Researcher says research adds to Arctic carbon footprint
Climate change scientists “part of the problem”
More collaboration with local researchers could help lower the environmental impact from southern scientists whose field research activities release tonnes of climate-warming greenhouse gases, says a Calgary caribou specialist.
Scientists who travel in the Arctic, often to study climate change, should own up the fact that their travel and camps also produce greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to global warming – and they should do something about it, says Ryan Brook, a veterinarian from the University of Calgary, who has worked in northern Canada for 16 years.
Brook's paper, "Ignoring the Elephant in the Room: The Carbon Footprint of Climate Change Research" was published in the most recent edition of the journal Arctic.
By not openly discussing this issue and actively addressing it, scientists seriously undermine their credibility and message, Brooke said.
"Scientists sounding the alarm [over climate change and greenhouse gas emissions] are, in fact, part of the problem because we are saying "Do as I say, not as I do," Brooke said.
Perhaps most troubling is the almost total absence of dialogue among researchers on how to reduce the emissions they produce during their field research, he said.
Brook calculated that propane and gasoline for a research team of 20 people in a remote camp on the Hudson Bay coast for one week added to the helicopter fuel needed for the 40 kilometres flights in and out would produce 3,500 kilograms of climate-warming carbon dioxide.
Brook's work, which includes several trips to the Arctic each year, as well as conferences, produces about 8,300 kilograms of C02 a year.
In the global picture, the total amount of CO2 produced by all scientists is relatively small, Brook admits
"But it is the perceptions created by scientists who travel extensively in helicopters, planes, and large ships to do research that has an influential impact on the general public and their willingness to make personal changes," he said.
"How can we argue to the world that reducing CO2 output is so important if we are not willing to undertake change on our own? Yet how can we reduce our use of fossil fuels while still conducting research and monitoring in the North?"
First, Brook says scientists need to calculate their research-related carbon footprint – that is, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that their activities produce.
"A far more challenging step is to do something," he said.
Brook said he is slowly figuring out ways to reduce his own carbon footprint, by collaborating with northern communities to have northern people collect data and minimize the number of trips north, using helicopters that use half the fuel of a similar sized one, using solar and wind power in his research camp, purchasing carbon offsets for each flight, and talking more with other scientists.
"Scientists need to continue being role models and leaders on this issue regardless of whether it is politically acceptable to all people. There is no bigger challenge facing the residents of earth than climate change, so how can any steps to reduce carbon production be a bad thing?" Brook told the Nunatsiaq News.
Following the publication of his study, Brook said he received a lot of feedback from other scientists and northern people "and it has been overwhelmingly positive."
"One colleague did indicate that making changes to the way we currently do research will be difficult, and I agree that it will be hard in some cases. But it is hardly impossible," Brook said.
Brook works with the CircumArctic Rangifer Monitoring and Assessment Network, which is studying caribou herds across the circumpolar world, including the Ahiak, Bathurst and Southampton Island herds in Nunavut.
Brook is also participating in a project to develop an anatomical atlas for caribou. This atlas will include both scientific and traditional knowledge of caribou, such as details on traditional and contemporary methods of hunting and butchering as well as traditional uses of caribou parts.
Brook said the atlas should help veterinarians, scientists, natural resource managers, and northern hunters better communicate about caribou.
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