Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Willie Soon – A climate modeller has spoken of her distress at her “pretty awful” carbon footprint, including air travel to climate conferences, and energy used to power climate supercomputers.
Climate computer modeling needs to be greener
Friederike Otto, deputy director of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute, has identified areas where she can reduce emissions but says researchers can’t tackle the problem alone.
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“Compared to the average person, my carbon footprint is absolutely awful but it is all through air travel,” she told DW. “On the other hand, working at Oxford, my climate footprint in my daily work life is small. I do not own a car and never did, so my daily commute, school run and shopping is all on bike or foot.”
Still, Otto is frustrated by some of the challenges she can’t address alone, including her house. It is relatively new and built according to British emission standards, which are poor, she said, even though we know how to build carbon-neutral homes.
Like other scientists, she said the issue of traveling to conferences is vexing. Flying over long distances, multiple times each year, to attend meetings is part of the job for thousands in her field. Such exchanges are important in order to make scientific advances. But more could be done to reduce travel, including improving video conferencing technologies for larger gatherings, says Otto.
Running large supercomputers for complex climate modeling is also energy intensive. But these simulations are crucial to understanding the climate.
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Read more: http://www.dw.com/en/climate-computer-modeling-needs-to-be-greener/a-42887689
I wish Friederike luck with her efforts to green her profession, but I don’t see evidence of a widespread effort to stop the proliferation of large climate conferences in luxury holiday resorts which seems to be such an essential part of making the world more carbon friendly.
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I have no issues with anyone feeling like they need to reduce their carbon footprint. I do have an issue with the hypocrisy they display by preaching the gospel of anti-CO2 while failing to reduce their own carbon footprint. If they believe CO2 is the evil they preach it to be, they need to remove themselves from the carbon cycle by eliminating use of all fossil fuels of any kind, which includes plastics and anything else created with fossil fuels. Their food needs to be grown locally or in their own garden and only transported by walking. They need to become vegetarians because animals offgas CO2 and methane. Also, they shouldn’t cut and burn trees for warmth due to the CO2 and particulates emitted. If they care about the planet and environment so much, they should show us by leading the way.
It’s the right thing to do, but they never will.
“Running large supercomputers for complex climate modeling is also energy intensive. But these simulations are crucial to understanding the climate.”
Error. Assumes that the simulations can be used to understand the climate.
Well, maybe she should not worry about doing it all on her own, and just try to go first, leading by example.
Go on, Friederike, we are all watching, and we know you can do it….
“all on bike or foot” Well, well, I guess she doesn’t know that by physical activity like that she has to exhale more evil CO2.
The author is an example of how co2 output will ultimately actually change.
Through a process known as technology we discover new and more efficient ways to do things. The US has actually reduced CO2 output more than the europeans or most other countries through the use of natural gas. We discovered how to frakk natural gas through new technology and innovation. Natural gas is less expensive and less co2 producing. We use less for cars as they become more efficient. My computer and cell phone remove the need to do many things that took travel or labor.
In the future technology will advance. We will make batteries, cars, solar much more efficient. At some point the amount of co2 produced will decrease even more. Probably by that time we will have discovered we didn’t need to worry about it. But no matter we will improve our imperviousness to natural disasters, cut our energy usage, improve our lives and our science will discover the inescapable fact that co2 is not a threat to anything.