What is Real Costs:
Real Costs is a Firefox plug-in that inserts emissions data into travel related e-commerce website. The first version adds CO2 emissions information to airfare websites such as Orbitz.com, United.com, Delta.com, etc. Following versions will work with car directions, car rental, and shipping websites. Think of it like the nutritional information labeling on the back of food... except for emissions. See it at TheRealCosts.com.
Why Real Costs matters:
The objective of the Real Costs is to increase awareness of the environmental impact of certain day to day choices in the life of the Internet user. By presenting this environmental impact information in the place where decisions are being made, it will hopefully create an impact on the viewer, encourage a sense of individual agency, and provide a set of alternatives and immediate actions. In the process the user/viewer might even be transformed from passive consumer to engaged citizen.
How Real Costs works:
Experience the project by installing the Real Costs plug-in into your Firefox application. Currently, this plug-in pulls each flight origination and destination information from the page, calculates and reinserts the CO2 produced. It compares the CO2 produced for that flight to making that trip by bus or train, and to the average CO2 produced per capita for the average US and world citizen. It is configured to work on the websites of the largest North American air carriers (major global air carriers to be added shortly.) A list of these carriers and documentation of all scientific calculations is available on the project Wiki.
The Beta Clause:
Real Costs is currently a public beta release (v 0.0.6). This means that there are bugs, and that it is currently still under development. Help us make it better: if you experience problems, inaccuracies, or errors, take a screenshot and send it in (to the email below) with your operating system and Firefox version number. We'll fix it (or die trying.)
Who Made Real Costs (Possible):
Real Costs is a project by Michael Mandiberg, with ecological advise from P. Timon McPhearson Ph.D., and assistance from Carlo Montagnino and Evan Moran. Real Costs was made possible by the support of Eyebeam, Rhizome Commissions Program, and The College of Staten Island/CUNY.
Please direct inquiries to michaelATmandibergDOTcom. (Replace the words with the symbols; maybe someday, long in the future, children will ask you about the olden days, when spam was still a problem.)
Blog and print ready graphics at http://therealcosts.com/screenshots.html