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.
Now this is a useful idiot creating a program for other useful idiots to keep the cattle in line. 1984 indeed
Next time I fly over China, I will take a picture !
Willis Eschenbach (15:15:42) :
“I am a dedicated environmentalist, and have been one since I first read Silent Spring…”
Please define environmentalist.
http://www.achanceforeverychild.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/malaria1.jpg
Scientist Predicts 50 Years of Cooling
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977966482&grpId=3659174697244816&nav=Groupspace
Sorry if someone already mentioned this but …
One thing they could do is change their name. “Snoop” does not instill confidence about impartiality and lack of political platform. It is a pejorative term about those who are about invading and minding other people’s business, and rightly so.
Eco Snoop (13:48:04) :
Well,
You guys have a lot of energy and anger. You make many relevant points that we can use to make the site serve its purpose.
I can’t see much anger here, a lot of sarcasm, though. Just try an open AGW site or discussion of a news article, you’ll see a lot more anger there (mostly from AGW believers, mind you). This is mild in comparison.
Though we have seemingly failed in the message, EcoSnoop is focusing on helping people eliminate waste that they are not aware of. Folks like Al Gore want us to waste Trillions to change our economy to eliminate CO2 emissions. Would you like a constructive alternative?
Very good point. It is an alternative, and a good one. The danger is in the approach which is so badly open to abuse by the wrong people. Unfortunately, as we have seen so many times, AGW believers are very often the wrong people, mainly because of their obsession with enforcing their views on everybody else.
You can direct your thoughts to snoop@ecosnoop.com. We are happy to listen to rational suggestions.
Thank you for that. It helps a lot.
crosspatch (13:21:05) :
Our idiocracy at work.
…
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.
It’s only idiocy if the purveyors of the regulations do not understand the consequences. It is possible that the consequences that you describe are in fact intended, and the descriptor of the behaviour would be something other than idiocy.
What would be idiocy would be complacent acceptance of such laws.
Do it yourself police state? There’s an app for that!
This app is a piece of junk.
Like Facebook but about reporting ‘lights’ to each other and only…
They might make a few bucks since there’re many retards out there.
EcoStacy is a man disguised as a woman.
While we laugh and make light of the idea we should also remember that humans are capable of anything. Absolutely anything! And it is entirely within the rhelm of possibility that another Third Reich (or worse) could pop up in the good old USSA. Never assume!
Hi Stacey the presenter,
[snip]
I hope that Ecosnoop carries massive insurance for the false claims and disputes that it will engender if it takes off. But it won’t. People avoid getting involved – witness the unwillingness to move a person injured in a public attack, lest the good intention causes further medical damage. Think it through before being too clever by half.
Have you done a benefit:cost analysis of the time and money spent to create and operate the devices, as against the $ benefit they will bring? It’s a bit disingenuous like all those private jets winging it to Copenhagen, is it not?
What an anti-social mob of sneaks you are. Get a life.
So I guess those of us who work a night shift will have to work in the dark now or face reprehension for having lights on at “unusual” hours.
This is scary.
What’s next? Eco-judges walking the streets handing out green “judgement”?
I’m off to start a colony on Mars and no-one is invited. The world has truly gone mad.
Using organised social networking to report on anyone or on any business is a bad idea. It’s a version of cyber-bullying, to be resisted wherever it appears. The justification ‘reducing energy waste’ in no way justifies this version of cyber-bullying.
Clive (15:58:09) :
Getting a bit OT …
Galen Haugh (15:14:35) : “They also still have heating and cooking for 75% of their people from wood, charcoal, trash and coal fires. ”
——————
That was actually something from a comment made earlier by Henry chance (14:47:19) : , but your input is excellent and many more reasons for there to be a concerted effort to help the Chinese farmers, for whom life is a dreary one with way too much work and hardship, benefit from more modern conveniencies.
I served a 2-year mission to Hong Kong back in ’69-’71 and in that town, although it was back several decades, most heat was provided by propane heaters, although the New Territories had many villages that were equivalent to what you describe.
Again, I’m not against CO2 buildup in the atmosphere. As a geologist I firmly believe it has been way higher in the past than current levels with no significant deleterious impact. Indeed, I’m all for this buildup, even if a few sea urchins don’t grow as rapidly as in times past.
And to see how much our current boost in anthropogenic CO2 has benefited China, check out the video on this site:
http://www.plantsneedco2.org/default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
(If that link doesn’t work, Bing “Plants Need CO2”, an excellent Web site that extolls the virtues of that life-giving gas.)
The greening of China is not an isolated case–it is happening across the globe. They’re even finding that the Sahara is starting to green up. Why? Plants do so much better with additional CO2 that they don’t need as much water! Sounds like sufficient reason to keep burning coal and anything else, especially if the particulates and aerosols can be sequestered properly.
realitycheck (16:22:54) :
I’m off to start a colony on Mars and no-one is invited.
realitycheck….funny!
Delation for a few more minutes of electricity and heating is next…
Despite all his denegation, this is pure totalitarism at work: shame on these guys.
“This website documents my latest research on the history of carbon dioxide gas analysis. My work had been published by several journals and had been presented at national and international meetings. In literature we can find more than 200 000 directly measured CO2 data since 1800 from which I have estimated the annual CO2 background averages since 1826 to 1960, the end of the measurements by chemical methods. IPCC prefers ice core reconstructions. This new data set reveals remarkable coherence with other geophysical timeseries. Please feel free to check data, methods, stations and historical literature. Comments are welcome.”
Real CO2
http://www.biomind.de/realCO2/
EricH (15:22:48) :
“A thing that most people forget is that nuclear power stations cannot be switched on & off like a light and nor can coal power stations. Only gas power stations (basically a jet engine) and hydro-electric power can come online in about 30 seconds.”
Thats very optimistic, to say the least, whatever your power source is you need to get it up and running at the same pace as the electric grid, but then you have the problem to syncronize it with the grid, which might show to be a much bigger problem, especially with a lot of not so reliable power providers such as wind turbins, the more you have of those the more unstable will the power grid be.
“Michael (16:34:08) :
“This website documents my latest research on the history of carbon dioxide gas analysis. My work had been published by several journals and had been presented at national and international meetings. In literature we can find more than 200 000 directly measured CO2 data since 1800 from which I have estimated the annual CO2 background averages since 1826 to 1960, the end of the measurements by chemical methods. IPCC prefers ice core reconstructions. This new data set reveals remarkable coherence with other geophysical timeseries. Please feel free to check data, methods, stations and historical literature. Comments are welcome.”
Real CO2
http://www.biomind.de/realCO2/”
Great link. It’s by a German from the Stuttgart region, Ernst-Georg Beck.
Here’s a small blog item about him in German:
http://www.pi-news.net/2007/12/darf-so-einer-unsere-kinder-unterrichten/
He’s a biology teacher. The blog article reports about threats against him because his opinion violates the dogma. Take that Hansen you bloody crook. This is really sad. They threatened to arson his house.
Yet another viral wannabee “real” video associated with an upcoming movie about sewer-dwelling techno saviors having to go back in time to avoid Econet from forming in the first place. In the sixth sequel plot twist the enemy who had turned into a Humvee-driving hero who is also Mr. Universe turns back into an enemy and becomes governor of California who conspires with the Vice President of the United States to release a movie that cost as much as the Space Station that requires x-ray glasses which reprogram all children to believe that tall thin blue people Tantrically copulated with Nature every moment of their lives until a source of energy was discovered in their fine country. This forced the tall thin blue people to blow up their underwear whenever they were allowed on hoverjets with their underwear still on. Tall thin blue people have exposed genitalia on their heads, so do not really need underwear. Avoid this movie at all costs.
DirkH (17:00:38),
Dr Beck has been discussed a number of times on WUWT. Here’s one of his articles: click
Beck’s interactive website is excellent. Click around on it and you’ll find some fascinating information.
Oh and this is so good i gotta get even more off topic and translate it for you.
It’s on this blog that reports about Herrn Beck , a comment there:
http://www.pi-news.net/2007/12/darf-so-einer-unsere-kinder-unterrichten/
The german version
———————————-
Auf ein Neues:
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Gerlich
Institut für Mathematische Physik der Technischen Universität Carolo-Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig
Zur Mathematik und Physik globaler Klimamodelle: Kritik der mathematischen und physikalischen Grundlagen, Öffentliches GDCh Kolloquium: 21. 5. 2007, Münster.
9) Zusammenfassung
(1) Die üblichen Erklärungen der atmosphärischen Kohlendioxid-Treibhauseffekte widersprechen physikalischen Experimenten und sind deshalb physikalisch falsch.
(2) Mittelwerte der Temperatur kann man nicht zur vierten Wurzel vom Mittelwerten der vierten Potenz der absoluten Temperatur gleichsetzen. Die Beziehung ist eine mathematische Ungleichung.
(3) Die Absorption der Ultrarotstrahlung in der Erdatmosphäre geschieht überwiegend durch Wasserdampf. Der Wellenlängen- bzw. Frequenzanteil, den CO2 absorbiert, ist nur ein kleiner Teil des ultraroten Spektrums und wird nicht wesentlich durch Erhöhen des Partialdruckes des CO2 verändert
(Prof. A. Schack).
(4) Die Computersimulationen haben keine physikalischen Grundlagen, sondern sind künstliche Konstrukte,die die gewünschten Ergebnisse ohne die Berücksichtigung physikalischer Gesetze produzieren.
(5) Wegen der willkürlich gewählten, genäherten, praktisch unbekannten Randbedingungen, die wesentlich die Lösungen von partiellen Differentialgleichungen bestimmen, sind die Prognosen der
Klimarechenzentren völlig wertlos.
(6) Die riesigen Wassermassen (nicht nur der Wasserdampf) und die Verteilung der Landmassen
zwischen den Meeren bestimmen die Klimate auf der Erde. Die Wasserverdunstung über den
Ozeanen ist vom Menschen nicht zu beeinflussen. Allein schon deshalb kann der Mensch nicht das Wetter und die Klimate auf der Erde beeinflussen.
——————
My translation: (And i’m very happy to bring this to you because it’s from the university where i studied computer science)
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Gerlich
Institute for mathematical physics of the technical University Carolo-Wilhelmina at Braunschweig
About the mathematics and Physics of global climate models: A Critique of the mathematical and physical foundations
Public GDCh Kolloquium: May the 21st 2007, Münster.
9) Conclusion
(1) The usual explanations of the athmospheric greenhouse effect contradict physical experiments and are therefore physically wrong.
(2) You cannot equate Averages of temperature with the fourth root of averages of the fourth power of the absolute temperate. This is an inequation.
(3) Absorption of LIR radiation in the atmosphere is largely accomplished by water vapour. The frequency band absorbed by CO2 is only a small part of the LIR spectrum and is not changed significantly by an increase in the partial pressure of CO2. (Prof. A. Schack).
(4) The Computer simulations have no basis in physics, but are artificial constructs which produce the desired results without taking physical laws into consideration.
(5) Because of the arbitrary, approximated, practically unknown constraints which influence the solution of partial differential equations significantly, the prognostic value of the results from the Climate Datacenters is null.
(6) The huge masses of water (not only water vapour) and the distribution of the continents define the climates of earth. The evaporation above the oceans is not controllable by men. This alone suffices to say that man cannot influence weather or climates of the earth.
—————-
The words of one Prof. Dr. Gerhard Gerlich, translation by me.
Happy new year everybody 🙂
How ironic (or should that be “iconic” ?) that the vacuous Fräulein drone doing the advertising is wearing a Brown Shirt … and her hairstyle is somewhat reflective of that era, too. In fact, she looks alot like one of the lasses kicked out of the bunker in this tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTGLpqFGyYM 🙂
regarDS
Håkan B (16:39:56) :
EricH (15:22:48) :
There is another issue with gas turbine back-up for wind and other intermittant renwables: CO2 savings may be overestated for wind and renewables because of underestimating of GHG and other pollutant emissions during start-up of the gas back-up. While gas may be virtually “instant on” from a power generating standpoint, emissions are high during start-up.
See this analysis, based in part on an article in Environmental Science & Technology.
http://www.masterresource.org/2009/11/wind-integration-incremental-emissions-from-back-up-generation-cycling-part-i-a-framework-and-calculator/
So let me get this straight. To encourage people to make energy savings, we must expend energy on otherwise unnecessary gadgets and computer processing time?