Setting aside the unpleasantness which characterizes so much of our political discourse today, I’d like to turn my attention to something which we can all celebrate together, as it has absolutely no potential downside.

If you live in a city with a good metro system, you’re probably used to having a swipe card system of some sort – load up money on the card, swipe it as you enter the station and as you exit, and your card is deducted the amount that ride cost…. [W]hat if your swipe card were based on carbon emissions instead? That’s the idea proposed by designer Nick Hunter for this wearable carbon emissions tracker.

Rather than a key or a card, the carbon meter would fit on your hand and glows a particular color – green, yellow, orange or red – depending on how well you’re using your public transportation allowance. Are you saving more carbon by hopping onto a train for a short ride, or would the hybrid bus have actually had the smaller footprint? The meter would let you know. But there’s more…it’d give the government insight on how well the public transportation systems are being used.

Isn’t that great? No longer do we need to debate the complicated trade-offs of energy use versus freedom in regard to an individual’s personal transportation decisions (let alone worry about the tedious science underlying hundred year climate forecasting based on projected human carbon emissions… bo-ring!). The government will take all of that burden off our hands, providing us a rating from “nice” all the way to “naughty” without requiring us to fill out a single form or stand in any lines! All we need to do is put on our government issued “wearable carbon emissions tracker.”

Here’s a picture of what the new wearable emissions device might look like. Prepare to see the future…

Oops! Heh, my bad. That’s not the wearable carbon emissions tracker. That’s the “palm flower” from Logan’s Run – a film about a dystopian future in which the government strictly controls consumption of resources, deciding who lives or dies by changing the color of the crystal embedded in each citizen’s hand from red to black. Obviously this is nothing like that.

This one has four colors.

All the information about how many passengers are taking advantage of the various kinds of transportation would be uploaded to a government database where the data could be analysed and the transportation system greened up ever more.

Isn’t that cool? They’re going to upload all your individual information into a government database. But don’t worry. They only want to use the information to “green up” the transportation system even more. They’re not going to use your individual transportation information to single you out in any negative way of course. But… just to keep track of the government issued wearable emissions tracker… please provide your name, permanent address, social security number, legal state identification, current photograph, current employer, and a few other key pieces of information. Thanks so much!

Of course there are always a few nervous nellies and ne’er-do-wells trying to frighten the public when the government tries to make anything better. Not to worry. It’s all been taken into account.

It has a slight ring of cyborg and Big Brother, but the idea is still kind of appealing. Knowing exactly the impact your choice of transportation is making in real time would be a big step forward.

Don’t worry about eyeborg-say ig-bay other-bray. The real takeaway here is that this is appealing! It’s about taking a big step forward! You don’t want to be stuck in place, or (gasp) going backward do you?! Forward is good! You like forward! Just don’t ask about the final destination and focus on the happy momentum itself.

This entry was posted by by Bogus Doug on Friday, August 7th, 2009 at 10:11 am and is filed under Global WarmingCoolingChange, Progressive Tyranny, Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.