Your big carbon feet

I’ve just seen this new website called the Carbon Account. It’s sort of an ecology 2.0 social network. Once you register you fill in details about your household and your travels, the meter readings for your bills and the amount of miles you travel in your car etc and it will then calculate your carbon emissions for you.

You can see what the carbon emissions of other users are too and work at reducing your carbon emissions. You also have the option to network with other site users to offer support and encouragement, so the site is a bit like a weight watchers for the environmentally sound!

If you want to see how it works then take a look at the video on the site at:

• http://www.thecarbonaccount.com/

The site also has some well written information on what carbon emissions are and how they are calculated. The site owners can also help set up special accounts for groups and give tips on reducing emissions.

This is a really good site to base a class project on.

• Collecting and inputting the relevant data provides a lot of rich vocabulary work for language learners as well as having a meaningful outcome, and building awareness of the environment and our impact on it.
  
• Students could monitor their carbon emissions over the course of a few months and see who can reduce them the most.

The only thing that does bother me about the site, is that it involves parting with quite a lot of detailed personal information, but they do seem to have a sound a very reassuring privacy policy. So why not give it a try with your students.

Hope it goes well

Best

Nik