At this time of history, the only possibility for a climate scientist to keep credibility is to become part of the solution, by reducing the personal carbon footprint and inspiring more people to do the same.
I’m convinced that only a bottom up approach can let us overcome our technological infancy and its fossil fuel addiction.
Flying represents the largest portion of my carbon fingerprint. Unfortunately, there is no way I can completely stop flying as my field work activities require traveling to remote areas around the world.
In addition, while I now reside in the US, my parents still live in Europe and, as they get older, I need to be ready to fly back at any time.
However, I can reduce my flights to travel to climate conferences and my vacations. I feel this is an ethical imperative for a climate scientist: today we must have skin in the game. No excuse.
My primary interest is in the geochemical study of ice cores with emphasis on paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic reconstructions, from seasonal to orbital time scale (100,000 years). Over the years I have developed a program with a special focus on trace element geochemical cycles and their relation to past environmental changes, such as variations in climatic conditions and large-scale atmospheric transport. I have participated to 11 major field programs in Antarctica, European Alps, Peru, Papua and the Tibetan plateau.