Carbon Gadgets

A recent article in the New York Times emphasized the importance of connecting people with their carbon footprints. There are very few Americans who could actually tell you how much electricity they use in one day, or how many tons of carbon they emit during a year, even just from driving or flying. Unfortunately, human nature generally follows this old adage to a tee: "ignorance is bliss". When we are not directly confronted with the results or magnitude of our actions, we tend to have no trouble shrugging off any moral qualms or ethical baggage associated with those actions.

One way to make people aware of their CO2 emissions is to create gadgets that calculate how much energy a person is using, or how "good or bad" one's carbon footprint is. The Ambient Orb and the Wattson are two devices that people can install in their homes, and which glow in different colors depending upon how much energy the home is using at any given time. According to John Tierny's NY Times article,

"utility customers in California [using the Ambient Orb]... promptly reduced their usage by 40 percent when the ball glowed red in peak periods."

For a society that is constantly searching for new gadgets, this sort of technology seems to have a lot of potential. Not only do Americans love new toys and new ways to strive toward small self-improvement goals, this technology also may also create an inroad for moral awareness of climate change into the American psyche. Recognition of one's contributions to this global problem is the first step toward taking responsibility for it and implementing changes.