氣候科學家如何努力減少自己的碳足跡

氣候科學家如何努力減少自己的碳足跡

For years, Kim Cobb was the Indiana Jones of climate science. The Georgia Tech professor flew to the caves of Borneo to study ancient and current climate conditions. She jetted to a remote South Pacific island to see the effects of warming on coral.

多年來，金·科布(Kim Cobb)一直是氣候科學領(lǐng)域的印第安納·瓊斯(Indiana Jones)。喬治亞理工學院的教授飛到婆羅洲的洞穴研究古代和現(xiàn)在的氣候條件。她乘飛機到南太平洋一個偏遠的島嶼去看氣候變暖對珊瑚的影響。

Add to that flights to Paris, Rome, Vancouver and elsewhere. All told, in the last three years, she’s flown 29 times to study, meet or talk about global warming.

再加上飛往巴黎、羅馬、溫哥華和其他地方的航班。在過去的三年里，她總共坐了29次飛機去研究、會面或談論全球變暖。

Then Cobb thought about how much her personal actions were contributing to the climate crisis, so she created a spreadsheet. She found that those flights added more than 73,000 pounds of heat-trapping carbon to the air.

然后，柯布想到她的個人行為對氣候危機的影響有多大，于是她創(chuàng)建了一個電子表格。她發(fā)現(xiàn)這些飛行向空氣中增加了超過73000磅的吸熱碳。

Now she is about to ground herself and she is not alone. Some climate scientists and activists are limiting their flying, their consumption of meat and their overall carbon footprints to avoid adding to the global warming they study. Cobb will fly just once next year, to attend a massive international science meeting in Chile.

現(xiàn)在她要開始磨煉自己，她并不孤單。一些氣候科學家和活動人士正在限制他們的飛行、肉類消費和總體碳足跡，以避免加劇他們所研究的全球變暖。科布明年只會飛一次，去智利參加一個大型的國際科學會議。

“People want to be part of the solution,” she said. “Especially when they spent their whole lives with their noses stuck up against” data showing the problem.

“人們希望成為解決方案的一部分，”她說。“尤其是當他們一生都在與”顯示問題的數(shù)據(jù)作對時。

Hayhoe and other still-flying scientists note that aviation is only three percent of global carbon emissions.

Hayhoe和其他仍在飛行的科學家指出，航空業(yè)僅占全球碳排放的3%。

Jonathan Foley, executive director of the climate solutions think-tank Project Drawdown, limits his airline trips but will not stop flying because he says, he must meet with donors to keep his organization alive. He calls flight shaming “the climate movement eating its own.”

氣候解決方案智庫項目Drawdown的執(zhí)行董事喬納森?福利(Jonathan Foley)限制了他的航空旅行，但他不會停止飛行，因為他表示，他必須與捐贈者會面，才能讓他的組織存活下來。他把飛行羞辱稱為“氣候運動自食其果”。

Attari’s research shows that audiences are turned off by scientists who use lots of energy at home. Listeners are more likely to respond to experts who use less electricity.

Attari的研究表明，觀眾對那些在家里使用大量能源的科學家感到厭煩。聽眾更有可能對耗電量少的專家做出反應。

“It’s like having an overweight doctor giving you dieting advice,” Attari said. She found that scientists who fly to give talks bother people less.

“這就像一個超重醫(yī)生給你的節(jié)食建議，”Attari說。她發(fā)現(xiàn)，坐飛機去演講的科學家不太會打擾人們。

In science, flying is “deeply embedded in how we do academic work,” said Steven Allen, a management researcher at the University of Sheffield, who recently organized a symposium aimed at reducing flying in academia. He said the conference went well, with 60 people participating remotely from 12 countries.

謝菲爾德大學(University of Sheffield)的管理研究員史蒂文·艾倫(Steven Allen)說，在科學領(lǐng)域，飛行“深深植根于我們的學術(shù)工作中”。他最近組織了一個研討會，旨在減少學術(shù)界的飛行。他說，會議進展順利，有來自12個國家的60人遠程參與。

Pennsylvania State University’s Michael Mann, who flies but less than he used to, said moderation is key.

賓夕法尼亞州立大學(Pennsylvania State University)的邁克爾?曼恩(Michael Mann)表示，適度是關(guān)鍵。

“I don’t tell people they need to become childless, off-the-grid hermits. And I’m not one myself,” Mann said in an email. “I do tell people that individual action is PART of the solution and that there are many things we can do in our everyday lives that save us money, make us healthier, make us feel better about ourselves AND decrease our environmental footprint. Why wouldn’t we do those things?”

“我沒有告訴人們，他們需要成為無子女的、與世隔絕的隱士。我自己也不是，”曼在電子郵件中說。“我確實告訴人們，個人行動是解決方案的一部分，在我們的日常生活中，我們可以做很多事情來節(jié)省我們的錢，讓我們更健康，讓我們感覺更好，減少我們的環(huán)境足跡。我們?yōu)槭裁床蛔瞿切┦履?”

Mann said he gets his electricity from renewables, drives a hybrid vehicle, doesn’t eat meat and has one child.

曼恩說，他靠可再生能源發(fā)電，開混合動力汽車，不吃肉，還有一個孩子。

When Hayhoe flies, she makes sure to bundle in several lectures and visits into one flight, including 30 talks in Alaska in one five-day trip. She said more people come out to see a lecture than if it were given remotely and she also learns from talking to the people at lectures.

當海荷坐飛機時，她會確保把幾堂課和幾次訪問安排在一個航班上，包括在五天的行程中在阿拉斯加進行30場演講。她說，來聽講座的人比遠程授課的人要多，而且她還能通過與講座中的人交談來學習。

“They need a catalyst to get to the next step and me coming could be that catalyst,” Hayhoe said.

“他們需要一個催化劑來進行下一步，而我的到來可能就是催化劑，”Hayhoe說。

Marshall Shepherd of the University of Georgia will receive a climate communications award at the American Geophysical Union conference Wednesday in San Francisco. But he won’t pick it up in person, saving 1.2 tons of carbon by not flying. He said he doesn’t judge those who fly but wrote about his decision to stay grounded in hopes that people “think about choices and all of the nuances involved in these decisions.”

佐治亞大學的馬歇爾·謝潑德星期三將在舊金山舉行的美國地球物理聯(lián)盟會議上接受氣候通訊獎。但他不會親自去接，因為不坐飛機可以減少1.2噸的碳排放。他說，他不會評判那些坐飛機的人，但他寫了自己的決定，希望人們“考慮選擇和這些決定所涉及的所有細微差別”。

Former Vice President Al Gore, who has long been criticized by those who reject climate science for his personal energy use, said he has installed 1,000 solar panels at his farm, eats a vegan diet and drives an electric vehicle.

美國前副總統(tǒng)戈爾(Al Gore)說，他在自己的農(nóng)場安裝了1,000塊太陽能電池板，吃純素食品，開電動汽車。

“As important as it to change lightbulbs,” he said in an email, “it is far more important to change the policies and laws in the nation and places where we live.”

“換燈泡固然重要，”他在一封電子郵件中說，“但更重要的是改變這個國家和我們生活的地方的政策和法律。”