Climate change is one of the most important challenges of our time. But as globally significant as it is, it’s also incredibly complicated to explain.
That’s why the geniuses at TED-Ed have put out a new video that uses the game of Tetris as an analogy of this critical problem. Their short lesson clocks in at just 2:49 minutes so it won’t take up too much of your time.
The video simply shows that as we continue driving our cars and burning more fuel at factories and power plants, carbon dioxide gets released into the atmosphere as “blocks” that warm the planet (also known as the greenhouse effect). It also doesn’t help that we’re mowing down the forests that suck up this CO2.
And just like the video game, if we can’t clear these CO2 blocks, they’ll just build up faster and faster until it’s game over.
MORE: These Scientists Were Fed Up with Climate Change Deniers. Here’s What They Did About It.
“Ultimately it’s a game we are all stuck playing,” says narrator Joss Fong. “And unlike in Tetris, we won’t get a chance to start over and try again.”
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