A side-by-side look at the Greencalculus MCP and Usgs Earthquakes MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose Greencalculus MCP for environment & nature work as a local process; choose Usgs Earthquakes for environment & nature as a local process. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
GREENCALCULUS_API_KEY, GC_API_KEY, GREENCALCULUS_MCP_URL, GREENCALCULUS_MCP_TIMEOUT_MS.lookup_factor, lookup_factors, search_factors.search_earthquakes, get_earthquake, count_earthquakes.Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Environment & Nature | Environment & Nature |
| Quality signal | 57/100 · Good | 53/100 · Good |
| Install command | Confirmed | Confirmed |
| Transport | Local subprocess (stdio) | Local subprocess (stdio) |
| Auth | API key required | No auth required |
| Pricing | Not declared | Free |
| Required env vars | GREENCALCULUS_API_KEYGC_API_KEYGREENCALCULUS_MCP_URLGREENCALCULUS_MCP_TIMEOUT_MS | None listed |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 0 | 0 |
| Directory activity | 0 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 1 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | 12 | 3 |
| Full listing | View Greencalculus MCP | View Usgs Earthquakes |
lookup_factorFetch one emission factor by key, with its source and versionlookup_factorsFetch many factors by key in one call — a portfolio is one request, not one per factorsearch_factorsSearch the corpus by free textresolve_factorMap a messy real-world description to the best-matching factorexplain_absenceSay *why* a factor does not exist, rather than returning nothingcalculate_activityActivity → emissions, with unit conversion and GHG Protocol scopecalculate_electricityLocation-based and market-based electricitycalculate_embodiedEmbodied carbon (EN 15978), explicit about missing lifecycle stagescalculate_pcafPCAF financed emissions, with the audit trailcalculate_freightFreight by mode, distance and loadcalculate_spendSpend-based EEIOcalculate_business_travelBusiness travel across modessearch_earthquakesSearch the USGS earthquake catalog (FDSNWS event API) for real-time and historical seismic events. Filter by time window, magnitude, depth, and a circular geographic area. For "last N days/hours" questions pass `days`/`hours` rather than computing start_time yourself. Returns a compact list of quak…get_earthquakeGet full detail for a single earthquake by its USGS event id (e.g. "us7000n7n8"). Returns magnitude, location, time, depth, felt reports, tsunami flag, PAGER alert level, status, contributing networks, and detail URLs. Keyless.count_earthquakesCount earthquakes matching a filter without returning the events — fast for questions like "how many M5+ quakes in the last 7 days near X". Same filters as search_earthquakes (time, magnitude, circular area); for "last N days/hours" questions pass `days`/`hours` rather than computing start_time you…Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.
{
"mcpServers": {
"greencalculus-greencalculus-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"greencalculus-mcp"
],
"env": {
"GREENCALCULUS_API_KEY": "YOUR_GREENCALCULUS_API_KEY_HERE",
"GC_API_KEY": "YOUR_GC_API_KEY_HERE",
"GREENCALCULUS_MCP_URL": "YOUR_GREENCALCULUS_MCP_URL_HERE",
"GREENCALCULUS_MCP_TIMEOUT_MS": "YOUR_GREENCALCULUS_MCP_TIMEOUT_MS_HERE"
}
}
}
}
{
"mcpServers": {
"usgs-earthquakes": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@pipeworx/mcp-usgs-earthquakes"
]
}
}
}