Chapter 1
About This MicroSim
The Environmental Justice Mapping Game is an interactive learning experience that helps participants understand how environmental conditions can affect different communities. Players explore a fictional community and examine the connections between pollution, income, health, green space, and other factors that shape people’s quality of life. The game encourages players to think about how environmental burdens are distributed, who is most affected, and how community decisions can create more equitable outcomes. For UPP, the game provides an engaging way for participants to connect the concepts of environmental justice to real issues in their own communities.
How to Play
Explore the map and examine the different communities, environmental conditions, and factors that affect people’s quality of life. Follow the prompts and make decisions as you move through the activity. Pay attention to how pollution, income, health, access to green space, and community decision making are connected. There are no perfect answers. The goal is to explore the choices presented and think critically about what environmental justice looks like in a community.