Anger is an emotion people fear. But it needn't be. At Rovio, we know angry can be good and that playful destruction can be a path to creativity. Sometimes a dose of angry inside a frame of optimism, can inspire positive change.
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges and threats to our generation and the ones to come. It requires that we all take action now. But sometimes hard topics are difficult to discuss and they end up in inaction. What if we change strategies?
In March this year we received a call from Kathleen Rodgers, President of Earth Day Network. Would we sponsor them? That´s a thought, but checks are not inspiring, games are. And this is how the crazy idea of getting angry about climate change together came about.
What started as a thought is as of this morning a live global tournament called Champions for Earth in Angry Birds Friends. Champions for Earth will run until September 27 and coincides with UN Climate Change Week. We hope that aside from being great fun, it helps pump up the volume, so that come Paris COP 21, our leaders are really inspired to talk about the weather, but seriously!
A game tournament has to be first an foremost fun, but it is absolutely great when it can also engage Millennials and kids with matters they care about in an entertaining yet powerful way. Imagine playing against not only your friend Jane and your brother Billy. Ian Somerhalder, Matt Damon, Danny de Vito, Sonam Kapoor and the members of the Korean pop group VIXX, will be playing against us and sharing with us some thoughts of what we can do to stop harming the environment.
Every now and then one gets to work in a project one really savours because it brings many people together behind a great cause. This tournament is definitely one of those highlights for me. It was inspiring to see how ignited the Rovio and Earth Day Network teams were, working on both sides of the Atlantic from Finland and the USA. But when we started to see teams in India and Korean as well as multiple organisations joining in, such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Connect4Climate, the documentary Years of Living Dangerously, United Nations Environmental Project and The Climate Reality Project, we knew angry together was more than a good thing!
Can you beat Ian, Matt, Sonam, Danny, Don and Vixx? Game on! I'll be watching my leaderboard!