This post started with the article in the May 3 issue of Science, “Climate modelers grapple with their own emissions.” Note that I am a member of both the American Association for The Advancement of Science (AAAS) which publishes Science, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) which published IEEE Spectrum. These organizations’ publications provide much content for my writing.
Over the decades, supercomputer simulations of Earth’s climate have yielded unprecedented insights into how the interplay of atmosphere, ocean, and land shapes the planet’s response to rising levels of greenhouse gases. But as these climate models have grown in complexity, researchers have started to worry the simulations have a substantial climate footprint of their own. Running them can take weeks or longer on a supercomputer, consuming megawatts of electric power—some of it from fossil fuels.