Our Roots

Four roots undergird this Climate Interactive effort.

1. System Dynamics simulation modeling at MIT's Sloan School of Management.  Our work builds on the global modeling work at MIT in the early 1970s, John Sterman's ~1979 MIT PHD dissertation on energy dynamics, and Tom Fiddaman's (now of Ventana Systems) 1997 MIT PHD dissertation on his integrated assessment model, NICE. 

2. Commitment to "open architecture sharing." As described here, Marv Adams (now of Fidelity Investments), Mike Richards (now of Monsanto), Peter Senge (MIT/SoL), Michelle Erickson (Citigroup), Chris Johnson (ifPeople), Maureen Herlihy (Fidelity Investments), Michael Tempel (Schlumberger/SEED), Drew Jones (Sustainability Institute), John Sterman (MIT) and others envisioned a way to impact the world with accessible simulation models by making them available for adaptation and extension.

3. Investment in contexts and settings for learning. Work at MIT, SI, and other institutions has built our capacity to create simulation interfaces, role-playing policy exercises, and workshop approaches that help people generate actionable insights from their interaction with simulations. More specifically, simulation exercises such as the Beer Game, Strategem, and FishBanks Ltd. by Jay Forrester, Dennis Meadows, John Sterman and others, have set us up to design the Copenhagen Climate Exercise. Further, advancements in how to channel grief and despair about climate futures into productive action by Beth Sawin and Phil Rice in SI's "Our Climate Ourselves" program has informed our approaches.

4. Engagement in climate strategy at national and international levels. Led by Bob Corell of The Heinz Center, Felicity von Peter of Active Philanthropy, Tom Cummings of Executive Learning Partnerships, and our Sustainability Institute team, the "Climate Action Initiative" is using advanced versions of simulations on CI to spark profound change in international climate strategy.