Airlines And Cattle Ranchers Have Beef With Googles Climate Math
A premium flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles, a typical trip for some Californians, could result in 250 pounds of CO2, or maybe 300 or even 800 pounds, depending on how you search online.
The broader estimates reflect what some climate experts see as a growing problem for Google. More and more people are trying to factor the impact of climate change into their life decisions. b. Where they rest or eat. However, scientists are still debating how to accurately estimate the impact of many activities, including flying or meat production. As the math continues, some industries are calling emissions estimates unfair.
Google is leading the big tech companies in educating users about their carbon footprint when they travel, heat their homes and, most recently, cook dinner. But airlines, airlines and other industry groups are fighting back, saying Google's push could hurt their sales. They also asked — with successful airlines — the search engine giant to rethink how it calculates and presents emissions data.
The United Nations Commission on Climate Change began looking at individual choices, such as using trains and avoiding long-haul flights, in a report published last year. By 2050, global air emissions could be reduced by 40 percent. Ways of moving people. But it's difficult for consumers to get a personalized idea of their carbon footprint because common research focuses on global or regional averages rather than individualized measurements, emissions researchers say.
Scientists and start-up companies involved in emissions estimates fear that different dates will not only deprive buyers of their choice, but also cause them to lose confidence in future years' emissions estimates. This could hinder efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"It's a problem when there's fragmentation and inconsistency," said Sally Davey, CEO of Travelist, which brings together travel stakeholders like airlines, Google, Expedia and Visa to standardize emissions formulas. "If we create noise instead of clarity and consistency, people will hate it and we won't go down the path we want."
Climate assurance
Google has emerged as a powerful force in the fight against consumers' personal carbon footprint after setting a goal in September 2020 for 1 billion people to make sustainable choices through its services by the end of 2022. This pledge has resulted in a number of new features in Maps, Flights, Search, Nest Thermostats and other Google services for more than 3 billion users. Last year, Google showed a record number of searches for "rooftop solar", "electric bike" and "electric car".
Competitors such as Apple, which integrates home grid power sources to facilitate iPhone charging, and Microsoft, which highlights green products marketed on Bing, have introduced their own "green" features. But no other consumer technology company can match the breadth or scale of Google's potential climate audience, or the amount of information it provides consumers on protein sources with emissions down to a tenth of a kilogram.
However, Keith Brandt, Google's director of sustainability, admits that his mission to educate users about low-carbon options is far from over. "We see that people need information, but they don't know what the most important decisions are," she said. "Data changes and evolves. It's not static." Brandt declined to say whether Google will reach its goal of helping 1 billion people by the end of 2022, but said the company plans to show progress in its annual environmental report due in the middle of the year.
A startup that tracks emissions from card purchases and applies for offsets recently revised four online flight emissions calculators to help consumers. His analysis, based on recommendations from scientific consultants such as Yale environmental researcher Reed Miller, found large differences along lines such as San Francisco and Los Angeles.
According to JORA, the International Civil Aviation Organization (part of the United Nations Aviation Organization) and the International Aviation Trade Group offer different formulas for calculating aviation emissions. The trade group focuses on flight range and uses airline data on average aviation fuel consumption and load factors from actual flights, which the group believes are inaccurate estimates used by other calculators.
Jorah also understands that Google is selling MyClimate, a Swiss charity that advises companies looking to measure and reduce emissions. Unlike a research company, Myclimate captures end-to-end emissions, including jet fuel production, operating airports and door-to-door busing of people. Myclimate also adds some non-carbon effects, which increase the effect of uncontrolled air heating, which is clouds created by aircraft exhaust.
Emissions on the San Francisco line on Google show a first-class passenger weighing between 75 and 101 kilograms. Myclimate offers an average of 366, trade group 142 and UN 85.
Google has a financial interest in making flying easier for people. Google doesn't charge a commission on flight bookings, but travel and hospitality businesses, including airlines, are among Google's biggest advertisers, and consumers are unhappy with rising travel prices, which could ultimately reduce travel sales. and advertising.
The green choice
According to a 2021 study by UC Davis researchers that showed a similar experience with Google Flights, people value emissions when buying plane tickets and spend more on less polluting options. But as people begin to compare modes of transportation for travel and begin to intuitively understand excellence in different areas of their lives, the completeness of reviews for private flights is becoming more important, says CEO Sanchali Pal. The ear.
"We think 1,000 calories is too much and 10 is not enough," she says. "We hope it costs 1,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide to fly domestically, which is a normal month's life. And this flight is equivalent to eating 200 beef burgers in our airspace or driving a car.
"If you look at the overall emissions impact of a flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles, it's clear that a slower trip by bus or car may be a better choice for a traveler," Pell said. This month. "If you look at the partial impact of CO2, the relative impact of this choice on others becomes much less clear," she says.
Google's emissions were high until last July, when the company removed its balance sheet following criticism from airlines, first reported by the BBC. Google said it made the decision to reduce uncertainty. "We now know that contractions contribute a lot, but there isn't a good model to explain it," Google's Brandt said, adding that more research is needed to model regional or daily variations. More changes to Google's flight ratings are on the horizon when the company joins a task force with major airlines and researchers to tackle the issue in November.
Google's decision to temporarily stop tracking data has disappointed some climate experts. "It is fair and reasonable to say that inversions should be studied in depth, but the first step in this direction should not be to completely eliminate their influence," said Ulrich Burkhardt from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the German Research Center Air. . Space travel.
OnCarbon, which sells an on-board emissions calculator to online travel agencies, told Google that the method would be irrelevant even before they lost track. "We believe that people have a right to know and they have a right to know the exact numbers," said Joanna Kosik, a spokeswoman for OnCarbon. "They have 50 percent less fat than a packet of chips, but still have 600 calories."
While some airlines support reducing emissions as a concept, they aren't too happy after Google added the specification. The National Air Carriers Association, which represents America's low-cost airlines, said some of its members are pushing for a reduction in the cuts announced by Google in July, but members will be closely watching that what will happen next.
According to the trade association Airlines for Europe, the European Regional Airline Association (ERAA) and Airlines for the Americas, additional factors must be taken into account in the calculation, including sustainable fuel use by individual airlines and purchases.
ERAA, whose members include Azores Airlines and Loganair, said Google's model would inevitably favor low-cost airlines and larger planes, potentially misleading consumers for less polluting alternatives.
Diet tips
Similar criticism came from the meat industry after Google announced in September that it planned to display a graph of emissions from various proteins such as chicken and tofu alongside recipe search results. The company says it has noticed consumer demand for food choices.
Google collaborated with the United Nations on an internationally recognized study of popular meats and alternative proteins by European researchers. Oxford University researcher Joseph Poore, who was involved in the study but is not affiliated with Google, called the report's extensive data "incredibly important." "It brings information directly to one of the most important issues of the 21st century - climate change - when people make decisions about what to eat," he says.
The US National Cattlemen's Association has little support. After soliciting the group's input on Google's project in October, it issued a press release condemning "Google's decision to target beef consumers with its new sustainable search feature for providing data on climatic inaccuracies on livestock production".
Don Shifflebein, president of the Minnesota Ranch and Association, said the global average used by Google for meat emissions does not take into account that the US industry ranks low compared to rivals such as Brazil. Google says beef farming does not promote the environmental benefits of other products, such as preserving green spaces and reducing water consumption.
American growers aren't the only ones questioning Google's actions. A spokesman for British industry group the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Council said listing emissions is not enough, the overall sustainability and environmental impact of products depends on other factors, such as biodiversity conservation and pesticide use.
As Google adds climate-related features and gains momentum, the company may face unmet needs. Selecting the map will guide drivers to "green" lines with company names. According to Google, in the first months, 100,000 vehicles were saved from atmospheric emissions in the US and Canada.
Complaints about the environmental friendliness of the roads have not yet appeared in the community. But Jeff Gonder, a US government mobility and energy researcher who advised Google on the feature, said it could distract drivers from some high-speed toll roads and use fuel on less straight roads. .
The International Association of Bridges, Tunnels and Barriers disputes this concept, noting that toll roads can be more environmentally friendly as they require fewer ramps and delays due to better road conditions and more straight lines .
Frank Mittloner, a professor of animal engineering at the University of California, Davis, who works closely with farmers and ranchers, says consumers seem to make their own emissions estimates when purchasing services online or searching for other information. "I'm concerned that these complex and complicated things are being simplified in a way that leads to the wrong solutions," he says.
This story originally appeared on wired.com.
Brazil: Beef is eating in the jungle | International ideas
posted by Admin @ February 02, 2023
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