WORLD USABILITY DAY
2009/Nov/12
JORGE ZAPICO
KTH / CSC / Media / Industrial Ecology
Centre for Sustainable Communications
Persuasive Services
http://sustainablecommunications.org

The usability of
carbon dioxide
information
what is carbon literacy
and how can it be
improved?

The effect of
anthropological
greenhouse gases in the
global climate system has
been known and studied
for a long time.
But in 2007 something
happened

This molecule went
mainstream!

100% of Swedes
knows about
climate change
70% wants to
reduce their impact

Carbon information is now part of
everyday life and decisions

But, what is it two kilograms of co2? Is
it a lot? Is it little? How is it compared
to how much I saved because I
changed to low energy lamps?
There is a lack of
understanding carbon dioxide
information

A lack in understanding the numbers
and the scales

We need to increase our
carbon literacy!

And for that we need to make
carbon dioxide information
usable

Because carbon dioxide
information is abstract.
It is invisible and linked to the
consequences by a complex
connection.

Compare with a baseline

Comparing with other emissions

Linking with the real world

carbon.to

1kg beef ≈ 2544 cups of tea
36kg beef ≈ 13639 carrots
2kg beef ≈ 735 km in train
1 hour flying ≈ 9 years running a fridge
5kg salmon ≈ 2141 carrots

Increasing carbon
literacy through
play and simulation.
Entertaining and
learning by doing.

As climate change is getting more
weight in our decisions we need a
better understanding of the
information available.
We need to make carbon dioxide
information usable at the moment
of decision.

We have presented some hints
towards it and explained our
intervention.
There is a lot of things we need
to understand and a lot of work
that can be done,
What is it then one kilo of CO2?

Thanks!
Contact at:
Jorge Zapico
zapico@kth.se
@zapico
jorgezapico.com
David Kjelkerud
@davidkjelkerud
Presentation at
http://slideshare.net/jorgezapico