Its difficult to see something as a problem if we cant see it at all. Thats one problem with coming to grips with greenhouse gas pollution. It doesnt show up in the air the way smog does, and its impacts arent directly linked to emissions in perceptible ways.
Interestingly, it turns out thats not just a challenge, its a business opportunity.
Carbon Visuals is a business dedicated to helping everyone better understand carbon emissions. It produces graphics like the pictures to the right and below, designed to help bring home to people the scope of the carbon pollution problem and their responsibility for it.
Browse their web site a bit. Youll see all kinds of interesting pictures and ideas. If youre trying to communicate the seriousness of climate pollution (and can afford their services), Carbon Visuals is ready to help you.
Im fascinated by what it takes to get people to connect emotionally to a problem like climate change. I applaud Carbon Visuals for its efforts. It seems to me that their visualizations make two of three necessary points. First, they do a great job of showing the sheer scale of carbon pollution.
The picture of the Empire State Building disappearing under a single days carbon emissions is hard to ignore. They have others showing CO2 in the atmosphere as a quilt layer, getting thicker and thicker with time. Its astonishing to me how much weve changed the composition of the atmosphere in my lifetime, and Carbon Visuals has some pretty arresting ways of making that visible.
Second, theyve got graphics that provide comparative information about emissions over space and time. Thats also a vital aspect of bringing a problem home you cant understand whether you or your nation could do better unless you know how others compare. This simple graphic, for example, shows emissions by nation, both since the industrial revolution and for a single recent year. It strikes me as a great starting point for discussing the equities of imposing uniform or differential emission limitations by nation.
Source: Carbon Visuals. Used under a Creative Commons license.
But theres an important, and contested, piece of the greenhouse gas picture that doesnt jump off the pages of Carbon Visuals illustrations. Thats the impact of those emissions. Striking as those blue spheres burying New York City are, if they arent actually hurting us it doesnt matter how big they are.
For those who are already convinced that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem, Carbon Visuals pictures are useful tools for highlighting relative responsibility and the importance and possibility of changing behavior. But I suspect theyre not great tools for convincing skeptics of the importance of addressing carbon pollution.
Cross-posted from the environmental law and policy blog Legal Planet.