Friday, March 09, 2007

3570

NIMBY

A survey by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, revealed that 95% of the 400 scientists surveyed across a wide range of disciplines agreed that science and technology were important if sustainable solutions were to be developed for the future. However, only 40% said they considered the effect their own work would have on the environment when planning their research because they believed it wasn't relevant to their area of science. Most scientists have no idea what their lab's electricity bill is--the more modern the lab (in Britain), the worse its energy consumption. Ventilation costs to meet health and safety requirements eat up a lot. "Experimenting with efficiency," Nature, Feb. 8, 2007.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

as someone who works in the field, I can tell you that this is true. Between environment controls, health and safety considerations and powering equipment, it takes a lot off energy to run a lab. People do have a tendency to consider the direct effects of their actions but not the indirect effects, so its not surprising that not many scientist considered this angle. However, whats the solution? We need all of that to run R&D and we need R&D to help improve things.