CARMA.org has been released. Get the facts on carbon dioxide emissions and power plants from all over the globe.
Each year, ten billion tons of CO2 are emitted from power plants from around the world. Where is it all coming from? A new website, CARMA.org has that answer. The site shows which facilities are the most “green,” which facilities are pumping out the most carbon dioxide, and where all these plants are located.
Carma.org maps information from 50,000 power plants worldwide. The United States collectively produce the most CO2; Georgia and Alabama’s plants emit the most CO2 in the US. However, the plants that singularly emit the most are located in China, South Africa, and India.
The database has just been launched by The Center for Global Development, a non-profit organization that focuses on how policies in richer nations affect the developing world. Apparently thousands of people find its work to be very important. Media attention has generated so much web traffic at CARMA.org, that the site was forced to temporarily disable the download data feature. That feature has since been restored. However, there are still some minor problems moving about the site.
CARMA provides the world's most detailed and comprehensive information on carbon emissions resulting from the production of electricity. According to CARMA, power sector emissions make up 25% of the global total, 40% of carbon emissions in the United States, and are a primary cause of global warming.
The site is interesting, timely, and intuitive to navigate. Kevin Ummel of CARMA states that although the database behind CARMA is massive, all of the information can be searched, sorted, parsed, and downloaded. He also gives five suggestions to follow when visiting the site.
1) Play with the maps: Every map in CARMA contains interactive, color-coded icons. They lead to basic information about the entity in question and a link to a more detailed page. The maps are a great place to start browsing.
2) Start close to home: Dive into CARMA by searching for your hometown or place of residence. Use the search box at the top of any page to enter the name. If nothing comes up, try a larger town nearby. U.S. residents can also search by zip code to identify the company providing their power.
3) Dig Deeper: CARMA’s powerful tool for slicing and dicing the data is known as Dig Deeper, and it can be accessed from almost any page. Once there, you can select from nested lists to “dig” into the data.
4) Find planned plants: Dig Deeper provides toggle buttons for past, present, and future. Selecting future will sort by power and CO2 emissions figures for the future. This will often reveal “planned” plants that are not yet in operation.
5) Check out the bottom line: Nearly any serious attempt to limit greenhouse gas emissions will require that a price be assigned to carbon — be it through traditional taxes or cap-and-trade programs. Some countries already have such systems in place, and a number of bills currently in the U.S. Congress would have similar effects. Once carbon is priced, carbon-intensive companies will face an added cost that cleaner competitors will not — a cost that could impact their financial bottom line. CARMA includes links to financial information for hundreds of companies that allow you to do the math for yourself.
All of the data you come across in CARMA can be freely downloaded for further analysis. CARMA is a great site with a great message.
For related articles, take a look at Your Earth, My Earth and Google Earth.
