WORCHESTER, MA, USA (February 4, 2010) An interactive exhibit that illustrates how climate change is impacting the earth opened at the Ecotarium in Worcester, Massachusetts. Based on the latest science, this traveling display uses a climate simulator developed by the Sustainability Institute in collaboration with MIT and Ventana Systems. Called C-ROADS (Climate Rapid Overview and Decision-support Simulator), the software that drives the exhibit will allow museum visitors to explore alternative approaches to mitigating climate change, while receiving immediate feedback on each approach.
The tour schedule for 2010 and beyond includes the Boston Museum of Science, the Vermont Institute of Natural Science (Quechee, VT), Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History (New Haven, CT), the Mount Washington Observatory (North Conway, NH) and the Beardsley Zoo (Bridgeport, CT).
Mike Richards, one of the founders of Climate Interactive, says their mission is: “to move climate simulation from a specialized craft that only deep scientists could deal with, to something speedy and easy to use” that could accurately inform non-scientists. Such information will give members of the public access to information they need to learn about climate change and to make informed choices about their life styles and political representation.
Exploring the exhibit teaches the visitors about the changes they will experience as Southern climates move North, such as new invasive plants and pests, more intense winds, coastal flooding and more extreme hot summer days. Visitors can investigate effects of increased carbon dioxide on native plant species, warmer winters on the maple sugar industry, more acidic oceans on the lobster fishery industry and extreme weather conditions on the city of Boston. The exhibition also includes a global climate change simulator.
Map of the Future from Tactable on Vimeo.
The exhibit grew out of a partnership with Richard Polonsky of Brown University and Henry Kaufman and team of the design firm Tactable. It is installed in the Ecotarium in Worcester, Massachusetts and will be on display until mid June, when it will move to the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium in Concord, NH for the summer.
For more information on C-ROADS and how to use it in interactive exhibitions, contact: apjones@sustainer.org or info@sustainer.org.