[open-energy] Carbon emissions data?

Wed Dec 7 02:18:54 GMT 2011

I think this is a great idea. And I think it is also pretty relevant,
because:

In discussions with people on climate change, on often hears the following
two types of statements:

   1. "Do your bit for the environment!" OR "Every bit helps!"
   2. "I already do my part against climate change. It is true that I have
   not switched to renewable energy but I switch my light off when I leave the
   room and I use jute bags for shopping." OR "It is true that I like flying a
   lot but I do not use a car".

A visualisation might potentially address the following:

To 1: It put into relation the amount that a typical consumer emits in
excess of the per-capita amount that is sustainable with all these small
actions. So it could for example show that I as a French person emit about
7 tonnes while about 1 tonne would be sustainable (so I am 6 tonnes
overweight) while all these small actions where one often says "every bit
helps" contribute only a few grams to reducing my carbon bottomline (or
"obesity" or whatever one might call it). The app could thus help people
comprehend that not "Every bit helps" but "Every BIG helps".

To 2: If a consumer has learned the first message, he might be interested
in how things then measure up. And visually it might be nice to learn then
that switching off the light is really nothing but a gesture and that even
completely avoiding to drive around with my middle-class car for a year
would still be completely offset by a single roundtrip flight of me from
Paris to Rio (2.2 times). I.e. this app could help one find out what really
helps.

So the user could take home the nice message: It really does not matter at
all how many plastic bags I consume, I should not even think about it, but
what really matters is X.

IN SHORT: A visualisation such as what you seem to suggest could help one
both realise that big, not small, steps are needed and to identify which
actions have real leverage.

I would definitely be interested in contributing.

On Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 1:29 PM, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>wrote:

> This is interesting:
>
> http://www.visualizing.org/visualizations/how-much-co2-created
>
> Makes me wonder whether we could do something similar using bubbles to
> indicate relative quantities of different things?
>
> I'd love to be able to explore this by having a playful interface to
> show rough equivalencies. E.g. a 100km car journey is equivalent to
> boiling a kettle X times, etc.
>
> --
> Jonathan Gray
>
> Community Coordinator
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://www.okfn.org
>
> http://twitter.com/jwyg
>
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> open-energy mailing list
> open-energy at lists.okfn.org
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>
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