Sewage and smog aren't playful topics, but as public concern for the state of the natural world grew in the 1970s, game makers turned to the environment as a subject for play.
Through board games, players learned about the problems around them—and envisioned solutions.
In the 1960s and ’70s smog was an everyday reality for many. Smog could engulf entire cities, as seen in this 1972 photograph of Birmingham, Alabama.
Smog occurs when pollutants from industry, car emissions, or fire accumulate in the air and undergo chemical reactions.
In 1970 Congress strengthened the Clean Air Act by regulating emissions levels and giving the Environmental Protection Agency authority to enforce the new limitations.
Smog: The Air Pollution Game was released the same year.
Players were town air quality managers, balancing planning decisions for families and industries with political favorability, the environment, and finances by managing industry, solid waste, and transportation. During a turn, players made choices that affect their town’s growth.
For example, when planning transportation, players could promote electric cars or public transit. Chance caused the wind direction to shift and blow pollutants over town boundaries. Each decision had consequences that impacted the town’s future development and economy.
Water pollution was also a concern for many in the 1970s. Pesticides, fertilizer runoff, industrial pollutants, and trash polluted waterways across the country.
This image shows the St. Croix River in Maine. The foam is a sign of contamination from upstream paper mills.
In 1972 the United States Congress passed the Clean Water Act to protect waterways by setting water quality standards, limiting the pollutant levels and funding new sewage treatment plants.
That same year, Urban Systems Inc. released Clean Water.
In Clean Water, players began by choosing a lake to manage. The player to their right was “upstream” of them; the player to their left was “downstream.”
Each player tried to stock their lake with a healthy and sustainable number of organisms including sunfish, worms, weeds, and algae.
Polluting industries and activities constantly threatened the ecological balance.
Players grappled with pollutants from residents, farms, nuclear power plants, the steel industry, and paper and food factories.
As a player moved around the board, they could stock their lake with the species corresponding to the space they landed on, keeping in mind the need to maintain a delicate ecosystem balance.
If they landed on a pollution triangle, they threw the die to find out how pollution affected their ecosystem.