蜜芽传媒

Google Maps launched a new service this week, offering drivers in the US the option of choosing the lowest carbon route for their journey. The tool will calculate this based on factors such as congestion and road inclines. It will be launched in Europe next year.

Google estimates that if the option is well used, it could save the planet one million tonnes of carbon a year - the equivalent of 200,000 fewer cars being driven.

Maria Cecilia Pinta de Moura is a senior engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists' Clean Transportation Program. She welcomes this move, but says that there are more important changes needed when it comes to car use.

"Individuals do have an important role to play in this as this service illustrates, but we shouldn't shift the responsibility for reducing emissions to individual consumers. We really need to hold the polluting corporations accountable, including Google itself, but especially the oil and gas industry. They have to be made to pay for the pollution they produce. People need to be aware that we need to make a full transition away from fossil fuels."

(Photo: A hand holds a phone showing Google Maps on it. Credit: AFP)

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