(PresidentialHill.com)- Former Vice President and 2000 presidential candidate Al Gore is backing a satellite database that tracks “individual emitters” of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, according to a report from The Daily Caller. Gore, along with Google’s nonprofit arm, is funding the environmental nonprofit coalition Climate TRACE, which reportedly tracks emissions from energy producers.
The aim of the coalition is to reportedly fill “critical knowledge gaps” to provide governments and international bodies with the information they need to effectively monitor carbon emissions. To track individual emitters, the coalition uses satellite imaging, remote sensors, and artificial intelligence.
Marc Morano, a critic of the coalition and publisher of Climate Depot, told Daily Caller that these efforts are meant to demonize emissions and control every aspect of industrial society, “penalizing producers” to the point where “human prosperity and human prosperity and economic growth are evil.”
Morano also speculates that the program will be expanded to monitor “any human activity” as well.
Gore revealed the capabilities of Climate TRACE’s software at a United Nations COP27 climate conference in Egypt last week. He showcased that 72,612 individual global sources can be tracked, lauding that such a database could help to negotiate with energy producers who are responsible for the most emissions.
The TRACE coalition was reportedly founded when Google.org issued a grant to WattTime and TransitionZero for monitoring “emissions from power plants from space using satellites in 2019.” The coalition has received a total of $8 million to date and has had Google employees work with them to technologically develop its database.
The coalition claims that existing methods to measure greenhouse gases are insufficient, noting that their aim is to accurately measure emissions to help governments.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres praised TRACE’s technology, saying that it should be a “wake-up call” for governments investing in oil, gas, and fossil fuels.
Speaking to The Daily Caller, a Climate TRACE spokesperson asserted that they will never track individual cars or homes and will “never uncover or share an individual’s personal data,” adding that instead, they focus on the “city-level” like road transportation.
