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Distributed Computing and Climate Change

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the talking-about-the-weather dept.

GraWil writes "The BBC are reporting the launch of climateprediction.net. The aim of the project is to investigate the approximations that have to be made in state-of-the-art climate models which frequently give rise to inconclusive predictions. More info on the current state of climate modeling is given by the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report which highlights the need to quantify uncertainties of climate projections. So now, in addition to finding ET or curing cancer, your PC can now contribute to our understanding of climate change."

8 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Heat by gl4ss · · Score: 2, Insightful

    well, actually there's a huge amount of electricity wasted in normal heating elements used for heating.

    you know, imagine the power of a beowulf cluster that was used to heat some suburb with the waste heat(and for once, not a joke :).

    if you're going to use the electricity to heat you might as well do something useful with it in the process.

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  2. Re:Global warming by Krunch · · Score: 2, Insightful

    USA is said to be one of the country that contribute the more to global warming. Isn't it paradoxal that it's also the one that contribute the more to climate prediction ? http://cpdn.comlab.ox.ac.uk/map/index.html

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  3. Can climate be predicted at all? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful
    "In sum, a strategy must recognize what is possible. In climate research and modeling, we should recognize that we are dealing with a coupled non-linear system, and therefore that the prediction of a specific future climate is not possible."

    - Working Group I - IPCC Report on Climate Change, 2001

  4. Sounds great, but... by ThesQuid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Regardless of the data, a lot of people will only see this issue through the prism of their preconceived political agendas. I'm not against good data, far from it, but this is such a highly charged subject I'd like to know if they are going to be completely open about the data and the methods applied to it. That MIGHT help.

    1. Re:Sounds great, but... by A+Naughty+Moose · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You want a share of the profit? Buy yourself $1000 (roughly the cost of a descent modern day home pc) worth of stock in pharmacutical companies, and then donate your cpu cycles to the project. You'll be doing your part to increase the price of the stock, which will then become your share of the profits.

  5. Re:Climate change? by iCat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    they allready have come to the conclusion that there is a climate change

    Maybe that is because Climate Change is real. You are either ignorant or ill informed. I suggest you address this.

  6. Re:glowbull warmongering by Krunch · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I understand the joke but the fact is while USA represents a very small percentage of the world population, it is responsible for 20% of total CO2 emission in the world (pdf). CO2 is well known to contribute to global warming and some countries engaged themselfs to reduce their CO2 emission. But not the USA... This is going offtopic and it gives a negative point of view of US. Mod me down.

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  7. LOL by sw155kn1f3 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Did someone imagine a distributed cluster all around the planet heating atmosphere to the point no one lives on the earth anymore?
    What do you need to cool it? Oceans?

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