Although it's a stretch to say virtual reality could save the environment, researchers say that it could perhaps promote better understanding of nature and give people empathetic insight into environmental challenges.
“Virtual reality can give everyone, regardless of where they live, the kind of experience needed to generate the urgency required to prevent environmental calamity,” says Jeremy Bailenson, professor of communication at Stanford University and a Moore Foundation grantee.
Bailenson’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab this year released a short virtual reality (VR) documentary and an interactive VR game that seek to explain the issue of ocean acidification, the process by which excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere dissolves in the ocean, making it more acidic and less healthy for ocean life.
As Bailenson notes, “One of the greatest challenges to staving off irrevocable climate change isn't simply getting buy-in from skeptical politicians – it’s getting people to visualize how driving a gas-guzzling car or living in an energy inefficient home is contributing to a problem that may only manifest itself completely in future decades.”
The lab’s documentary and game were presented at the Tribeca Film Festival in April.
Video from the documentary has been adapted to be included in Google Expeditions, a VR educational program that’s still in beta, but has already been shown to one million school kids around the world and will soon be released to many more.
Read the full New York Times feature here.
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