Dennis Meadows is emeritus professor of systems policy and social
science research at the University of New Hampshire, where he was
also director of the Institute for Policy and Social Science
Research. In 2009 he received the Japan Prize for his contributions
to world peace and sustainable development. He has authored ten
books and numerous educational games, which have been translated
into more than 15 languages for use around the world. He earned his
Ph.D. in Management from MIT, where he previously served on the
faculty, and has received four honorary doctorates for his
contributions to environmental education.
Linda Booth Sweeney, Ed. D., is an educator, researcher and writer
dedicated to helping people of all ages integrate an understanding
of complex, living systems into learning, decision making and
design. She has worked with Outward Bound, MIT's Sloan School
of Management, and Schlumberger Excellence in Educational
Development (SEED). She is the author of The Systems Thinking
Playbook; When a Butterfly Sneezes: A Guide for Helping Children
Explore Interconnections in Our World Through Favorite Stories;
Connected Wisdom: Living Stories about Living Systems; and numerous
academic journals and newsletters. Sweeney lives outside Boston,
Massachusetts.
Gillian Martin Mehers is a learning and capacity development
practitioner working within the global sustainability community for
over 20 years and the Founder of Bright Green Learning @Atadore
SARL. Previously Gillian was the head of learning and leadership at
IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and prior to
that the director of capacity development for LEAD International
(Leadership for Environment and Development.) Gillian's expertise
is in creating dynamic experiential learning environments,
interactive learning design, and process facilitation for diverse
stakeholder communication and learning. With a particular passion
for working inter-culturally, she has worked as a facilitator and
trainer in over 50 countries, from Armenia to Zambia. For more
information see her blog: You Learn Something New Every Day
(www.welearnsomething.org).
“Climate change, sadly, is no game—but these games will help you
think more constructively about the scale and shape of the
solutions we need!”--Bill McKibben, founder, 350.org
“I have lectured and consulted in many dozens of nations,
trying to help people understand carrying capacity and its
relevance for their communities. Often, I have called upon the
teaching tools now shared in The Climate Change
Playbook in trainings, with staff, in workshops, and in my own
presentations. This book is a treasure trove: It is a practical
tool kit for any public policy practitioners who want to engage
their counterparts and accelerate learning.”--Mathis Wackernagel,
founder and CEO of Global Footprint Network
“Many of us experience the problems of climate change as so
overwhelming and beyond our control that we don’t know where to
start to solve them. This book does the reverse: It makes the
issues so palpable that it not only motivates us to do more but
also gives us 22 tools we can easily use to mobilize others.
If you believe that experience is the best teacher and that we
have precious little time to influence changes that have serious
long-term consequences for everyone on the planet, this book is an
invaluable asset.”--David Peter Stroh, author of Systems
Thinking for Social Change: A Practical Guide for Solving Complex
Problems, Avoiding Unintended Consequences, and Achieving Lasting
Results
“Using a game to exemplify a point made in a lecture makes all the
difference: The audience, large or small, is eager to participate
and remembers the message. The beauty of the games in
the Playbook is their simplicity and flexibility. They
can be used with school children, university professors,
politicians, and business people, and they lend themselves to
debriefing that might consist of a just few sentences or an
elaborate discussion. I have become a games enthusiast.
The Playbook also inspires the creation of variations and
even new games to meet specific purposes. We need games to get
these vital messages across!”--Helga Kromp-Kolb, head, Center for
Global Change and Sustainability, University of Natural
Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
“Thousands of government and corporate officials have participated
in training programs that I organize in Japan to convey principles
related to environment, climate, food, and energy. I have become a
fan of the exercises in the Playbook. They are easy to learn and
quick to use. They are incredibly effective teaching tools, and
they work with participants that do not have English as their first
language.”--Riichiro Oda, president and CEO, Change Agent Inc.
“Few subjects are more crucial, more discussed, and more poorly
understood than climate change. This is a tragedy because there are
a few simple, intuitive insights that can be understood by all and
could form a consensual foundation that would allow us to focus
more clearly on the complex tradeoffs and choices obscured by our
misunderstandings. The Climate Change Playbook is a great way to
understand and more importantly help others understand these
insights.”--Peter M. Senge, senior lecturer, MIT; founding chair,
Academy for Systemic Change; author of The Fifth Discipline
“One of the major obstacles we face in addressing the climate
crisis is the general lack of understanding of the climate system,
and complex systems in general. The Climate Change
Playbook provides a novel approach to overcoming this
barrier through creative and engaging activities that
help move the climate crisis from an abstract threat to a clear and
present reality that we can and must act upon today.”--Asher
Miller, executive director, Post Carbon
Institute
“The effort to secure a livable planet for future generations
just got a little bit easier thanks to The Climate Change
Playbook. Whether you are working to educate and empower an
audience of students, business leaders, or policy makers, the
Playbookwill help you add interactive learning exercises to your
teaching and outreach. With clear and detailed instructions, it is
a great resource for anyone working to build sound understanding
and a collective will to act on climate change.”--Elizabeth Sawin,
codirector, Climate Interactive
“In my current work as an environmental scholar and my former work
heading the UN-affiliated University for Peace and the
International Union for Conservation of Nature, my major goal has
always been to help others understand the crucial causes and
consequences of environmental issues. These authors are masters of
using simple exercises to convey complex issues, and this new book
compiles many of their best tools."--Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Yale
Institute for Biospheric Studies, Yale School of Forestry and
Environmental Studies
“How can we learn about tough problems like climate change? The
research shows that showing people the research doesn’t
work. To learn, people need to interact, experiment, play. The
Climate Change Playbook encourages just that through a diverse
set of interactive games. Useful with all ages and in groups large
and small, these games help us learn critical lessons about
difficult topics—and they are a load of fun.”--John Sterman,
professor, MIT Sloan School of Management; author of Business
Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World
“Climate change, like most of our global problems, is a systemic
problem—a web of interconnected issues that is difficult to analyze
with conventional linear thinking. This book offers a playful,
nonlinear, and largely nonverbal, method for learning how to think
systemically—in other words, in terms of relationships, patterns,
and context. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to
experience systemic thinking firsthand.”--Fritjof Capra, author of
The Web of Life; coauthor of The Systems View of Life
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