Ever wonder how a person could save the planet from the effects of climate change? A British computer game to be released for testing on Monday creates different ways to accomplish this mission.

Through various scenarios, players can explore options like geo-engineering and alternative energy sources to save the planet from high temperatures, depletion of natural resources and increase in population over the next 200 years.

A first version of the game will be followed by a period of three months to post comments, and the final version, revised based on them, will leave in February 2011.

Created by Red Redemption, a video game developer from Oxford, the game moves away from video games to common action to use data from climate models and the actual advice of scientists and economists British and Americans.

The company has on its advisory board some experts on climate change. Myles Allen, who heads the department of climate dynamics at Oxford University, helped with the models that the game uses in its projections.

This year, a number of apparent flaws in climate science and failure of the UN negotiations for an international agreement that would reduce emissions of greenhouse gases seem to have undermined the public interest in climate change issues.

But games that deal with sustainability and human rights are gaining popularity and are well received by environmental groups as tools of awareness.

Via: Reuters.