This Student Is Raising Awareness On Climate Change By Connecting Online Gamers With Scientists

Fortnite was the unexpected smash hit last year, combining PUBG's battle royale with the rudimentary building mechanics of Minecraft to make a very addictive game.

So with so many eyes on it, why not use the platform to do some universal good?

ClimateFortnite on Twitch

That's the idea behind ClimateFortnite, a Twitch gaming channel run by an MIT graduate student named Henri Drake. In it, he draws in users with Fortnite gameplay (which is incredibly popular on the streaming platform) but, instead of commentary of his matches, Drake hosts interactions with scientists to talk about climate and other environmental issues.

The idea came about thanks to climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, who posted on Twitter about how her webinar on Youtube had only a fraction of the views her eleven-year-old's Fortnite stream gained. Being a casual Fortnite player, Drake realised he was uniquely suited to bring the worlds of Twitch and scientists together to impart crucial knowledge.

Alright, which other three climate scientists will do a climate science themed fornite stream with me? Noobs welcome. https://t.co/DK0ahagoz2

¡ª Henri Drake (@henrifdrake) July 18, 2018

"It builds a community where people can ask the hard questions directly to an expert," Drake told Emily Waite at Wired. "For a topic like climate change that is steeped in misinformation, direct access to experts is crucial."

Before ClimateFortnite, Drake says he'd never streamed before, though he had followed others' streams on Twitch and had always doing an educational vlog of his own. Just a few months into his channel and Drake already has 577 followers and counting. Together with his guests, Drake discusses topics like methane emissions, renewable energy, melting Arctic ice, and more. Even better is that, using Twitch chat, viewers can pose questions to the scientists on the show and be answered in real time.

Views for the channel are still low in the grand entirety of Twitch, but the scientists behind the channel hope to draw a larger following over time, to better spread awareness of climate change they believe not enough people have.

And maybe, they'll be able to get enough people to sit up and take notice.