Last week in New York, the world’s first real-time Carbon Counter billboard was unveiled by Deutsche Bank. The counter, which tracks the amount of greenhouse gasses in the Earth’s atmosphere, clocked in yesterday at 3.6 trillion metric tons.

I think it’s great that this counter has gone up in such a high-vis location. It’s certainly something that can no longer be ignored. Plus, when you consider that the counter is expected to increase by 2 billion metric tons each month, it’s not a problem that will be solved over night (as has unfortunately been made perfectly clear over recent years).

But will the counter be enough? Sadly, I don’t think so. I predict that most people will walk by this counter, see the number, think to themselves “Holy Crap that’s huge! Hope they do something about it” and then hop in their cars by themselves and leave the light on in the kitchen.

The one glaring omission from the counter is clearly information. Just giving people a number will not be enough. For significant change to happen, significant information needs to be made readily available. There are countless things that could be added to the counter to make it more meaningful and helpful to people.

Why not add a QR Code to the billboard? That way, people walking by can snap a photo with their phone and then be taken to a site filled with information about what exactly 3.6 trillion metric tons means for the planet.

What about making the Carbon Counter more interactive? Set up a Twitter account that connects to the counter and let people send in their own personal tweets about what they’re doing to lessen the impact of greenhouse gasses. People tend to respond better to personal accounts than they do arbitrary numbers, and the tweets would be just long enough to really catch someone’s attention as they’re passing by.

How about Deutsche Bank itself expanding this idea? It’s fantastic that such a huge, global company is raising this type of awareness about such an important issue, but one billboard in New York City can only do so much. Deutsche Bank has locations, literally, all over the world. They should put up smaller displays in each of their branches so as many people as possible can view the counter. After all, this is a WORLDWIDE problem we’re talking about.

There are probably far more and far better ideas surrounding this issue. These are just a few and these are just my initial thoughts. Imagine what else could be done if some smarter people put some serious time into this. It’s an exciting thought, and one worth keeping an eye on.