SHOWING PEOPLE EFFECTS OF GLOBAL WARMING
Montrer aux gens les effets du réchauffement climatique
Comment faire pour rendre accessibles au grand public les effets du réchauffement climatique ? Aux Etats-Unis, des scientifiques utilisent la réalité virtuelle pour littéralement « plonger » les spectateurs dans des environnements impactés par ce phénomène global. L’effet de cette nouvelle technologie sur les consciences est saisissant !
One problem with global warming, in the eyes of many scientists, is the same problem faced by McDonald’s and Ford and a million other consumer products. Mind share.
2.Is global warming something the average person thinks much about? Does anybody think it’s something they can do anything about, especially when there are bigger industrial contributors? To be sure, this is only part of the problem. Scientists generally agree that the increasingly likely effects of global warming – everything from rising seas and extreme storms and droughts to the spread of diseases and starvation – are, in fact, bigger hurdles.
3.But mind share -- getting people to feel personally connected -- is the first step to stemming its effects. And the reason has to do with the problem itself. Global warming is such a big concept – so potentially catastrophic and life-changing, so seemingly impossible to prevent – that it’s tough for people to see how they fit into the problem.
ENTER VIRTUAL REALITY
4. The technology that’s re-shaping computer gaming and entertainment (and, soon, medicine, communication and retail) is the hot new tool for scientists who explain to non-scientists the consequences of human behavior on the atmosphere.
5.That’s why scientists from a variety of institutions and disciplines are turning to virtual reality to help turn a huge idea into something that regular people can think about. “VR is bridging the gap,” said Nick Sadrpour, a science, research and policy specialist with the Sea Grant program at USC. The technology, Sadrpour explained, is helping make the link “between climate change being a remote impact for folks, to being something a little more personal.”
MIND GAMES
6. In November, the USC Sea Grant, in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, set up a virtual reality headset on the Santa Monica Pier. Dubbed the Owl, the lenses of the mounted binoculars showed four projections including what the beach looked like in the 1920s, what it could look like in a big storm under current conditions and then, with sea level rise, what a major storm could do to the beach in the future.
7.The most severe of these scenarios showed a beachfront restaurant with waves climbing