CarbonQuest wins Rep. Seth Moulton’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Massachusetts’s Sixth District

When asked what inspired the creation of CarbonQuest, the students said, “Climate change affects us close to home. In the New England area, temperatures have risen on average 3 to 4 degrees Celsius, and sea level has increased an average of 1 to 4 feet. This is considerably higher than the national average, and correlates with the increase of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. We’ve also experienced shorter winters and longer summers. When we were kids, winter was a season that we used to love. Recently, snow has started to become very scarce, and even if it does snow, the amount is very little. This is taking away the charm of our New England nature and destroying its ecosystem.  

Climate change and global warming, though, is not limited to New England of course. It is a global issue that causes disasters like desertification and that will displace millions from their homes. The Paris Climate Agreement states that Earth’s global temperatures should not go above 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, but we are slowly reaching that point at 2 degrees Fahrenheit right now. Growing up on the emergence of this crisis, we believe that we need to be the changemakers, taking steps to solve this issue. Knowing that all of us can make any contribution, whether big or small, to reduce our carbon emission footprint, we decided to make an app that allows people to set small and simple carbon emission goals with visual feedback on how they are meeting these goals. We both believe that if everyone takes the right steps to reduce their own carbon footprint, then we as a society can collaboratively make change on a problem that will, one way or another, affect all of us.”