Words by Smiley Team
The Ribbit Network is the world's largest crowdsourced network of open-source, low-cost, greenhouse gas (GHG) detection sensors. The network is composed of sensors situated all around the world that upload their data to the cloud, creating the world's most complete dataset built by citizen scientists.
The project was founded by ex-SpaceX software engineer Keenan Johnson, 30, from Seattle. It harnesses the same concept as Purple Air, deploying sensors around the world for anyone to provide data on greenhouse gases and air quality, which is then shared on an open-source map.
Data is collected through the network’s “frogs” - a small, open-source box that measures the amount of CO2 in the air using a tiny laser.
Keenan says he created this project to “empower anyone in the world to join the work on climate and provide informed data for climate action”.
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The 30-year-old started his career tackling the biggest, most innovative project he could find: space exploration. He worked on satellites, space first aid, mars rovers, and rockets. As time went on, his interest in working on climate change went from a hobby to an obsession. He left SpaceX to found Impossible Aerospace and prove to the world that it was possible to eliminate carbon emissions from aircraft today.
“I've been lucky to work on climate for a while,” he tells Smiley News. “I love learning and being on a learning journey, and one of the questions I kept asking myself was, okay, we know that greenhouse gases are the problem for climate change - so how are we going to stop emissions or capture them from the atmosphere?”
But he saw that everything was happening at a hyper-local level. “A city will decide to convert a part of their area to a geothermal heating system, or other really local solutions that will add up to a macro solution,” he says. “But we don't have much hyper local data about greenhouse gas emissions, and I just kept asking myself, why do we not have that? Is there something inherently hard about gathering that data?
“And there wasn't really an answer - so I decided to build it myself.”
The Ribbit Network records the sensor data and makes it accessible for scientists and researchers around the world to analyze and pinpoint emissions.
Using this data, they can identify and track emissions, which allows them to verify assumptions and hold emitters accountable through corporate, government, and individual action. "However, this network only works if we all work together to deploy enough sensors to meaningfully measure emissions everywhere," he says. "Any support will help ensure that the future we all deserve will exist."
Keenan has already deployed a number of v1 Frogs through the Ribbit Network which are providing networked, real-time data to help them identify and mitigate hidden emissions sources, which he hopes will lead to more situations like this EPA lawsuit that reduced emissions from idling school buses.
“I hope that this network can provide a sense of hope and agency to citizen scientists and laypeople by enabling them to meaningfully contribute to the climate,” he says. “The success of citizen science projects can't be ignored and the Ribbit Network has already received significant interest from individuals interested in deploying a GHG monitoring station of their own.”
Keenan’s ongoing development of the Ribbit Network is being funded and supported by UK not-for-profit climate tech accelerator Subak through their fellowship programme. The organisation was founded by Baroness Bryony Worthington ≠ lead author of the UK’s Climate Act – and is projected to fund and scale 500 climate organisations and projects in the next five years.
Support The Ribbit Network through Keenan’s crowdfunding page on Ko-Fi.
