Dilemma #4: Smoke Without Signals
Share your input by Monday.
You smell it before you see it.
Ash on the wind.
A darkened horizon.
A strange taste in the air.
An unusual irritation in your nose, throat.
The fire isn’t here yet—but it seems to be quickly on its way.
What’s not clear is how fast, how close or how bad.
There are no emergency notifications.
No evacuation routes posted. Without the internet, the apps, the fire maps, most of the text alerts—all silent.
The messages that do come through the few, still functioning cellular networks, are varied and confusing.
Rumours pierce the otherwise silence:
“It’s already reached the valley.”
“There’s a back road still open, but you’ll need fuel.”
“They’re blocking exits unless you’ve paid.”
“It’s just smoke drift. No need to panic.”
Some neighbours are already packing. Others say that they’re staying put.
Your new partners in the UCCR camp (you didn’t all move in, but came to a mutually beneficial arrangement exchanging food and some tech support)—now say that they are picking up fire dispatches on a shortwave radio.
The message: imminent blazes are coming to town.
Time to Respond
The camp welcomes the rest of your community to move into their fireproofed camp, but they will not allow a.single.person.more.
Mass hysteria and chaos are erupting around you, and clearly folks outside of your local pod also need help.
The choices are fracturing again — but this time, so is the land.
So what will you do?
Take care of yourself and your pod, and flee to the safe camp?
Stay behind and try to help set up fire breaks to protect the whole town?
Try to force the camp to welcome more evacuees?
Enter your decision now:
Signed,
Dispatch Control
Who would you wish you could bring in to help deliberate? Call them in!
We’re almost at the end of this simulation!
Don’t forget, we’ll be debriefing the whole experience together in a free workshop at the end of next week!
New to the simulation?
Check out the Opening Scenario and earlier Dilemmas, then come back here:
✍️ Weekly Artifact Prompt
Build the last-mile alert system.
Sketch, describe, or prototype a low-tech emergency alert system your neighborhood could use to prepare for disasters in a post-internet world.
(If you feel called to share, tag us on Instagram @theclimateverse with the hashtag #WorldWithoutInternet)
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