EVERYONE is talking and seems worried about the carbon emissions and biodiversity loss.

This is especially true among academics and researchers I hung around with before retirement. Among those at home and the public at large, similar concerns seemed to have intensified after the unprecedented wildfires in Australia in 2019 and 2020, 2022 cyclones and floods in New Zealand, and never-ending drought and starvation in the African continent.

Have we stopped talking yet?

I’ve read somewhere researchers in universities have started to take action. In 2020, two PhD students started to measure the carbon emissions of their computational research.

In a bid to ultimately reduce emissions, they created Green Algorithms, a free online calculator that allows users to estimate the carbon footprint of their research projects.

Last year, they took things a step further.

After calculating the emissions, they swung into action by planting 30 trees to counter carbon emissions.

They were aware that offsetting practices by planting trees could be controversial. Critics often caution that if the trees are not properly monitored, there is no guarantee they will still be alive the following year.

But it’s better to do something than nothing, they say.

This group of researchers are not alone. As the impacts of climate change grow, researchers from fields ranging from astrophysics to molecular genetics have begun to address the sources of emissions they themselves are contributing.

But solutions don’t come easy.

Almost without exception, we all use electricity, heating, water, air conditioning, cars, planes, laptops and mobile phones. Don’t be surprised that observatories used by astrophysicists are among the biggest contributors to carbon emissions.

In 2019 alone, the International Relativistic Astrophysics Program in Sweden was responsible for 4,100 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. This is the equivalent of 2,050 petrol cars running all year in the United Kingdom.

You need a lot of electricity to run research in almost every field. This has spurred even medical researchers in hospitals to think about how to decarbonise their work. They are starting to look at the main source of emissions in the technology they rely on to make breakthroughs and practice medicine. This trend is most encouraging.

Corporate sectors should start doing this as well. Each corporation ought to focus on estimating emissions from buildings and staff travelling.

Business travels and energy to power buildings produce the largest footprints. One straightforward way to reduce emissions would be to continue holding zoom meetings as implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic.

There ought to be a culture change in the corporate sector. Reducing research emissions on a large scale requires institutional support. This is crucial.

Sometimes, you can’t escape political decisions. Buy-ins from policymakers, managers and executioners are important.

There must be strong and sustained political will as well. The time to reach a consensus is running out. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has set a rather demanding target to attain the net-zero emissions goal by 2050. This seems tough but achievable.

The closest the world came to cutting emissions as drastic as that set target was during Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns. Then, we managed to cut global CO2 emissions by close to 10%. If we can achieve that every year, the challenge could be met and the goal realised during our lifetime.

We should from now start studying how we can reduce our carbon footprint instead of just talking and measuring it to no end.

It’s monstrously challenging for big corporations to comply. They are big and well-oiled in the way they are used to operating. It would be a huge expectation on them.

But if everybody starts on their own climate change crusade and assesses their carbon footprints on a daily basis, there is hope.

As soon as we have a few carbon-footprint assessments here and there in different countries or different infrastructures, we should start getting a pretty good idea of what we need to do on a daily basis to keep global warming at bay.

A new culture is then born to save planet Earth. – March 29, 2023.

* Ghazally Ismail reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.