The storage and processing of research data uses energy, and therefore has a carbon footprint. In his talk, Nick Souter discusses how computing leads to carbon emissions, and what can be done to reduce personal research computing footprint. Specifically, Nick providex context on:
- The scale of impact of computing on the climate
- The impact of accumulating unused ‘dark data’
- The importance of carbon intensity
- How to cut back on unnecessary computing
- Current methods for tracking computing energy usage and carbon emissions
The content discussed here includes specific examples from neuroimaging research, but the messages and approaches discussed apply to any discipline requiring the processing of large amounts of data. The session ends with hands-on demonstrations of a digital carbon tracking tool and a climate aware task scheduler.
