World Offset: pledge to reduce your carbon footprint

Having a look through Rhizome's Artbase I came across this work that really caught my interest. I've been thinking a lot recently about how I can reduce my carbon footprint, and similarly some of my friends and family are becoming more aware of how greatly their daily routines negatively impact the environment and are now actively trying to reduce this through developing alternative behaviours such as not relying on their car as primary means of transport, composting food scraps, recycling more materials and turning off appliances when they are not in use. I try really hard to stick by this, and have to admit sometimes I do falter. I get the whole "climate-change is bigger than us, there's nothing we can really do, and my measly contribution means nothing" attitude once and a while and then I realise that's a completely stupid way to look at it - I'd feel horribly guilty if I didn't at least try to make an effort.

So I was very interested to find this web-art project that explores this very notion of the futility and necessity of an individual reducing their carbon emissions by conserving energy. World Offset is a project that asks people to make a conscious promise to change their behaviours and make their contribution to the environment by asking participants to abide by a series of eco-friendly statements. At the end a figure is generated of how many pounds of carbon a person will save if they abide by the promises made. An example of 2 promises -

• I promise to turn off and unplug my home computer when not in use this year. Savings: 250 lbs per year, 0.7 lbs per day. Source: stopglobalwarming.org
  
• I promise to take two minutes off my regular showering time [1-7] days this week. If you are able to take 2 minutes off of your daily hot shower then you can save 342 lbs of carbon per year. Assumes an average hot showering time of 8 minutes. Savings: 0.94 lbs per day. Source: thegreenguide.com

The goal of the project is to make people aware that buying ecologically friendly products isn't enough to make a significant impact against climate change, and in fact making a conscious decision to reduce energy consumption produces a real carbon offset that can make a difference. The website informs that "the average American generates about 15,000 pounds of carbon dioxide every year from personal transportation, home energy use and from the energy used to produce all of the products and services used." So the projects aim is to have enough people pledged to the cause to offset the carbon emissions of at least one American, which seems like an absolutely futile amount seeing as there are over 303,000,000 citizens in America. Although, so far the website has only 102 pledgers and 20, 2344.93 pounds of carbon saved. In the face of futility the project advocates [http://worldoffset.org/futility/]:

We must work toward a wider, societal transition to a low carbon economy, while
simultaneously taking direst responsibility for reducing our personal emissions.

I totally agree! The project invites individuals who have decided to make a difference to calculate their personal offset and then engages then into a community of other people who have made the same pledge in order to see, with their powers combined (GO PLANET!), just what kind of difference they can make together. The website extols the 20, 2344.93 pounds saved have been pledged by "good people" who have made personal sacrifices for a greater good.

The project itself was launched at the opening of the EcoAesthetics exhibition at the TAG centre in The Hague in March 2008. This exhibition challenged visitors to consider eco-related issues "in different and inspiring ways." The displayed works showed alternatives and solutions by "fusing visionary art and technology."

The World Offset project contributed a digital visualisation of designed by the project's mastermind Tiffany Holmes. She terms it an 'eco-visualization', which the website describes as "the creative practice of making numeric environmental data visible and understandable through imaging, sound or animation." Holmes' stated goal for the eco-visualization is the promotion of environmental awareness and to make the data that indicates and charts this awareness accessible to a wider audience.


The visualisation is a moving collage of spinning discs that are made up of photos of every-day technologies that are designed to enhance our lives that consume energy, such as hair-dryers, cars and aeroplanes. The World Offset sites explains that when the first 75,000 of carbon are promised trees will replace the hair dyers. The 15, 000 pound mark was met on March 22, during the exhibition opening. It further states that "more than half a million pounds of carbon must be offset to fully “green” [out] the animation."

The visualisation was projected onto a large screen monitor from the Internet where is in perpetual motion. This project asks people to come together and make real life promises in order to enact any kind of significant change. This project will only work if one abides by the promises they make. If they cheat, they are not only cheating themselves but also the community they have become involved in, and the world affected by climate change. If the participant starts wavering from their commitment they can go to the website to see how many more people have pledged which may re-invigorate their interest and make them potentially pledge more promises. The visualisation acts as a visual metaphor to convey exactly how much their commitment to the cause makes a real-life impact. Being able to see results in this way and knowing that other people are also joining in may just make an individuals choice to do what they can seem a little less futile.

THE POWER IS YOURS!

[It occurs to me know that the reliance on energy-sucking technologies, such as Internet-linked computers, and high-def flat screen monitors to convey this message may be a little ironic, but there is a sort of disclaimer on the website which states "...you cannot unplug my computer and I cannot unplug yours but maybe there is a compromise and it begins now. Promise for real to cut your carbon footprint by some tiny amount then look here". The project wouldn't be able to exist without relying on some sort of link to energy consuming technology, so - does the altruism of the project outweigh the negative impact it creates through a reliance upon technology upon the environment? I think an expression of concern is warranted and it needs to be put out there in some manner, just remember to turn your computer off at night.]