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The carbon footprint of astronomical research is an increasingly topical issue. From a comparison of existing literature, we infer an annual per capita carbon footprint of several tens of tonnes of CO$_2$ equivalents for an average person…
Continuous developments in data science have brought forth an exponential increase in complexity of machine learning models. Additionally, data scientists have become ubiquitous in the private market, academic environments and even as a…
The carbon footprint of astronomical research is an increasingly topical issue with first estimates of research institute and national community footprints having recently been published. As these assessments have typically excluded the…
The computations required for deep learning research have been doubling every few months, resulting in an estimated 300,000x increase from 2012 to 2018 [2]. These computations have a surprisingly large carbon footprint [38]. Ironically,…
Scientific research in many fields routinely requires the analysis of large datasets, and scientists often employ workflow systems to leverage clusters of computers for their data analysis. However, due to their size and scale, these…
The rapid growth in demand for HPC systems has led to a rise in carbon footprint, which requires urgent intervention. In this work, we present a comprehensive analysis of the carbon footprint of high-performance computing (HPC) systems,…
Estimating the greenhouse gas emissions of research-related activities is a critical first step towards the design of mitigation policies and actions. Here we propose and motivate a transparent framework for reporting research-related…
The threat posed to humanity by global warming has led scientists to question the nature of their activities and the need to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from research. Until now, most studies have aimed at quantifying the carbon…
We estimate the carbon footprint of astronomical research infrastructures, including space telescopes and probes and ground-based observatories. Our analysis suggests annual greenhouse gas emissions of $1.2\pm0.2$ MtCO$_2$e yr$^{-1}$ due to…
Numerical simulations underpin much fluid dynamics research today. Such simulations often rely on large scale high performance computing (HPC) systems, and have a significant carbon footprint. Increasing the efficiency of data centers or…
Footprints provide a way to estimate the relative impact of processes and products on the global climate. Including footprint analysis in a course on energy simultaneously provides students with an understanding of this tool and a…
As the climate crisis intensifies, understanding the environmental impact of professional activities is paramount, especially in sectors with historically significant resource utilisation. This includes High Energy Physics (HEP) and related…
Machine learning (ML) requires using energy to carry out computations during the model training process. The generation of this energy comes with an environmental cost in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, depending on quantity used and the…
Given recent algorithm, software, and hardware innovation, computing has enabled a plethora of new applications. As computing becomes increasingly ubiquitous, however, so does its environmental impact. This paper brings the issue to the…
Climate change is a major impending threat to the future of humanity. According to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), our emissions are estimated to have caused 0.8 deg C-1.2 deg C of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) above…
Large-scale experiments are building blocks of the physics community: they involve a large fraction of the scientific staff working in multiple countries, and absorb a significant volume of the science budget. They are also a collection of…
Solar photovoltaics which converts renewable solar energy into electricity have become prominent as a measure to decarbonize electricity generation. The operational carbon footprint of this technology is significantly lower compared to…
As the 21st century progresses, photovoltaic technology is becoming a major provider of the worlds electricity, while effects of global climate change unfold. This development begs the question: is climate change affecting the energy…
Climate change is profoundly affecting nearly all aspects of life on earth, including human societies, economies and health. Various human activities are responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions, including data centres and other…
For astronomers to make a significant contribution to the reduction of climate change-inducing greenhouse gas emissions, we first must quantify our sources of emissions and review the most effective approaches for reducing them. Here we…