Climate Change on Your Plate: A VR Seafood Buffet Experience
Abstract
The use of virtual reality (VR) to depict climate change impacts is a popular strategy used by environmental, news, and political organizations to encourage pro-environmental outcomes. However, despite widespread dissemination of immersive content, climate change mitigation efforts remain tepid. In response, we present a VR simulation conveying the adverse effects of climate change in a personally-relevant fashion. The “Virtual Seafood Buffet” experience allows users to select from dozens of lifelike virtual seafood items and experience the degradation of that particular species based on projected climate change impacts. The developed simulation is proposed as an intervention designed to encourage climate change mitigation efforts. An overview of the simulation, its purpose, and directions for future research are outlined herein.