UPDATE: EcoSnoop responds – see below.
Now, you can rat on your neighbors, your company, even your friends and family. Thanks to EcoSnoop, there’s an app for that.
This can also be useful for catching those who talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk. This might just backfire on more than a few people. But since the green movement started this Stasi-esque information gathering campaign on “eco-offenders” [their word], that makes it OK to snap photos of green activists too, right? I could see some examples. Bill McKibben leaves lights on after leaving a room? Joe Romm takes his car instead of the bus? Monbiot lets his car idle at a stoplight? Jim Hansen uses electricity generated by coal? William Connolley leaves his computer on after a frenzied all-nighter of Wikipedia editing? Gore uses the elevator to his penthouse suite in SFO rather than take the stairs? Lots of opportunity there.
Now before the usual suspects get up in arms about my satire, let me say that I’m a fan of energy conservation. As many readers know, I walk the walk with my own energy saving measures. In fact just last week I upgraded part of my office to LED lighting, and I’m so impressed with it I’m going to showcase the product here. I’m not, however, going to turn in my neighbor because he left his porch light on one night or forgot to turn off his sprinkler when it rains. Yet you’ll find examples like that on the EcoSnoop web page. [Update: EcoSnoop has now removed those, saying they were “demo images” – see their note below -A]
Here’s what they say about the iPhone app campaign:
EcoSnoop for iPhone is an activism tool that allows green-aware users to assist and encourage corporate green initiatives.
What’s the big deal?
It has been estimated that as much as 30% of the energy consumed in office buildings is wasted.
This suggests a significant opportunity for energy use reduction, cost savings, and the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions through cost-effective energy efficiency opportunities.
To help identify the best opportunities, both from the perspective of the building owner and the utility, it is important to examine how, where, and when energy is used and the savings are likely to occur. (Excerpt taken from the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency Sector Collaborative on Energy Efficiency Office Building Energy Use Profile)
Q: How can I help using my iPhone?
A: Users locate and report on eco-offenders by submitting pictures and descriptions of blatant abuse and misuse issues.
Q: What happens with my pictures?
A:The EcoSnoop website and iPhone applications are a centralized repository of environmental awareness and a tool for actively promoting energy conservancy and green awareness. By using the EcoSnoop iPhone application, the user becomes an important link in the chain of helping to report and mediate green waste (energy, pollution, etc.). Additionally, by going yourself and encouraging friends to utilize the website to add as much information as possible about the picture (address information, responsible party information, etc.) you are giving the EcoSnoop community the tools to encourage positive change!
EcoSnoop: We need your help saving the world…1 picture at a time.
Online: EcoSnoop.com
Twitter: @EcoSnoop
*An Appency Press Video Promo Reel – www.theappencypress.com*
h/t to WUWT reader Steve Keohane
UPDATE: A response from EcoSnoop who called me personally via telephone. Since their message seems to have missed the mark, I offered to elevate their message here. I believe this to be a sincere and reasonable response, and certainly nobody among us likes to see government or corporations waste energy. But the implementation here invites abuse. They ask for suggestions, let’s offer them some. – Anthony
{Anthony, for a posting to all users}
All,
Thank you for very much for the spirited conversation. We clearly have a lot of work to do to get EcoSnoop tuned into a constructive tool.
EcoSnoop is aimed at helping Government building owners understand when they are wasting energy. Energy efficiency hopefully is a non controversial solution in that it saves money, emissions and enhances national security. Our current policy is to prevent the posting of any information about ones residence. Unfortunately some old demo pictures are on the site, and they will be removed.
Our objective is to educate people on energy waste, not call them out. Our newer version which is still in work masks the location to all but the person who submits and the person who owns the building.
EcoSnoop is an evolving social community. As community, we need to maintain a certain decorum to assure everyone benefits from the “networks” observations to eliminate waste. As such, we ask that everyone follow some basic rules:
•Respect the Views of Others – EcoSnoop is not a political platform. EcoSnoop is about using technology and social networking to help people, companies and communities understand how awareness can eliminate waste, reduced CO2 output, and save money.
•No Personal Attacks – Do not use EcoSnoop to single out and attack people or companies. The best way to help people understand is through better information and cooperation. In taking pictures and making notes on the EcoSnoop site, think about what information will help a person or company understand how energy efficiency and waste reduction can help them improve profitability and community appeal.
•Avoid Mentioning Company Names – It is helpful to identify opportunities and describe ways to improve, but EcoSnoop finds the property owners take action quicker if they are not threatened or attacked. Sometimes when lights are left on at night it might be a simple instance of light night maintenance rather than persistent waste. The EcoSnoop community assumes everyone is well meaning, so given them a chance to take action. If they take no action, assume there is a good reason or work to better educate.
Since we are evolving, we are open to your ideas and suggestions. Please feel free to send your comments to us at snoop@ecosnoop.com.
Yes, who runs the EcoSnoop.com website? And what are their associations? How much editing of the submission stream will take place?
Pretty easy to run down (took me about 2 minutes), and there’s a bit of a clue in my earlier post. He has a nice front yard and what looks like a nice home/office, btw, although the trees and bush out front could stand some trimming.
The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live — did live, from habit that became instinct — in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.
From 1984 by George Orwell
ADMIN/MODERATOR NOTE: If you trim this, I understand.
[snip]
REPLY: This is publicly available info available from WHOIS.NET (or Network Solutions) and Google Earth/Maps. However, I think it is in bad taste to post this, so I’m removing it. – A
Thanks for posting this. A few of my friends have gotten a kick out of this website.
I’d like to promote the word “Eco-McCarthyism.” This phrase is what came to mind for me when I read the article on your blog.
I thought I was creative and coined a new phrase, but Google returned 4 hits. With so many people in the world and a maturing internet, it’s hard to be truly original.
What would be even better is capturing one of the alarmist luminaries receiving an escort who drove out to see them.
Shame! He could have insisted s/he take the bus.
Hopefully after the “young lady” informs the business that she’s turned them in for a dripping faucet they will throw her a__ out in the street and tell her she is not welcome anymore. But I guess that would be too good to hope for.
Nice, citizen eco-police .. just what we need .. like we don’t have enough problems already.
Phil M. (10:51:10) :
Anthony.
In fact just last week I upgraded part of my office to LED lighting, and I’m so impressed with it I’m going to showcase the product here.
Question.
What is the difference between a halogen light bulb and an electric heater.
Answer.
Not much.
Ideally lighting should be dual source, halogen and incandescent for when you would be running the heating, fluorescent and LED when you need cooling.
But people would balk at the installation cost and appearance of dual sets of light fixtures, and can’t be bothered to change bulbs twice a year.
If you wanted to be more ecologically sound, more independent, then the low-heat lighting makes a better choice. Needing less amps is more compatible with what one can expect from a home photovoltaic (PV) system. Heating can be done by various sources. I have noticed the use of outdoor furnaces, insulated and set not-too-close to the house, the heat being piped inside. The type I know of uses wood, and one fellow I knew used to gather old shipping crates and pallets for fuel. There is less worry about creosote fires, no worries about carbon monoxide buildup in the home, and other advantages. Heck, maybe you can even toss your burnable trash and dry leaves as well.
ROFLMAO … just what I was thinking … hahahahaha…
Dave Collings (12:29:07) :
Don’t feel bad, I thought I had penned “Yelling Fire of a crowded Planet”, but was beat to it by a warming advocate 3 years earlier.
Prince Charles? – always ready with an eco lecture for the rest of us, always travelling by helicopter and Range Rover. Al Gore? those private jet moments, Obama? – check out that 747. Here in freezing Richmond upon Thames we have a particularly eco-fascist lib-dem council – this is a great opportunity, get those photos, you know what to do, the Stasi expects every man to do his duty and nark on the eco-narks.
Happy New Year!
You’ve got to be kidding!
Some people have WAY too much time on their hands. I use energy and resources the way I need to and I don’t like people prying into how I do use them. What ever happened to the right of privacy?
I also have a whole bunch of trees storing up carbon, which of course these nuts can’t see. I should sell them credits…hmm, $2000/tree would be nice. 🙂
Save the planet – [snip]
Now if you don’t mind, i’ll go start up my dirty diesel bulldozer & leave it idling to warm up. But it’s ok, I display the greenpeace sticker on the back of it.
I read an article somewhere recently, talking about how the iPhone is perhaps currently one of the least “green” products made. Massive amounts of energy to produce, massive quantities of toxic substances.
While watching this I could only think more about what I’ve begun to realize: We have a generation growing up unaware of the dangers of Communism. They wear their brightly colored murderous thug (Che) t-shirts, sip Mojitos and watch Michael Moore movies – that’s about what they “know” about Communism. It’s hip and trendy. Oh, they’re so ignorant. Seriously, I met a guy in his 30s (a college grad going for his masters) the other day who wondered “What’s so wrong with Communism? Isn’t it like the Kibbutz in Israel?”
I think there’s a large portion of our country who buys into Michael Moore’s idea of Communist Cuba – it’s a Nirvana of free health care and literacy (Uh, have you seen photos of their filthy and decrepit hospitals and, sure, they can read but have to read Castro approved material). I have an older friend who fled Cuba just post-revolution. He had everything (his business, home and all belongings) taken by force, was imprisoned, escaped to the US… I know that Communism can only be done by force. People aren’t risking their lives to leave that island for nothing.
Which brings me to this nauseating Eco-snoop… neighbors spying on neighbors is what they do in communist countries. Creepy and ignorant.
I just went back to the WUWT home page, and the “EcoSpy -vs- EcoSpy” story is gone!?
Is this some kind of green sabotage? Or, has the app been recalled already?
REPLY: [ It’s there for me. -mod.]
These kind of people are just doing what parasites usually do. Suck the life out of the host and try to get the host to change their behavior to benefit the parasite. Only lasts as long as it takes the dog to scratch them off.
*WRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR*** I’M SORRY *WRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR* I CAN’T *WRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR* HERE YOU OVER *WRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR* ALL THESE *WRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR* BLENDERS AND *WRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR* HAIR DRYERS *WRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR*
*WRRRRRRRRRRRRR* OR “HEAR” YOU EITHER *WRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR* HOW *WRRRRRRRRRRRRRR* EMBARRASSING *WRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR*
To the ecoSS:
I conserve only because I can no longer afford the resources!Live and let live, get a life, get out of mine!
1. I really dont think that this app is intended to report on individuals… I think the design is really intended to have people report on businesses so that people can make choices to support greener business and those businesses can see what they need to do in order to become greener. In many ways, its no different then a site like Yelp, just with an environmental focus.
2. Just because you register a domain name, does not mean you are the “person behind..” – QSA Access is a development company, presumably hired by someone to create the app or website for them. Posting the poor guys name and phone number on your site is shameful.
“Additionally, by going yourself and encouraging friends to utilize the website to add as much information as possible about the picture (address information, responsible party information, etc.) you are giving the EcoSnoop community the tools to encourage positive change!”
Didn’t you guys get the memo? This is eco-justice. All previous norms of decency are hereby suspended in the name of saving the planet. C’mon, get with the program!
Lol…of course this whole thing hinges on people being stupid enough to buy an iPhone…
Anybody ever read “Earth” by David Brin? Sounds like old geezers using Tru-Vue googles to rat out the “Ra Boys”.
Our idiocracy at work.
I was looking at this article and am dumbfounded by the sheer idiocy that makes itself apparent when one thinks it through a bit:
While this is true initially when you first plant trees, as time goes by they become less and less of a carbon sink and when the forest is fully mature, it becomes carbon neutral. At full maturity, the amount of carbon taken out of the atmosphere to produce new biomass is balanced by decaying biomass that is releasing CO2. In fact, a fully mature forest will create a zone of CO2 enriched air which helps the forest grow.
This idiotic scheme would reduce food production, increase food costs, and in the end result in no decrease in atmospheric CO2 unless those trees are cut for lumber or paper.
Imagine what happens in a deciduous forest in a temperate climate zone. In the fall, the leaves fall to the ground. The temperature falls and the leaves are possibly covered with snow but generally have a cold environment with possible direct sun exposure as the leave canopy provides no shade. Decreased temperatures and increased UV would act to greatly reduce the decay process by microbes. So basically this leaf litter stays on the ground until spring.
In the spring, the temperatures warm, the leaf litter thaws, decay increases, and more CO2 is being released just as the trees above need it for providing biomass in the form of new leaf growth. As the leaves grow, they offer shade which reduces UV exposure on the ground and allows various microbe populations to increase even more which releases even more CO2. Branches and twigs that have broken off in winter ice, wind, and snow storms also begin to decay. The forest is now generating an environment that helps itself grow.
Now what do we get for that in return? Higher food prices is what we get. Remember that foods are global commodities. Increasing the price of corn or wheat in the US increases the cost globally. Foods that might have been within reach of some of the poorest people on the planet might now be out of the range of affordability and the scarcity goes up. In reaction to the increase in prices, forest is cleared and farmland is placed in production in areas outside of the US. So at some point there has been no reduction in farming, no increase in forest globally, no reduction in atmospheric CO2 and if the new farms are less efficient in production than US farms, you are likely to see a net increase in CO2 production through the activities associated with less efficient farming practices.
The only likely outcome I can see from such a policy is reducing populations through increases in malnutrition and making having additional mouths to feed too expensive, but even that is eventually compensated for when market forces cause more food to be grown outside the jurisdiction of the US government.
Once again, and irrational fear of CO2 is being used as a “hook” in order to get people to accept regulations that amount to nothing more than “redistribution of wealth” on a global scale and whose impact on CO2 may actually be the opposite of what is “sold” to the people in the rhetoric used to get them to go along with it.
Idiocy. Pure and simple.