Imagine being told by your doctor that you face a rapidly growing and far reaching disease and the only way you can survive is if you become aware of actions you take everyday that fuel the spread of the illness. The first thing you’d want to know about are those actions and how you can mitigate them. You’d also want to measure those actions, similar to counting calories if you were on a diet. 
The hypothetical scenario illustrated above is what the earth is facing right now if carbon emissions are not cut in half in the next 9 years. If we do nothing, climate and ecosystems face permanent, dire, irreversible damage. There is no wiggle room; we must begin reductions now to reach our goals. 
In February 2020, some Croton residents launched a local group, Croton100, to address the climate crisis, with a mission to reduce emissions in their community by 100% by 2040.  Croton100 soon joined forces with other communities to form CURE100 (Communities United to Reduce Emissions 100 percent by 2040) in November 2020.  CURE100 adopted a Carbon Tracker, web-based app, that had been developed by Croton100  as a tool to spread carbon literacy. The non-profit, community based, grass roots neighbors influencing neighbors group has chapters in Ossining, Yorktown, Phillipstown, Port Washington, NY and in a city in India. 
Carbon Literacy means understanding the quantification of community-wide, household, and individual emissions along with sectors or pillars of energy use such as transportation, building heating, electricity, food and waste, etc. . Members of CURE 100 encourage people to use the Carbon Tracker app to see exactly how much they contribute to the emissions that are imperiling our planet and the steps they can take to reduce emissions. 
The Carbon Tracker app was developed by a group of volunteers who have software and scientific knowledge. The Carbon Tracker app combines data from multiple sources, including the Berkeley Cool Climate study of 2014, EPA physical constants and Emissions and Generation Resource Integrated Database (eGRID) also published by the EPA. 
The Carbon Tracker app allows the user to establish a baseline of carbon emissions and understand the currency of carbon; create awareness of their biggest contributors to their carbon footprint, dispel myths and provide clarity and show comparison to zip-code averages for reference.  The Carbon Tracker also provides users with easy to understand tips and directional guidance for reducing carbon emissions.  It also allows community-level tracking of carbon reductions. 
The Carbon Tracker encourages each household to create a framework for planning reductions through short-term easy and inexpensive steps; create a 10-year plan to cut carbon footprint in half and plant seeds for net zero emissions by 2040. The Tracker provides low/medium/high effort tips in each category. Categories on the Tracker are: transportation, heating, electricity, food, waste, goods/services, zip code overhead. 
You are encouraged to make your Earth Day deed to measure your own carbon emissions and make a plan for reducing your emissions this year by 5-10%.  It’s easy to do, go to the Carbon Tracker app here