气候科学家如何努力减少自己的碳足迹

气候科学家如何努力减少自己的碳足迹

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.

多年来，金·科布(Kim Cobb)一直是气候科学领域的印第安纳·琼斯(Indiana Jones)。乔治亚理工学院的教授飞到婆罗洲的洞穴研究古代和现在的气候条件。她乘飞机到南太平洋一个偏远的岛屿去看气候变暖对珊瑚的影响。

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.

再加上飞往巴黎、罗马、温哥华和其他地方的航班。在过去的三年里，她总共坐了29次飞机去研究、会面或谈论全球变暖。

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，柯布想到她的个人行为对气候危机的影响有多大，于是她创建了一个电子表格。她发现这些飞行向空气中增加了超过73000磅的吸热碳。

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.

现在她要开始磨炼自己，她并不孤单。一些气候科学家和活动人士正在限制他们的飞行、肉类消费和总体碳足迹，以避免加剧他们所研究的全球变暖。科布明年只会飞一次，去智利参加一个大型的国际科学会议。

“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.

“人们希望成为解决方案的一部分，”她说。“尤其是当他们一生都在与”显示问题的数据作对时。

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

Hayhoe和其他仍在飞行的科学家指出，航空业仅占全球碳排放的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.”

气候解决方案智库项目Drawdown的执行董事乔纳森?福利(Jonathan Foley)限制了他的航空旅行，但他不会停止飞行，因为他表示，他必须与捐赠者会面，才能让他的组织存活下来。他把飞行羞辱称为“气候运动自食其果”。

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，观众对那些在家里使用大量能源的科学家感到厌烦。听众更有可能对耗电量少的专家做出反应。

“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.

“这就像一个超重医生给你的节食建议，”Attari说。她发现，坐飞机去演讲的科学家不太会打扰人们。

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.

谢菲尔德大学(University of Sheffield)的管理研究员史蒂文·艾伦(Steven Allen)说，在科学领域，飞行“深深植根于我们的学术工作中”。他最近组织了一个研讨会，旨在减少学术界的飞行。他说，会议进展顺利，有来自12个国家的60人远程参与。

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

宾夕法尼亚州立大学(Pennsylvania State University)的迈克尔?曼恩(Michael Mann)表示，适度是关键。

“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?”

“我没有告诉人们，他们需要成为无子女的、与世隔绝的隐士。我自己也不是，”曼在电子邮件中说。“我确实告诉人们，个人行动是解决方案的一部分，在我们的日常生活中，我们可以做很多事情来节省我们的钱，让我们更健康，让我们感觉更好，减少我们的环境足迹。我们为什么不做那些事呢?”

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

曼恩说，他靠可再生能源发电，开混合动力汽车，不吃肉，还有一个孩子。

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.

当海荷坐飞机时，她会确保把几堂课和几次访问安排在一个航班上，包括在五天的行程中在阿拉斯加进行30场演讲。她说，来听讲座的人比远程授课的人要多，而且她还能通过与讲座中的人交谈来学习。

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

“他们需要一个催化剂来进行下一步，而我的到来可能就是催化剂，”Hayhoe说。

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.”

佐治亚大学的马歇尔·谢泼德星期三将在旧金山举行的美国地球物理联盟会议上接受气候通讯奖。但他不会亲自去接，因为不坐飞机可以减少1.2吨的碳排放。他说，他不会评判那些坐飞机的人，但他写了自己的决定，希望人们“考虑选择和这些决定所涉及的所有细微差别”。

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.

美国前副总统戈尔(Al Gore)说，他在自己的农场安装了1,000块太阳能电池板，吃纯素食品，开电动汽车。

“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.”

“换灯泡固然重要，”他在一封电子邮件中说，“但更重要的是改变这个国家和我们生活的地方的政策和法律。”