Local CO2 Mapping Takes Off (With Your Help!)

Last week (or was it the week before?) I blogged about what I see as a big problem with the issue of global warming: contextualizing it as something “global” instead of local.

When you frame something as global, it becomes nobody’s problem. When you frame it as local, it becomes everyone’s problem. I suggested we start thinking in terms of “local warming” instead of global warming, and start mapping CO2 output by city, so that communities can see and understand what their own contribution to the problem is.

What I love about the web is that as soon as I wrote that post, someone (Phil Green) responded by setting up a group on a site where people interested in this could crowdsource maps of local CO2 output, using openly available data.

The group now has six members. Not a deluge yet, but a nice first showing all things considered. Better than DIYcity had a few days after launch.

Now comes the moment of truth: will people in the group – or you, if you’re reading this and want to help out – get together and actually make a prototype of a local CO2 map? I think a simple map, hacked together in a day with existing resources, could make a big splash and set the ball rolling.

Do you want to help out? If you do, go to the website and sign up for the group. Or ping me at john at johngeraci.com and I’ll help set you up with the people at that site who are interested in this.

Would be great timing, with the U.N. Climate Change Conference happening right now in South Africa.