Gavin’s lip-service to anything green continues today with the public launch of that Cisco website that he was talking about last month, Urban EcoMap. “You have to think locally if you’re going to impact the global environment,” Gavin burbled at an Earth Day thing where he was promoting the website. He then got into an SUV that drove him to his other SUV which was waiting to take him to the SUV store where he could buy a “one less bike” bumper sticker for his wife’s SUV collection.
Anyway, this website lets you see how much carbon your zip code is generating (too much, unless you live on Fisherman’s Wharf, which according to the map is one of the cleanest places to live in the city), and then advises you to take the bus and change your light bulbs. Brown-green politicians like the Mayor love this shit because it has the word “eco” in the title but does not actually hold you to any of your commitments, hooray! It’s all just a wink-wink pretend game, in which none of the recommendations is very helpful or even makes much sense; but that is fine because nobody seriously intends to change their behavior anyway.
Meanwhile, in South Korea, Cisco’s working on this cool transit planner that feeds you transit recommendations based on real-time traffic and arrival predictions. Sure sounds nice.
Anyway, this flummoxing EcoMap recommends that you take the bus once a week AND take the bus every day AND ride your bike once a day AND buy a hybrid AND carpool. It also indicates that composting yard and garden waste will reduce as much carbon as installing solar panels on your roof. Yes, thank you, this is a highly relevant comparison in a city where many people have neither a yard nor garden. But then again, a lot of San Franciscans have no roof, either. Thanks Gav! Knock ’em dead in Sacramento.
Also, you might like to know how many people have visited the site and pledged to switch from their car to transit. Or to take shorter showers. Or to recycle more. How has carbon production changed over time? How many car trips or gallons of shower have been saved? Of course the site doesn’t track anything like that, because that would actually be, you know, useful. Has EcoMap actually had an impact on the environment? Who knows! Who cares! They had a press conference, what more do you want!
