Concerned about environmental issues and want to talk to an orangutan or a panda? You can from Thursday, after conservation group WWF decided to set up a virtual island in online world Second Life.
”Conservation Island” and its friendly wild animal population is aimed at encouraging human residents to live in harmony with nature, the WWF said in a statement.
Cue Mr Tangee, a scruffy-looking orangutan in an ice-cream van, and pandas who guide visitors around the wind-powered local town and chat about environmental issues.
Tangee explains to users that plantations producing soy and palm oil, found in many ice creams, cosmetics and chocolate bars, now cover an area the size of France and threaten his endangered brethren’s already cramped lifestyle.
”WWF set up the island as a way to help people learn about conservation issues and the need to live sustainably,” WWF’s David Cole explained.
”We want to be able to show people that WWF has solutions to the real environmental issues affecting their ‘first life’,” he added.
Second Life is a commercial online virtual world set up by United States company Linden Labs, in which people — and animals — are represented by animated figures known as avatars.
Resident avatars can interact with each other, take part in social events and activities, and ”purchase” goods and services with a currency that exchanges into money in the real world.
Virtual worlds have also attracted shops and companies that use them as a marketing vehicle, and professionals such as architects. Countries such as Sweden and the Maldives have even set up virtual embassies. — Sapa-AFP