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The company seems to be at extreme risk: if warming is not happening, or the planet is actually cooling as many solar scientists predict, the value of the compa

The company seems to be at extreme risk: if warming is not happening, or the planet is actually cooling as many solar scientists predict, the value of the company will quickly approach 0. I'd be interested to hear how they would use their tech in the case of co2 having no impact on warming/cooling, as the product looks pretty clever.

deleted 18y ago
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patio11 18y ago
Have you ever heard of the March of Dimes? It is a charitable organization, but the principle is the same. The March of Dimes was founded to eliminate polio. Polio is, indeed, effectively eliminated. Did the March of Dimes close up shop? Nope, they just rebranded: "Our mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality." I'm quite sure that the global warming brigade would quickly find alternate employment if it turned out to not be the devil. Peak Oil looks promising, or maybe they could go for the full-on population-growth-leads-to-extinction Malthus again.
fallentimes 18y ago
They could pretty easily convert themselves in to an energy usage company where companies/consumers/etc could monitor how much energy they're using while on the internet. You'd pay for the monitoring & alerts instead of the offsetting. Patio's suggestions are also good ones.
rms 18y ago
>The company seems to be at extreme risk Extreme risk? Seems a little extreme. Do you think there is more than a 1% chance that CO2 has no impact on global climate?
- gibsonf1 18y ago
  From all the science I've read so far, especially the solar scientists, and the cooling temperatures over the last few years, I'd estimate that man-made Co2 has about a 90% chance of having no impact on global climate. The sun seems to be the driving factor now and in the many countless past global climate events.
  - fallentimes 18y ago
    While you may be right, it's going to take the American public (and world for that matter) a long time to figure it out one way or the other.
axod 18y ago
It's riding a media campaign. Just depends when that media wave ends. Hopefully soon. I'm all for saving energy, being efficient etc, but this seems a really bad way to go about that. I'd say also the barrier to entry for competition is 0. As long as they can design a "We are green" badge. There are of course other things where the barrier for entry is 0 - twitter for example - but with that it's all about the network - who is on it. I don't see how co2stats can protect themselves like this. What's to stop others creating badges and selling them to websites? Also this claim from the website is just ridiculous: "Increase the time your visitors and customers spend on your website. Proudly display that your site is providing their computers with green energy while they are on your site. They'll stay around longer, and that leads to greater sales and attention." Some evidence/studies to show that would be good...
- fallentimes 18y ago
  I think Co2stats has good intentions, I just wish they were more transparent about what they did and how their calculations were made. A lot of the stuff on their website is just marketing instead of information.

deleted 18y ago

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patio11 18y ago

Have you ever heard of the March of Dimes? It is a charitable organization, but the principle is the same. The March of Dimes was founded to eliminate polio. Polio is, indeed, effectively eliminated. Did the March of Dimes close up shop? Nope, they just rebranded: "Our mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality." I'm quite sure that the global warming brigade would quickly find alternate employment if it turned out to not be the devil. Peak Oil looks promising, or maybe they could go for the full-on population-growth-leads-to-extinction Malthus again.

fallentimes 18y ago

They could pretty easily convert themselves in to an energy usage company where companies/consumers/etc could monitor how much energy they're using while on the internet. You'd pay for the monitoring & alerts instead of the offsetting. Patio's suggestions are also good ones.

rms 18y ago

>The company seems to be at extreme risk Extreme risk? Seems a little extreme. Do you think there is more than a 1% chance that CO2 has no impact on global climate?

gibsonf1 18y ago
From all the science I've read so far, especially the solar scientists, and the cooling temperatures over the last few years, I'd estimate that man-made Co2 has about a 90% chance of having no impact on global climate. The sun seems to be the driving factor now and in the many countless past global climate events.
- fallentimes 18y ago
  While you may be right, it's going to take the American public (and world for that matter) a long time to figure it out one way or the other.

axod 18y ago

It's riding a media campaign. Just depends when that media wave ends. Hopefully soon. I'm all for saving energy, being efficient etc, but this seems a really bad way to go about that. I'd say also the barrier to entry for competition is 0. As long as they can design a "We are green" badge. There are of course other things where the barrier for entry is 0 - twitter for example - but with that it's all about the network - who is on it. I don't see how co2stats can protect themselves like this. What's to stop others creating badges and selling them to websites? Also this claim from the website is just ridiculous: "Increase the time your visitors and customers spend on your website. Proudly display that your site is providing their computers with green energy while they are on your site. They'll stay around longer, and that leads to greater sales and attention." Some evidence/studies to show that would be good...

fallentimes 18y ago
I think Co2stats has good intentions, I just wish they were more transparent about what they did and how their calculations were made. A lot of the stuff on their website is just marketing instead of information.