Preventing the Immense Increase in the Life-Cycle Energy and Carbon Footprints of LLM-Powered Intelligent Chatbots

Intelligent chatbots powered by large language models(LLMs)have recently been sweeping the world,with potential for a wide variety of industrial applications.Global frontier technology companies are feverishly participating in LLM-powered chatbot design and development,providing several alternatives beyond the famous ChatGPT.However,training,fine-tuning,and updating such intelligent chatbots consume substantial amounts of electricity,resulting in significant carbon emissions.The research and development of all intelligent LLMs and software,hardware manufacturing(e.g.,graphics processing units and supercomputers),related data/operations management,and material recycling supporting chatbot services are associated with carbon emissions to varying extents.Attention should therefore be paid to the entire life-cycle energy and carbon footprints of LLM-powered intelligent chatbots in both the present and future in order to mitigate their climate change impact.In this work,we clarify and highlight the energy consumption and carbon emission implications of eight main phases throughout the life cycle of the development of such intelligent chatbots.Based on a life-cycle and interaction analysis of these phases,we propose a system-level solution with three strategic pathways to optimize the management of this industry and mitigate the related footprints.While anticipating the enormous potential of this advanced technology and its products,we make an appeal for a rethinking of the mitigation pathways and strategies of the life-cycle energy usage and carbon emissions of the LLM-powered intelligent chatbot industry and a reshaping of their energy and environmental implications at this early stage of development.

Do smart city policies improve energy efficiency?Evidence from China

To address air pollution and offer a convenient and comfortable living environment,the Chinese government launched a smart city pilot(SCP)project in 2012,accompanied by a comprehensive set of environmental and energy-related laws and regulations.Although academic interest in smart cities has surged,there remains a notable gap in empirical research exploring the economic,environmental,and energy effects of such initiatives.Taking 232 prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2017 as research subjects,this study measures energy effi‐ciency by using energy consumption per unit of GDP and adopts a difference-in-differences(DID)analysis to investigate the impact of SCPs on energy efficiency.The empirical results indicate that SCPs improved energy efficiency by promoting urban technological innovation capabilities and green total factor productivity,and this effect was more pronounced in cities that were more dependent on traditional fossil fuel energy sources and had more developed fiscal and financial levels.Studying the impact of smart city construction on energy utilization efficiency in developing countries,such as China,is not only significantly enlightening for China’s green and low-carbon transition but also provides reference opinions for constructing smart cities and the path to enhancing energy efficiency in other developing countries.The findings provide valuable insights into the global development of smart cities,urban sustainability,and high-quality economic growth.

Sustainable urbanization: energy and environment in the Chongqing Municipality, China

Chongqing is the largest municipality under the Chinese Central Government (MCG) in terms of administrative area and population and is now the most important economic and cultural center of the upper Yangtze River and Three Gorges area. The Three Gorges Dam project, one of the largest world infrastructure projects, causes a great deal of immigration to Chongqing and results in the rapid urbanization of the city, and it has brought in a great deal of environmental impact, which is a global concerned issue. This paper introduces the city profile of Chongqing municipality and its urbanization impact on energy and environment. The demand and the trend of energy consumption in built environment (building and transport) have been analysed. The living environment of Chongqing residents and the local energy efficient policy have been introduced. Finally the authors discuss the key issues of the sustainable urban development of Chongqing.

Discussion on the application of the concept of environmental protection and energy saving in the design of building water supply and drainage

With the current,our country social economy rapid development,people's living standard and quality of life and therefore have got improved,at the same time,it is the concept of environmental protection and energy saving is also enhanced value,many fields in our country environmental protection and energysaving concept can be seen in the application,especially the application in building water supply and drainage design more widely,to protect the environment,to maximize the use of limited resources,how to reasonable use of water resources in building water supply and drainage construction,above is current the paper mainly discusses the problems in the construction field,this paper based on environmental protection and energy-saving concept,discusses its application in the building water supply and drainage design,for your reference.

Energy Saving,Environmental Protection:Top Priority in China's Development——Exclusive interview with Dr.Yonglong L,Secretary-general,Chinese Committee for SCOPE(Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment/ICSU).

Energy saving,emission reduction and economic development are major issues China has to meet in building a harmonious society.On one hand,China should pursue a sustainable,fast and sound economic development,on the other hand,she should try to decrease the overuse of energy resources and the environ- mental problems caused by the rapid economic growth. In this regard,on June 24,the Standing Committee of National People's Congress deliberated the draft of Energy Saving Law,according to which China is to take"resources saving"as a basic national policy.This is a key issue to the long-term benefits of China.With relevant questions,China's Foreign Trade interviewed Dr, Yonglong L(?),Secretary-general,Chinese Committee for SCOPE(Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment/ICSU).and Research Professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Let's listen to Dr.L(?)'s comments with wisdom.

On the Development of China's Thermal Power in the 21st Century while Saving the Energy and Protecting the Environment

In light of China s Ninth Five-year Plan (1996-2000) for Electric Power Industry & the Long Term Targets by the Year 2010, the paper considers the strategy for developing China’s thermal power in the 21st century shall be the efficiency and cleaning technology of coal use. Especially important is the structure of power sources and configuration of technology process, and secondly the implementation of energy saving and environmental protection ideology in the various stages of thermal power construction and design work.

Environmental complaint insights through text mining based on the driver,pressure,state,impact,and response(DPSIR)framework:Evidence from an Italian environmental agency

Individuals,local communities,environmental associations,private organizations,and public representatives and bodies may all be aggrieved by environmental problems concerning poor air quality,illegal waste disposal,water contamination,and general pollution.Environmental complaints represent the expressions of dissatisfaction with these issues.As the timeconsuming of managing a large number of complaints,text mining may be useful for automatically extracting information on stakeholder priorities and concerns.The paper used text mining and semantic network analysis to crawl relevant keywords about environmental complaints from two online complaint submission systems:online claim submission system of Regional Agency for Prevention,Environment and Energy(Arpae)(“Contact Arpae”);and Arpae's internal platform for environmental pollution(“Environmental incident reporting portal”)in the Emilia-Romagna Region,Italy.We evaluated the total of 2477 records and classified this information based on the claim topic(air pollution,water pollution,noise pollution,waste,odor,soil,weather-climate,sea-coast,and electromagnetic radiation)and geographical distribution.Then,this paper used natural language processing to extract keywords from the dataset,and classified keywords ranking higher in Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency(TF-IDF)based on the driver,pressure,state,impact,and response(DPSIR)framework.This study provided a systemic approach to understanding the interaction between people and environment in different geographical contexts and builds sustainable and healthy communities.The results showed that most complaints are from the public and associated with air pollution and odor.Factories(particularly foundries and ceramic industries)and farms are identified as the drivers of environmental issues.Citizen believed that environmental issues mainly affect human well-being.Moreover,the keywords of“odor”,“report”,“request”,“presence”,“municipality”,and“hours”were the most influential and meaningful concepts,as demonstrated by their high degree and betweenness centrality values.Keywords connecting odor(classified as impacts)and air pollution(classified as state)were the most important(such as“odor-burnt plastic”and“odor-acrid”).Complainants perceived odor annoyance as a primary environmental concern,possibly related to two main drivers:“odor-factory”and“odorsfarms”.The proposed approach has several theoretical and practical implications:text mining may quickly and efficiently address citizen needs,providing the basis toward automating(even partially)the complaint process;and the DPSIR framework might support the planning and organization of information and the identification of stakeholder concerns and priorities,as well as metrics and indicators for their assessment.Therefore,integration of the DPSIR framework with the text mining of environmental complaints might generate a comprehensive environmental knowledge base as a prerequisite for a wider exploitation of analysis to support decision-making processes and environmental management activities.

Ecosystem Productivity and Energy Flow of Three-Hardwood Forest

The main characteristics of energy environment, energy products, primary productivity and basic process ofenergy flow for three-hardwood forest(Juglans mandshurica, Fraxinus mandshurica, and Phellodendron amurense) werestudied. The research was mainly hased on the thcory and method of community energetics, dealing with fixed position,quantitative test and expcrimental analysis. The time-space dynamics of sun-radiation in three-hardwood forest were measured and the energy compartment model was set up. his rescarch work provided a scientitic basis for the exploitation, utilization and management of three-hardtwood forest.

The determination of sedimentary environment and associated energy in deep-buried marine carbonates:insights from natural gamma ray spectrometry log

It has always been challenging to determine the ancient sedimentary environment and associated energy in deep-buried marine carbonates.The energy represents the hydrodynamic conditions that existed when the carbonates were deposited.The energy includes light and chemical energies in compounds and kinetic energy in currents and mass flow.Deep-buried marine carbonates deposited during the Ordovician depositional period in the eastern Tarim Basin result from a complex interplay of tectonics,sedimentation,and diagenesis.As a result,determining the ancient sedimentary environment and associated energy is complex.The natural gamma-ray spectrometry(GRS)log(from 12 wells)is used in this paper to conduct studies on the sedimentary environment and associated energy in deep-buried marine carbonates.The findings show that the values of thorium(Th),uranium(U),potassium(K),and gamma-ray without uranium(KTh)in a natural GRS log can reveal lithological associations,mineral composition,diagenetic environment,stratigraphic water activity,and ancient climatic change.During the Ordovician,quantitative analysis and determination of sedimentary environment energy are carried out using a comprehensive calculation of natural GRS log parameters in typical wells(penetrating through the Ordovician with cores and thin sections)of well GC4,well GC6,well GC7,and well GC8.The results show that GRS log can determine different lithology associations in typical wells than a sieve residue log.Furthermore,cores and thin sections can be used to validate the determination of lithology associations.Based on the determination of lithology associations,the lithology associations that reflect the sedimentary environment and associated energy can be analyzed in a new approach.Furthermore,the sedimentary environment energy curve derived from a natural GRS log can reveal hydrodynamic fluctuations during depositional periods,which will aid in the discovery of carbonate reservoirs,establishing sequence stratigraphic frameworks,and the reconstruction of sea-level changes in the future.

Application of Key Technologies in Green School Buildings: Taking Sino-German Future City Primary School as an Example

Green building is a manifestation of the response to the national“dual carbon”strategy.With the large-scale promotion of green buildings,the country has successively issued multiple evaluation standards for green buildings.Schools are places for preaching,teaching,and solving doubts,and the campus environment plays an important role in improving students’learning efficiency and promoting their physical and mental health.This article is based on the“Green Building Evaluation Standards”GB/T 50378-2019,analyzing and exploring the integration and application of key technologies in green schools,providing reference for green building designers.

OVERVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR CHINANUCLEAR POWER INDUSTRY AND COAL－FIRED POWER INDUSTRY

A quantitative environmental assessment method and the corresponding computer code are introduced in this paper. By the consideration of all fuel cycle steps,it gives that the public health risk of China nuclear power industry is 5.2 × 10-1 man /(GW.a), the occupational health risk is 2.5 man /(GW.a), and the total health risk is 3.0 man /(GW.a). After the health risk calculation for coal mining, transport, burning up and ash disposal, it gives that the public health risk of China coal-fired power industry is 3.6mall/(GW-a), the occupational health risk is 50man /(GW.a), and the total is 54man /(GW.d). Accordingly, the conclusion that China nuclear power industry is an industry with high safety and cleanness is derived at the end.

New energy policy and low-carbon society in Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake

The Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011 devastated the eastern region of Japan.Due to the resulting nuclear accident,Japanese Cabinet decided to revise its energy policies.The Energy and Environment Council in National Policy Unit published options on the nation's scenarios for energy and economy in 2030.We estimated the economic impacts of the options to national economy and households in 2030.Finally,we clarified significant factors to establish a secure,affluent and low-carbon society based on the energy scenarios.

Students’Feedback on Integrating Engineering Practice Cases into Lecture Task in Course of Built Environment

The improvement of students’abilities is of great significance to discover the relevant scientific problems in daily life,to analyze and solve practical problems,to trigger scientific inspiration,and to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship.Taken the course entitled Built Environment(BE)as an example,this study introduces five lecture cases combining with engineering practices,and examines the evaluation of teaching and learning effect on student outcomes.The cases consider various problems to be solved urgently in an actual project,and evaluate the student outcomes by statistically analyzing the questionnaires.Most of the students actively participate in five cases and cheerfully share their achievements.More than 85%of students are satisfied with the engineering practice and the learning proposal,and convey a little or even significantly change in their understanding of the employment prospects.

Advances in inorganic nanoparticles trapping stiffness measurement:A promising tool for energy and environmental study

Optical tweezers system has emerged as an efficient tool to manipulate tiny particles in a non-invasive way.Trapping stiffness,as an essential parameter of an optical potential well,represents the trapping stability.Additionally,trapping inorganic nanoparticles such as metallic nanoparticles or other functionalized inorganic nanoparticles is important due to their properties of good stability,high conductivity,tolerable toxicity,etc.,which makes it an ideal detection strategy for bio-sensing,force calculation,and determination of particle and environmental properties.However,the trapping stiffness measurement(TSM)methods of inorganic nanoparticles have rarely been analyzed and summarized.Here,in this review,the principle and methods of TSM are analyzed.We also systematically summarize the progress in acquiring inorganic particles trapping stiffness and its promising applications.In addition,we provide prospects of the energy and environment applications of optical tweezering technique and TSM.Finally,the challenges and future directions of achieving the nanoparticles trapping stiffness are discussed.

IRP/DSM and Sustainable Development

This paper introduces the energy consumption status in China, elaborate the affects of the unreasonable energy consumption structure on energy environment and sustainable development of economy. Simultaneously, it points out the solution, i.e., to implement integrated resources planning (IRP)/demand side management (DSM), and gives some recommendations on the way of implementing IRP/DSM.

Microclimate and Its Formation Mechanism in Cunninghamia lanceolata Hook. Plantation Ecosystems in the Subtropical Zone of China

Microclimate characteristics and related environmental energy mechanisms were examined based on the long term located observations in the mature, thinned and young Cunninghamia lanceolata plantation ecosystems in western Hunan Province, China. The results show that the mature plantation ecosystem can improve the microclimate significantly by regulating the amount and spatial distribution of environmental energy, which delineates the pattern of the microclimate in forest ecosystems in the process of ecological restoration. Compared with the young plantation, the mature plantation ecosystem decreased annual mean air temperature by 0 4℃. The maximum decrease in monthly mean air temperature was 2 3℃. The mature plantation ecosystem decreased annual mean ground temperature by 1 2℃ with a maximum decrease in monthly mean ground temperature of 2 3℃. Mainly due to the dense canopy, the mature forest ecosystem regulates the distribution of radiation energy, and expenditure ratios of heat budget and principal energy components to decrease temperature or make it even.

Wind regimes and associated sand dune types in the hinterland of the Badain Jaran Desert,China

Wind controls the formation and development of sand dunes.Therefore,understanding the wind regimes is necessary in sand dune research.In this study,we combined the wind data from 2017 to 2019 at four meteorological stations(Cherigele and Wuertabulage stations in the lake basins,and Yikeri and Sumujilin stations on the top of sand dunes)in the hinterland of the Badain Jaran Desert in China,with high resolution Google Earth images to analyze the correlation between the wind energy environments and dune morphology.The results of data analysis indicated that both the wind direction and sand drift intensity exhibited notable spatial and temporal variations.The highest level of wind activity was observed in spring.Northwesterly and northeasterly winds were the dominant in the Badain Jaran Desert.At the Cherigele,Wuertabulage,and Yikeri stations,the drift potential(DP)was below 200.00 vector units(VU).The wind energy environments in most areas could be classified as low-energy environments.The resultant drift direction differed at different stations and in different seasons,but the overall direction was mainly the southeast.The resultant drift potential(RDP)/DP ratio was greater than 0.30 in most parts of the study area,suggesting that the wind regimes mainly exhibited unimodal or bimodal characteristics.Differences between the thermodynamic properties and the unique landscape settings of lakes and sand dunes could alter the local circulation and intensify the complexity of the wind regimes.The wind regimes were weaker in the lake basins than on the top of sand dunes.Transverse dunes were the most dominant types of sand dunes in the study area,and the wind regimes at most stations were consistent with sand dune types.Wind was thus the main dynamic factor affecting the formation of sand dunes in the Badain Jaran Desert BJD.The results of this study are important for understanding the relationship between the wind regimes and aeolian landforms of the dune field in the deserts.

Recent advancements in metal-organic frameworks for green applications

A series of environmental and energy issues,such as global warming,water pollution,acid rain,and energy shortage,have to be settled urgently.Metal-organic frameworks(MOFs)are compounds consisting of metal ions or clusters coordinated to organic ligands,which show great promise for alleviating or mitigating these challenges owing to their outstanding physical and chemical properties.In this review,we summarize the recent advances of MOFs in the fields of green applications,including carbon capture,harmful gas removal,sewage treatment,and green energy storage.In addition,the challenges and prospects of the large-scale commercialized use of MOFs in handling environmental issues are also discussed.

Flexible single-electrode triboelectric nanogenerator with MWCNT/PDMS composite film for environmental energy harvesting and human motion monitoring

With the rapid development of wearable electronic devices,modern portable energy sources pay more attention to lightweight,low cost,high flexibility and high efficiency.This paper proposed a flexible single-electrode triboelectric nanogenerator(S-TENG)composed of multi-walled carbon nanotube(MWCNT)/polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS)film.The S-TENG has the advantages of high flexibility,high hydrophobicity,light weight,low cost,and high output efficiency.The peak-to-peak open circuit voltage can reach 435 V and the maximum short-circuit current density is 13μA·cm^(−2) under continuous pressing.When the external load is 40 MΩ,the maximum output power density is 3.7 mW·cm^(−2).The S-TENG can not only harvest the mechanical energy generated by biological movement,but also can be used as a sensor to effectively detect human movement and handwriting traces.In addition,a 4×4 sensor array and a wireless transmission system were constructed to realize multi-point distributed detection and wireless transmission of portable smart terminals.The S-TENG can harvest energy from falling water droplets,uninterrupted water flow,wind and percussion sounds,which demonstrates its broad application prospects in the field of flexible wearables.

A CASE FOR SUSTAINABLE SECURITY SYSTEMS ENGINEERING:INTEGRATING NATIONAL,HUMAN,ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY

In the wake of the September 11,2001 terrorist attacks, there is a growing sense of insecurity felt by many citizens around the world. Sustainable security, with roots in the sustainable development and human security literature, seeks positive transformations for the co-evolving and mutually dependent human-environmental condition by integrating （and subsuming） national, human, environmental, and energy security concems and capitalizing on opportunities provided by human creativity, diplomatic openings, modernization and environmental change. The field of Sustainable Security Systems Engineering is proposed for protecting, restoring, designing, and implementing a set of integrated natural and man-made processes that equitably and responsibly meet the biophysical needs of human communities, while maintaining long-term security, respecting financial constraints, meeting ecological limits, and improving institutional arrangements for transparent and effective governance. Scenario planning is shown to help promote sustainable security by identifying the preconditions of instability and helping to proactively address them in an increasingly complex and uncertain world. The six papers published in this featured collection cross policy domains, geographic, political, and sectoral boundaries and were discussed at forums sponsored by the Systems Engineering and Global Policy group. Collectively, they demonstrate the quality, breadth and depth of systems engineering methodologies that are used to promote sustainable security.