Post-Doctoral Fellow, was featured in AlertNet for his work on games as learning tools for climate science. Saurez has just returned from facilitating two game-based climate change sessions yesterday at the UN conference in Cancun (one on linking forecasts with humanitarian decisions and another on insurance for risk reduction).

The article, titled,”Games bring ‘boring’ climate science to life” describes how Suarez has been able to successfully teach humanitarian workers in around the world how to incorporate climate change science into their emergency planning using games instead of the usual training methods. The article went on to say:

“The usual approach was the scientist gives a talk with a lot of complicated Powerpoint slides. Then the Red Cross people at the end of the session ask, ‘I’m sorry, but could you say what is the most important thing for me to know so I can make better decisions?’

“And the scientist would often explain the same science but in a more irritated tone of voice,” said Suarez, a climate research fellow at Boston University in the United States and consultant to humanitarian aid and development groups such as the Red Cross and Oxfam.

Here is a video about “The Doune Baba Dieye Game”:

Suarez was the author of a Pardee paper (Issue 7, December 2009) on “Linking Climate Knowledge and Decisions: Humanitarian Challenges“. He is currently working on a piece on geoengineering and development, expected to be published through the Pardee Center “Issues in Brief” series.