climateprediction.net

 

Science

“Computer servers are at least as great a threat to the climate as SUVs or the global aviation industry.” (story, via the incomparable bldgblog) That’s bad (and, if you think about it, unsurprising) news. But then there’s a way for you to do something useful with your computer: “Climateprediction.net is the largest experiment to try and produce a forecast of the climate in the 21st century. To do this, we need people around the world to give us time on their computers - time when they have their computers switched on, but are not using them to their full capacity.” If you look around on that site, not only do you find a plethora of information on the science side, you also get to see the results - it’s serious science, the first results were published in Nature. And after you have installed the program you don’t even have to do anything.