Try to save the planet from burning in this board game.

What if solving the climate crisis was as simple as rolling a die?

As a lifelong board game fan and avid environmentalist, Thomas Yount understood that these tabletop pastimes do more than entertain. They can also educate and spark dialogue. Recognizing that climate change is one of the world’s most pressing issues, Yount thought a board game could provide an opportunity to educate children and young adults about caring for the environment.

“Historically, climate change as an issue has only come to the forefront in the last couple of decades,” Yount said. “Maybe a day of class has been devoted to it or a paragraph has been written in a book. I think it really should be part of the curriculum.”

More than three years ago, Yount, who has worked as a prop master and sound designer in Hollywood, began designing an environmentally-themed board game. After finishing production on a commercial, he grabbed a spare design board and began cutting it into makeshift cards, labeling each with a natural disaster, energy source or climate solution. That provided the basis for Climate Cooldown, an elaborate multiplayer game in which players must overcome natural disasters and invest in clean energy to save the planet from catastrophic global warming.

Climate Cooldown is one of several weather-related games that have emerged as the effects of climate change become more apparent.

Times reporters Noah Haggerty, left, Tony Briscoe, Corinne Purtill and Rosanna Xia play Climate Cooldown.

(Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Times)

This summer, popular game developer CATAN released a new version of its classic strategy game set on a fictional island. In CATAN: New Energies, players compete against each other to meet the energy demands of their communities, while keeping in mind the risks of pollution. The game presents players with a dilemma: invest in clean, sustainable energy or opt for cheaper, more environmentally damaging fossil fuels.

“Games have an incredible power to reflect real-world challenges and inspire thoughtful conversations,” said Benjamin Teuber, who co-designed New Energies with his late father, Klaus Teuber.

“When we designed this game, my father said, ‘A game is an experience, not a lesson.’ So we’re not telling players how to do better. We’re inviting them to learn and draw their own conclusions through the game,” he said.

In Evolution: Climate from NorthStar Games, players create their own species and attempt to adapt in a dynamic ecosystem filled with predators, unpredictable food supplies, and a fluctuating climate.

Yount has introduced Climate Cooldown to students at several private and charter schools in Los Angeles County, including REALM Creative Academy in Santa Monica, Environmental Charter Middle School in Inglewood and Alliance Leichtman-Levine Environmental Science High School in Glassell Park. The game includes flashcards with more than 70 environmental vocabulary words related to climate solutions, energy sources and disasters, but can also serve as productive conversation starters.

“When I was making the prototype, the kids loved having a game where they could learn and talk about the topic,” Yount said. “They immediately started talking about different topics like, ‘Is nuclear power good? I thought it was bad. ’ And the teacher said, ‘Let’s take a break and talk about it. ’”

Tyler Kenney, an AP environmental science teacher at Alliance High School, said one of the most effective ways to reduce planet-warming emissions is to educate people about climate solutions. For some students, the problem is getting them to pay attention.

“I've continued to see different opportunities to gamify education,” Kenney said. “How do we address all of these critical topics that we're teaching in school? [and turn those into] “Very tangible results in our personal carbon footprint?”

Last winter, he incorporated Climate Cooldown into his lesson plan. In addition to having his class play the game, he challenged his students to consider the career paths that could emerge from the climate solutions it referenced. One of his seniors said the assignment inspired him to explore taking classes on aquaculture, the practice of raising fish, at Santa Monica College.

In Climate Cooldown, players represent four regions of the world, all with varying levels of access to critical resources: electricity, water, and food. They must phase out fossil fuels in their region by allocating their finite resources to new, clean energy sources and keeping global temperatures below critical levels.

To make matters even more complicated, round after round they face disasters that threaten their resources and challenge their strategy. As with the real-world challenge of global warming, the most fundamental rule of the game is that either players win together as a team or they all lose.

“I wanted to specifically design it to be cooperative because I think it gives us an opportunity to practice working together as global citizens,” Yount said. “Because we’re all going to experience adverse impacts, climate crises and disasters. So being able to take care of each other during those difficult times is a really good thing to practice.”

The creator of Climate Countdown said he “wanted to specifically design it to be cooperative because I think it gives us an opportunity to practice working together as global citizens.”

(Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Times)

Yount says the game helps players gain a sense of initiative and optimism when faced with a problem that often makes people feel helpless. “Kids tend to think that things should be this way. This gives them the strength to think that we can and should do this.”

Yount says he has met “older people” who ask him, “Do you think we really have hope?” And I tell them I really do. You have to be realistic about it, but I think it’s important that we have hope and act together.”

Over the summer, I recruited three of my colleagues on The Times’s science, environment and health team — Rosanna Xia, Corinne Purtill and Noah Haggerty — to play Climate Cooldown and see how we would fare.

After opening the game board which illustrated a map of the world, we soon realized that it was as complex and challenging as the theme it was trying to highlight.

Each of us pulled out a card representing the fossil fuel industries our regions needed to divest from. I got oil, a card with the silhouette of a pumpjack, like the ones floating in the Inglewood oil field not far from our office. Corinne and Noah got natural gas power. Rosanna got coal power, the dirtiest form of energy, which continues to pollute other Western states like Nevada.

Noah and I didn’t have much food in our regions. By comparison, Corinne and Rosanna’s regions were plentiful. But those supplies dwindled as we drew disaster cards at the start of each round. Rosanna’s region was devastated by floods, Noah’s people were struck by famine, my region had been shaken by an earthquake, and Corinne’s was hit by a cyclone. Then we had to decide whether we wanted to put resources into implementing new energy, environmental conservation, or diplomacy.

Rosanna quickly invested in wind and nuclear power, emission-free energy sources. She donated food to Noah, who devoted his resources to generating wind power and more hydroelectric power. When I drew an energy card, I got a biomass power plant. Corinne invested her resources in nuclear power and calmed herself by supporting indigenous land stewardship.

Despite our initial investments, we continue to move closer to climate catastrophe.

But as the game progressed, we began to cooperate. We asked for advice. We donated our leftover food. And we made decisions that served our common goal.

In the fourth round we already won.

“The lessons for me were: make friends early and look out for each other,” Rosanna said, “because it’s important to divest sooner rather than later.”