Speaker
Description
The current climate crisis has led to UN and EU regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% in 2030. Astronomers should lead this effort by example, as they are aware of the lack of a Planet B to live on.
In the Netherlands, the RvdA installed a working group to monitor and improve the sustainability of Dutch astronomy, including outreach & communication on this topic. Our kickoff study [1] showed that in 2019, airplane travel dominated the CO2 footprint of astronomy research, with uncertain contributions from observatories and supercomputing. Meeting the goals of the Paris agreement requires flying 2-4x less than before the pandemic.
This talk presents an update of our activities, including an estimate of the LOFAR footprint, a plan to measure the computing footprint, and a survey of effective and acceptable ways to reduce CO2 emission due to airplane travel.
[1] Van der Tak et al 2021, Nature Astronomy 5, 1195
