Experience for using Carbon Footprint App by Aossie
Tags: environment, experience
Published: 2019-12-23 10:26:08

<i>This article is about an open source app by Australian Open Source Software Innovation and Education and why it's a must have app on your phone <i/>

Earth is on fire! and there is no immediate rescue coming. With melting glaciers, depleting water resources and pollution, mankind is on the path of his destruction and that of the only known habitable planet in the entire universe. Global warming is known problem to us since many decades but no visisble and firm action has been taken yet. We have designed metrics, made prediction but the public is not aware about them and in the pall ignorance; the life here is ebbing away.
Let's understand what <b> Global Warming</b> is. <b>The unnatural rise in the temperature of the planet due to trapping of heat by green house gases</b>. Our atmospheric gases consists of 78% of nitrogen, 21% of oxygen and remaining small percentage divide into other gases such as CO2  ,  H2O vapors , Ar, Ne etc. This small percentage of CO2   is wreaking havoc on the entire earth's ambient atmosphere. Gases such as Methane (10%), Fluorides(3%), Nitrides(6%) and CO2  (82%) have been the root cause of heat entrapment, thus raising the temperature resulting in melting of polar icecaps, glaciers, rise in ocean level, endangering polar flora and fauna , floods etc. 

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<img src="https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/cbkhr2ne6twyjjpdzvv0.png" width=75% height=75%>
[Green House Effect](https://medialibrary.climatecentral.org/resources/the-greenhouse-effect)
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The carbon dioxide emissions that take place are not just because of industrial activities but human actions such as travelling via car, burning a stove, lighting firewood, doing a Google search etc. Surprised, right? But that's a fact. 
Out of many available metrics one such is <b>Carbon footprint that measures the amount of green house gas produced by an individual, organization, country</b>. A carbon footprint is measured in tones of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e). One a large scale, it is measured by organizations and countries, but the public at large is still unaware of the amount it CO2 and individual produces.

<img src="https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/0tp6tqz8rj9orml40vvs.PNG" width=35% height=35%>
<b>Carbon Footprint</b> - A mobile app by <b>Australian Open Source software innovation and education</b> is a wonderful tool to know about how much carbon we produce. This app is easy to use with comfortable user interface and accurately measure the amount of CO2 we save. 
When we first open the app it provides the details and what's the catch for the user. The app detects user activity provides live notification and the data about user's CO2 usage. 

![starting tabs of the app](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/qj4mg86z5j121y71kmv5.PNG)

The user can easily register by using their Google, Facebook and twitter accounts or can use a custom email. 
After successful login as the user enters the app, they are prompted by permission to use Google maps. So, what the use of the location? This app measure that when you travel from one location to another, If travel by a car you may have higher CO2 emission as compared when you travel on bike or go there by foot. This helps the user to track fuel emission and hence the amount for CO2 they can save. 

 <img src="https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/xpyfs2mtvw6pkca0javb.PNG" width=35% height=35%>
Back to the app, one can put the starting point and the destination of the journey on the calculate tab of the app. In the activity tab of 2 types of activity can be seen, that is the activity of the current day and the summary, where the app tells about the distance traveled the CO2 emitted by user with duration of travel. 

<img src="https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/kh7goppcd2n9k1y7hrzk.PNG" width=50% height=50%>

How amazing would it be if you could add you friends as well and compete on the amount of CO2 you can save! Yes,  this app has a feature where you can invite you friends send them request to use the app and simultaneously monitor the emission. 
 
<img src="https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/a7vu12o4nhbji0499vzg.PNG">


The dashboard tab provides the details of CO2 emitted by the user by travel via a vehicle using fuel or CO2 saved by choosing an environment friendly option to travel by a bike or on foot.
You can even share this detail on social media and public handle.

<img src="https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/vm0aurh2z07oonck0w0v.PNG">
 
This is a must have app on your phone and that can help every individual to contribute their bit to save the only planet with life, our home, Earth.

<i>You can get the app [here](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.carbonfootprint). Let's save the only planet which has chocolates!</i>