RSSNEC lets employees track carbon footprint online, and compete with their colleagues
By Tim Conneally | Published April 3, 2009, 6:30 PM
This week, Japanese ISP BIGLOBE and spun-off parent company NEC began testing a new energy conservation incentive in the homes of 100 of its employees that turns carbon emission reduction into a game called Carbon Diet.
The circuit breakers in the testers' homes are connected to a WiFi and ZigBee-enabled device which tracks their electricity consumption. The data from the box is then converted into stats which are used in various online multiplayer games.
One such game measures each kilogram of carbon waste you reduce from your overall footprint and turns it into a ball. The more you reduce your footprint, the bigger the ball gets.
Did I mention that the ball is being rolled by a dung beetle, and that all the participants' dung beetles are racing?
![Dung beetles, rolling "carbon" balls](http://images.betanews.com/media/3095.jpg "Dung beetles, rolling "carbon" balls")
Community competition (or shame) is a major motivator in using BIGLOBE's system. All participating households are ranked according to hourly and daily energy consumption. NEC said, "This will allow the user to easily develop and track his own power-saving measures to reduce carbon, and then continue saving energy by competing with others through games and other fun activities."
How egotistical of the human race to believe if we only stopped using SUVs and lowered our thermostats we only then will we avert the oncoming doom of which this earth has provided on its own every ten thousand years or so on a cyclical basis.
Can we be more responsible as inhabitants? Sure.... Will we be able to stop a global warming/cooling period? No because it's been doing this long before we were here and likely long after we're gone.
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|Hey, how dare you question the omnipotence and the unmitigated arrogance of the eco-wackos! LOL!
Considering that animal flatulence contributes a larger percentage of greenhouse gasses (namely in the form ogf highly reactive methane) than all of the motorized vehicles on the planet, perhaps we should be passing out jars and corks instead!
Yup, and the solar variability cycles are simply tiny sources of energy compared to their HUGE SUV!
I am curious to know how the eco-wackos explain the previous climatic cycles???? And to think there wasn't even te hot air of the eco-wackos to blame (although I think a valid argument could be made that the majority of the emissions of the ecowackos consist more of flatulence than simple hot air...)
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