The data we have on global greenhouse gas emissions is woefully inaccurate and prone to manipulation—oftentimes, the polluters themselves are being asked to self-report their numbers. Gavin McCormick, co-founder and executive director of SF-based non-profit WattTime, is on a mission to track carbon pollution in real-time and identify the worst culprits, by using satellite technology and an AI algorithm. WattTime is also making the results of emissions from every single power plant, for example, accessible to the public for free, making it easier to enforce pollution restrictions. The tech non-profit was started by UC Berkeley researchers -- McCormick says his next step is to make “every single emitting asset in the world visible.” CNN's Tech For Good also links up with Ilissa Ocko, climate scientist at the Environmental Defense fund. She says the fastest way to slow climate change now is actually to reduce methane emissions. Although methane makes up a tiny fraction of the atmosphere, its impact is outsize compared with CO2 -- methane is more than 80 times more powerful at trapping heat than CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere. “This is the methane moment,” Ocko says, naming three main sources of methane -- livestock, oil and gas, and landfills -- as well as potential solutions to curtail the greenhouse gas. This fall, the EDF is planning to launch the MethaneSAT which will continuously detect and quantify methane emissions worldwide and hold countries accountable.
