• Question: Does your work effect the environment?

    Asked by burnley26 to Amy, Drew, Julia, Kimberley, Sara on 15 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by eis7, luke9897.
    • Photo: Sara Imari Walker

      Sara Imari Walker answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hi burnley26. I can say for my own work that it neither negatively or positively impacts the environment. I don’t use (or produce) anything harmful to the environment for my research and no byproduct of my work will directly make help our the environment. However, one thing I love about being an astrobiologists, is that it puts life here on Earth in a very different context. We live on a very special planet that happens to be quite comfortable to live on!! Especially compared to other planets. I think this cosmic perspective really makes people want to take better care of the one precious Earth we have. So although my work doesn’t directly make something cool like biofuels that helps the environment, I think it does make people more aware of how special Earth is which can make us all better at taking care of our home planet!

    • Photo: Kimberley Bryon

      Kimberley Bryon answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      My research doesn’t positively impact the environment. I do generate a lot of waste but we try to recycle as much as possible. All chemicals get disposed of in specific ways so they don’t damage the environment. I have no idea how the amount of waste compares with having other jobs such as working in a factory so I can’t say if we are better or worse for the environment than any other job!

    • Photo: Julia Griffen

      Julia Griffen answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hi Burnley… Good topical question. I Likey!

      Well Chemistry is nasty, yes, toxic chemicals hazzardous watse, strong acids and bases = nasty!

      My research is looking at cleaner ways of making chemical compounds to be used as drugs.
      I use bacteria which is carried out at a low temperature – no expense or energy used in heating, It only requires air – so no special gases or atmosphere required, Water is the solvent – so no issues with waste disposal, and the waste can be easily disposed of.

      This is all part of a new fangled thing in chemistry called ‘Green Chemistry’ where basically we’re looking for cleaner and better processes… I think its the way forward what do you think?

    • Photo: Drew Rae

      Drew Rae answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hi Burnley,
      Sometimes people count “hurting the environment” as an accident outcome similar to “people injured or killed”, and sometimes they don’t. We use the same methods to try to stop environmental accidents as we do to try to stop people-hurting accidents. Often they are the same thing – like the oil rig explosion called Deepwater Horizon. It hurt people and put lots of oil into the ocean.

    • Photo: Amy MacQueen

      Amy MacQueen answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Hi Burnley!

      Good question! I guess everything we does affects the environment in some way – whether positively or negatively! I produce some plastic waste which needs to be disposed of and I use radioactivity which is pretty harmful but gets disposed of as safely as possible according to governmental guidelines. But then I guess by producing drugs to help people with diseases in the long term this impacts positively on the environment by reducing the waste from hospitals etc because these people won’t have to be in so much…but then that means they will have better lives and may take more trips abroad on aeroplanes which has a negative impact on the environment…but then they might be conservationists and walk across the world saving endangered species….so really you never know what the long term impacts on the environment are – but in the short term there are some negatives and positives! 🙂

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