Why Africa Matters

Today's blog post is by Klaude Thomas, executive producer on Fate of the World.

I'm going to discuss something that may be hard to understand outside the context of a game. Outside of a game, I wish to avert harm to people just because they are people. I have a moral position on averting harm to others. In a game, I can become ruthless; these are, after all, only digits. That imposes an unfamiliar mental discipline.

If Africa, or indeed any region, matters, it matters to my game self only to the extent that it affects my game objectives. This makes my game self the strictest of utilitarian philosophers: and I find myself asking why Africa matters?

In early versions of Fate of the World I could not answer that question. In our current versions I can.

One answer relates to one of the few (somewhat) tangible outcomes from the Copenhagen summit; the REDD (Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) mechanism. Africa has substantial capacity to reduce emissions by reducing deforestation, and in the farther future to reforest and absorb emissions. Another relates to the McKinsey abatement cost curve, essentially you want to involve every region because it is cheapest to do so before moving on to the really expensive things in your most polluting regions.

Another very important answer relates to why I want to work to reduce sickness or poverty in Africa. In early versions of our model you would never want to do that for the simple reason that sick poor people aren't causing as much pollution as healthy rich people. Now, however, I want Africa to do something for me. So my game-self is forced to care about Africa's sick poor people. Particularly once I understand the significance of having growth occuring somewhere in the world for the stability of our capitalist monetary system. The CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) established in Kyoto will help here: a convergence victory looks possible. Or alternatively, if you are playing for the negative victory--burning it down--African development is highly important to your game plan in an entirely different way; you might call it the 'DDM' (Dirty Development Mechanism).

We posed the question on Twitter, and someone quite reasonably replied that all regions matter because they matter. I agree: that is the correct answer on a human, moral, level. The thing about the climate, however, and the potentially disastrous tilt we have given to it, is that even while we feel its consequences on a human level, it does not truly operate on a human level.

So much carbon, so much radiative forcing, so much energy in the climate system, so much damage to everyone's future. Global warming is in some respects just the poster for natural capital depletion. We have to change, and we have to do it for reasons that are ultimately utilitarian, and yet... those reasons include everyone on Earth.