A few months ago Daniel Stark of Stark Design responded to PSFK’s Future of Gaming Report by concepting an interactive public experience that would help city inhabitants contribute to their gaming. The idea behind the Realitree was that people in places like Times Square and Trafalgar Square could find a huge projected tree — the health of which would be dependent on local factors such as pollution and targeted green efforts. The concept won the attention of the Climate Reality Project and Stark got to meet Al Gore at a special event that was hosted by PSFK.

Since then, Stark has continued to develop the concept and now has a plan to launch 50 Realitrees in 50 cities around the world. Each tree will react to two types of data: environmental information from the cities they are ‘planted’ in, and game play including Tweets and Facebook updates. The website says:

We can transform the conversation about climate change together. Let’s influence the politicians, corporations and policymakers to listen to facts. By becoming a caretaker of your community Realitree, you help your community vie for real money to make a real difference… and you keep the story about climate change front and center.

Of course this is still an idea. Stark is looking for partners like game developers and social media experts to bring the Realitree concept into being. This video explains more:

At a special PSFK announcement event last December, the former Vice President and members of the Climate Reality Project team explain that harnessing the power of social media will be the key to effectively dealing with environmental problems. Gore declared:

People all around the world, are expressing a very strong conviction that we have to shift to low-carbon technologies…they are starting to demand much more responsible solutions. Now, individuals have easy access, almost no barriers to access, ideas matter.

Realitree