Column: This ‘Fortnite’ island is the latest climate change battleground
Let’s start with a climate allegory. I’ll call it the Parable of the Three Environmentalists.
The first runs a sustainability nonprofit led by Hollywood power players, some of whom care deeply about the climate crisis and some of whom probably care more about good publicity. She’s principled but willing to collaborate for the greater good.
The second works for an automaker that was once a hybrid vehicle pioneer but more recently has lagged behind on electric cars. The automaker has a longtime relationship with the sustainability nonprofit, sponsoring its star-studded summit this week.
And the third? He’s employed by a wildly successful video game company that has worked with educators on sustainability lesson plans for teachers — and that’s now touting a climate change-themed game in which players can plug oil and gas wells.
Which of the environmentalists do you trust? Any of them? All of them?
We’ll start with Steve Isaacs, who works for “Fortnite” maker Epic Games.
I met Isaacs this week at the Environmental Media Assn.’s annual summit, a fancy event at West Hollywood’s Pendry hotel with a speaker list that included actors Rainn Wilson (Dwight K. Schrute on “The Office”) and Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley in the “Harry Potter” films), former NSYNC singer Lance Bass and, to close things out, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
I’ve been writing a lot about the unique power of movies, TV shows and other entertainment to motivate climate action. So when I learned that a nonprofit and a climate-focused company had teamed up to create a “Fortnite” island where teenagers and other online gamers can fight climate change by using bows and arrows to plug oil and gas wells, I had to write about it.
That’s how I ended up at the Pendry, moderating a panel that included representatives from Earthshot, the nonprofit that came up with the concept; Tradewater, a company that actually plugs abandoned gas wells, stopping them from leaking heat-trapping methane into the atmosphere; and Epic, which is such a strong business — 1.4 million people were playing “Fortnite” as I wrote this sentence Wednesday morning — that Walt Disney Co. recently invested $1.5 billion in the company.