• Question: Does your science work damage the environment

    Asked by anon-205627 to Russell on 4 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Russell Arnott

      Russell Arnott answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      This is a fantastic question.
      I’m a big environmentalist and as I study the ocean, I care a lot about the planet and the animals that live here. But unfortunately, some aspects of science are not very environmentally-friendly.
      For example, when you’re doing work in the laboratory, it’s not good practice to reuse things (like rubber gloves or syringes) so you can generate a lot of single-use plastic waste which I really hate.

      It’s a balance between completing an experiment which will help people understand the environment better vs slightly damaging the environment to find out this new piece of information.

      I recently came back from being on a ship in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica. I was there taking measurements to help computer modellers understand how the ocean is affecting and affected by climate change. But… the ship I was on burned 45 TONS of fuel EVERY DAY!
      so it’s a balance…

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