Dear academics in this thread:

This 'flying scientist worried about emissions' dilemma is to me a perfect case where we could move away from guilt-driven individual action aiming to reduce our carbon footprint to become aware of our handprint to achieve collective/administrative changes [1].

We organize the conferences, we have access to the administrations that pay our travel costs and we know the community.

There are definitely alternatives:

"A straightforward way of cutting emissions therefore could just be reducing the number of meetings, e.g. organizing recurring annual meetings only every other year. This could also have other benefits such as more available time for research, teaching, or mentoring. In addition, it would impose less pressure to be away from home for the sake of visibility for researchers with families, which is a phenomenon that female scientists encounter more often than their male colleagues.

As humans, we find it easiest to network in person, but by solely relying on in-person meetings, certain groups of people can be excluded from the global science community. In order to allow for both an in-person experience as well as accessibility, an approach could be a hybrid format in which the visibility and networking opportunities for online attendants are prioritized. For large meetings, a hub format including virtual participation could be considered." [2]

We can do this! The benefits regarding inclusion, decolonization and, of course, emission reduction would be impressive.
 

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Further info:

A comprehensive toolbox to achieve flight reduction in academic institutions:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44168-023-00069-y

List of specific measures:
https://ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/associates/services/organisation/Schulleitung/mobilitaetsplattform/Measures%20for%20Academic%20Air%20Travel%20Reduction.pdf

[1] Here's the concept of the handprint:
https://kolektiva.social/@earthworm/112530668693156607

[2] i love this article: https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/3/5/pgae143/7659884?login=false

@jatkinson1000 @steve @Ruth_Mottram

#EcologicalHandprint #CarbonFootprint #EcologicalFootprint #AcademicChatter

Many people share your feelings.
Our societies are facing environmental collapse. We feel that we have to do something. But we don't know where to start.
...
My thoughts on this:
We need collective action. We can recycle and save tapwater until our fingers fall off. If the structures don't change, individual actions will mostly keep us busy while the world gets burned because of a mixture of rich people's greed, bureaucrats that "just do their job" and a society that has too little phantasy to see the many desirable alternatives to this apocalyptic late-stage capitalism.

There is this amazing concept of the handprint, making you ask yourself the question: "where can I promote societal change?". This is on contrast to the 'carbon footprint' that measures the impact of our individual lifestyle and shifts the guilt to the people. This concept was widely promoted by fossil fuel companies. [1]

At the bottom of the web is the link to the poster [2]. It is quite straightforward to use e.g. in a workshop with other people asking themselves the question "what can we do?".

1. What topic am I enthusiastic about?
(E.g. sustainable mobility, ecological agriculture, renewable energy, social justice...)

2. At which level am I familiar with decision-making processes ?
(At work, university, religious group, neighbourhood...)

3. What is the best way to implement my idea?
(Make the sustainable option the default, pressure politicians, make sustainable more known or affordable...)

4. Which allies do I need? (Initiatives, colleagues, experts, politicians, media)

And here you go. At the end you have a plan for an attainable objective that will make a difference and bring change on a higher level. All that while showing yourself that you can be part of the change, creating community and mobilizing others. We have a lot to do, so this is something to start with.  

Interestingy, the handprint was originally launched by the Indian organisation CEE ( https://www.ceeindia.org ) as an open concept of positive action!

1: https://medium.com/greener-together/who-invented-the-carbon-footprint-the-shocking-origins-13d940d05f59

2: https://www.handprint-hub.de/handprint-concept

3: further reading:

"The solutions are already here" by the fantastic @PeterGelderloos
https://archive.org/details/tfsr20220417-PeterGelderloos

@ratika @germanwatch

#Degrowth #SolarPunk #CarbonFootprint #EcologicalFootprint #Activism #ClimateChange #Organizing #Community #Neighbourhood #Germanwatch