For anyone interested in the issues of global warming, carbon emissions and the general state of the planet, there’s good news. A new tool has just been unleashed to help both monitor and measure the top producers and locations of carbon dioxide emitters throughout the world. CARMA, or Carbon Monitoring for Action, has crunched the numbers and compiled a huge, freely-accessible and regularly updated database measuring the CO2 emissions of more than 50,000 power plants and 4000 companies worldwide. Limit your search by power plant, company, geographic region or even compare the emissions of your local power provider with others elsewhere in the world! And if you’re fired up about carbon emissions, whether locally or globally, feel free to participate in their blog. You may ask, and rightly so, how this data is compiled. The CARMA team summarizes just one of its methods:
For several thousand power plants within the U.S., CARMA relies upon data reported to the Environmental Protection Agency by the plant operators themselves as required by the Clean Air Act. CARMA also includes many official emissions reports for plants in Canada, the European Union, and India. For non-reporting plants, CARMA estimates emissions using a statistical model that has been fitted to data for thousands of reporting plants in the U.S., Canada, the EU, and India. The model utilizes detailed data on plant-level engineering and fuel specifications. CARMA reports emissions for the year 2000, the current year, and the future (based on published plans).
Sounds like a very helpful resource. And it’s free (we librarians especially love our free resources)! Who knows, you might just help rejuvenate the planet!
No comments:
Post a Comment