{"id":7535,"date":"2019-09-11T06:22:01","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T06:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=7535"},"modified":"2019-09-11T06:22:23","modified_gmt":"2019-09-11T06:22:23","slug":"greta-refuses-to-zoom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2019\/09\/11\/greta-refuses-to-zoom\/","title":{"rendered":"Greta refuses to zoom"},"content":{"rendered":"

I see that the saintly, and surely soon-to-be ennobled, Greta Thunberg, with her dad, has made it to the Americas in a flash boat so that she can keep up her no-flying promise. \u00a0This is no ordinary boat, of course, and \u2013 unsurprisingly \u2013 is not available to ordinary folk like you and me. \u00a0We have to make do with video technology such as the excellent zoom.us (which, for the clarification of doubt, has its own carbon footprint *<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

This raises the question about why Greta isn't doing the same. \u00a0Video-ing into the UN surely makes the point with greater force that pitching up in person like everyone else (especially all those politicians)? \u00a0Surely a missed opportunity to re-burnish her credentials. \u00a0It's not that we don't know what she'll be saying.<\/p>\n

......................................<\/p>\n

* \u00a0<\/strong>The JISC Greening ICT Programme Project How Green Was My Videoconference?<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 tested the\u00a0premise that, by replacing travel, video-conferencing is a means of saving money and time. \u00a0The researchers note that<\/p>\n

\"It is also seen and marketed as a \u2018Green\u2019 technology because of the greenhouse gas emissions that are saved by not travelling. But there appeared to be little empirical and objective justification for this assumption. \u00a0The production of the materials used to make the equipment; its manufacture, transportation and distribution: all have a carbon footprint. \u00a0The support of the equipment and the production and distribution of the electricity used to power it also contribute to the carbon embedded in the equipment\u2019s use.\u00a0 The project sought to establish the carbon costs of travel and therefore the savings made by not travelling; and to evaluate these against the carbon costs of the equipment\u2019s deployment and use<\/em>.\"<\/p>\n

The report drew a number of conclusions including\u00a0the following (some of which are blindingly obvious):<\/p>\n