No edit summary
Line 6: Line 6:
Touristic opportunities also contribute to motivating these travels, which are considered as a perk of the profession.<ref name="Tyndall"/>
Touristic opportunities also contribute to motivating these travels, which are considered as a perk of the profession.<ref name="Tyndall"/>


While conferences and meetings are important for exchanging ideas and nurturing professional relationships, this can also be done using alternative modes of communication such as videoconferencing and social media. It has been argued that the benefits of face-to-face meetings might be outweighed by the benefits of the alternatives, such as reaching wider communities.<ref name="Tyndall"/>
While conferences and meetings are important for exchanging ideas and nurturing professional relationships, this can also be done using alternative modes of communication such as videoconferencing and social media. It has been argued that the benefits of face-to-face meetings might be outweighed by the benefits of the alternatives. (These benefits may include reaching wider communities.)<ref name="Tyndall"/> A 2019 study found that air travel was correlated to salary but not to scientific productivity, and concluded that "air travel has a limited influence on professional success".<ref name="Wynes 2019"/>  


===Attitude of academic institutions===
===Attitude of academic institutions===
Line 74: Line 74:
<ref name="Gunster 2">{{cite journal | last=Gunster | first=Shane | last2=Fleet | first2=Darren | last3=Paterson | first3=Matthew | last4=Saurette | first4=Paul | title=“Why Don't You Act Like You Believe It?”: Competing Visions of Climate Hypocrisy | journal=Frontiers in Communication | publisher=Frontiers Media SA | volume=3 | date=2018-11-06 | issn=2297-900X | doi=10.3389/fcomm.2018.00049 | page=}}</ref>
<ref name="Gunster 2">{{cite journal | last=Gunster | first=Shane | last2=Fleet | first2=Darren | last3=Paterson | first3=Matthew | last4=Saurette | first4=Paul | title=“Why Don't You Act Like You Believe It?”: Competing Visions of Climate Hypocrisy | journal=Frontiers in Communication | publisher=Frontiers Media SA | volume=3 | date=2018-11-06 | issn=2297-900X | doi=10.3389/fcomm.2018.00049 | page=}}</ref>
<ref name="Coroama 2012">{{cite journal | last=Coroama | first=Vlad C. | last2=Hilty | first2=Lorenz M. | last3=Birtel | first3=Martin | title=Effects of Internet-based multiple-site conferences on greenhouse gas emissions | journal=Telematics and Informatics | publisher=Elsevier BV | volume=29 | issue=4 | year=2012 | issn=0736-5853 | doi=10.1016/j.tele.2011.11.006 | pages=362–374}}</ref>
<ref name="Coroama 2012">{{cite journal | last=Coroama | first=Vlad C. | last2=Hilty | first2=Lorenz M. | last3=Birtel | first3=Martin | title=Effects of Internet-based multiple-site conferences on greenhouse gas emissions | journal=Telematics and Informatics | publisher=Elsevier BV | volume=29 | issue=4 | year=2012 | issn=0736-5853 | doi=10.1016/j.tele.2011.11.006 | pages=362–374}}</ref>
<ref name="Wynes 2019">{{cite journal | last=Wynes | first=Seth | last2=Donner | first2=Simon D. | last3=Tannason | first3=Steuart | last4=Nabors | first4=Noni | title=Academic air travel has a limited influence on professional success | journal=Journal of Cleaner Production | publisher=Elsevier BV | volume=226 | year=2019 | issn=0959-6526 | doi=10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.109 | pages=959–967}}</ref>
}}
}}


[[Category:Air travel]]
[[Category:Air travel]]
[[Category:Academia]]
[[Category:Academia]]

Revision as of 22:04, 14 February 2020

Air travel is an essential part of the professional lives of many academics, and a major source of pollution from that sector. In the context of the climate crisis, there have been appeals to reduce air travel by replacing it with other modes of transportation, replacing it with videoconferencing, or renouncing inessential trips.

Role of air travel in academia

The individual emissions of academic researchers are high compared to other professionals, "primarily as a result of emissions from flying to conferences, project meetings, and fieldwork".[1][2] Beyond their usefulness for doing research, these travels are motivated by career incentives, as decisions to award faculty positions or research funding depend in part on the applicants' activity as speakers at international conferences. Touristic opportunities also contribute to motivating these travels, which are considered as a perk of the profession.[1]

While conferences and meetings are important for exchanging ideas and nurturing professional relationships, this can also be done using alternative modes of communication such as videoconferencing and social media. It has been argued that the benefits of face-to-face meetings might be outweighed by the benefits of the alternatives. (These benefits may include reaching wider communities.)[1] A 2019 study found that air travel was correlated to salary but not to scientific productivity, and concluded that "air travel has a limited influence on professional success".[3]

Attitude of academic institutions

A 2014 study of three New Zealand universities found that rhetoric on sustainability coexisted with assumptions about the necessity to travel, and policies that encouraged travel.[4] A similar phenomenon was observed in Australia, where "a normative system of ‘academic aeromobility’ has developed".[5] Australian universities could be divided into three groups, depending on whether they recognize the sustainability issues with air travel, and if yes whether they seek to substitute air travel with videoconferencing.[6]

Attitude of academics

A 2017 survey found that conservationists' environmental footprint was only slightly lower than economics' and medics', and that exposure to environmental information had little impact on researchers' behaviour.[7]

Flying often has been argued to be incompatible with anthropologists' research ethics.[8] In the case of archaeology, flying often while knowing about the problem of climate change has been denounced as a case of cognitive dissonance.[9]

Climate hypocrisy

How much scientists fly affects their credibility when they communicate to the public on climate change.[2] In particular, a 2016 survey has found that climate researchers' carbon footprints have a large effect on their credibility, and on participants' intentions to reduce their personal energy consumption.[10][11]

The idea of researchers' climate hypocrisy regularly appears in media coverage of climate change. Hypocrisy discourses can be invoked both for supporting and for resisting climate-friendly policies.[12][13]

Emissions and their reduction

Estimated emissions

The Template:CO2 emissions for a single conference trip were estimated to 7% of an average individual’s total Template:CO2 emissions. The total emissions of scientists travelling to conferences for presenting papers were estimated to 0.228% of international aviation emissions in 2008.[14]

In a case study of a PhD project, mobility represented 75% of the carbon footprint, which could have been reduced by 44% using videoconferencing. The total emissions were 21.5t Template:CO2-eq or 2.69t Template:CO2-eq per peer-reviewed paper.[15] (In comparison, the carbon footprint of computers, printers, etc is estimated to only 5.44kg Template:CO2-eq per paper.[16])

Estimated possible reductions

  • Scientific organizations could reduce the carbon footprints of their meetings by up to 73% by alternating large national or international meetings with regional ones every other year, according to a 2011 study.[10]
  • Optimizing the locations of the conferences of the International Biogeography Society could reduce emissions by about 20%, according to a 2014 study.[17]
  • Organizing a large conference in two sites (connected by videoconferencing) on different continents has reduced emissions by 37% or 50% compared to organizing the conference in either site, according to a 2012 study.[18]

Institutional policies

Taxes on air travel

The University of California, Los Angeles has been taxing its departments $9 per domestic flight and $25 per international flight.[19]

Activism

Voluntary reduction in air travel

For researchers, reducing air travel is "the biggest opportunity for reducing personal climate impacts".[10] Some academics therefore reduce or stop flying in order to reduce their individual carbon footprints and/or to lead by example.

Meteorologist Eric Holthaus stopped flying in 2014, and claimed that slow travel made "his world shrink and become richer".[20]

External links

References

Template:Reflist

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Tyndall
  2. 2.0 2.1 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Fois 2016
  3. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Wynes 2019
  4. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named nz14
  5. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Glover 2017
  6. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Glover 2018
  7. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Balmford 2017
  8. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named anthro{dendum} 2018
  9. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Reynolds 2018
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Rosen 2017
  11. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Attari 2016
  12. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Gunster 2018
  13. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Gunster 2
  14. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named sl13
  15. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named aam13
  16. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Song16
  17. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named sf14
  18. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Coroama 2012
  19. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Hasan
  20. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Holthaus
Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies.