Scientists Are Playing Fortnite on Twitch to Teach People About Climate Change

Fortnite is an unprecedented, smash hit video gaming phenomenon – where the aim is to be the last person standing after a battle royale shootout on a magical island – and now scientists are tapping into its popularity to try and teach kids about climate change.

The new ClimateFortnite Twitch channel features what many a Twitch channel does: live streams of players fighting their way through rounds of Fortnite. The difference is, the audio commentary deals not just with Fortnite strategies and tips, but also with the consequences of our changing planet. 

Credit for the idea goes to climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe from Texas Tech University, who tweeted about the disparity in viewing figures between her own climate change seminar on YouTube and her 11-year-old son’s Fortnite stream on Twitch. Henri Drake, graduate student at MIT, took up the challenge, and ClimateFortnite was born.

“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.”

“I had never streamed myself, but I’d been watching League of Legends on Twitch since about 2013 and had always thought about doing some kind of educational stream about climate science.”

The channel now has 17 videos and counting, with Drake and his co-hosts discussing the finer points of climate change with other online gamers. From methane gas emissions to renewable energy, there’s a lot of ground covered – both virtually on the Fortnite island and in terms of the topics discussed.

The clip above features NASA Earth Scientist Peter Griffith dropping in to talk carbon cycle and warming in the Arctic while Drake blasts his way through a few opponents on the Fortnite island: it’s a good example of how the channel mixes gameplay with climate chat.

As well as seeing some high-paced Fortnite action, we also learn that the Arctic is warming faster and earlier than anywhere else on Earth, and how the thawing permafrost locked away in Alaska is increasing the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

While viewing figures are relatively low for now, Drake and the other scientists working on the channel are hoping to attract a bigger audience over time. The channel is now available on YouTube too, and the very top Fortnite streams can attract hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Those viewers can ask questions via the real-time chat system built into…