PHDs

We went to Iiap research centre this morning in hope of talking to some people. Unfortunately, they were not there. Apparently they will be there on Monday. So we returned back to the hostel.  I went to the supermarket and chilled for a bit. Spoke to Omar and Freddie about PHDs. They both enjoy being at the forefront of their field and research work. It is where it is all happening, so is really exciting. The pay is not the best and the work is really hard but it is rewarding and you could get some breaking papers published if you get the right data. It is what they find interesting and so enjoy it. However, they said sometimes it takes over your life as there is not much structure. You just work for as long as you can or want to, so can easily end up working longer hours than is expected of you. Then we spoke about climate change. Omar had the pessimistic view that reducing co2 emissions now is pointless. China has the population of 1.3 billion and is not going to make any efforts to change and reduce emissions; they are too concerned with development.  So no matter how hard European countries try to be efficient, China will inhibit this effort and carry on as business as usual.