Mobile phones to track carbon footprint

[Roon]

Keeping track of your carbon footprint could become as simple as slipping a mobile phone in your pocket: a London-based start-up company has developed software for mobile phones that uses global positioning satellites to work out automatically whether you are walking, driving or flying and then calculate your impact on the environment.

Carbon Diem's inventors claim that, by using GPS to measure the speed and pattern of movement, their algorithm can identify the mode of transport being used. It can therefore calculate the amount of carbon dioxide that a journey has emitted into the atmosphere – without any need for input from the traveller.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/29/carbonfootprints.travelandtransport

[MercutioATC]

1. Pure gimmick. Your Prius has a much smaller footprint than my Audi.

...but we're both "driving".

[LeftyMom]

2. Just by speed? That doesn't make much sense.

Let's say I'm going 55 mph. Am I in a fuel efficient car (possibly alternately fueled)? A giant SUV? Motorcycle? Bus? Riding by myself, in a packed vehicle while carpooling (in which case the impact should be divided among the many passengers)?

And planes have a huge carbon impact but one isn't supposed to keep a phone on while flying.

At best it sounds like this thing would do a very rough estimate. Almost uselessly rough.

[Roon]

3. Great points

But it won't be too much longer until we can use a cell on the plane.