I'm not comfortable traveling for routine events anymore

Question

As the news on the climate front keep getting worse (not that it's unexpected, but it's still depressing), I would like to minimize my travels and consequently my carbon footprint. Naturally this includes my professional travels.

I assume that most institutions nowadays encourage this kind of effort, if only because many governments and organizations have committed to drastically decreasing their carbon footprint. Moreover in the past two years Covid restrictions have demonstrated that conferences and other scientific events can be organized remotely (with limitations, but it works).

I was hoping that remote/hybrid academic events would become the standard given the climate emergency (not sure whether this is the case?). At the individual level, I think I'm going to refuse traveling to on-site conferences in general. I don't know to what extent this view is shared, encouraged or discouraged in the community:

• Is there any institutional/grass-root initiative about this topic in the scientific community?
• Is this encouraged? Is there any advice or support for individuals who choose this?
• Is this on the contrary frowned upon, considering that physical meetings are traditionally an important part of the academic process.

Answer 1

In my field (mathematics), there were some efforts in this direction already before Covid. Some organizers started an online seminar, and cited reduced clarbon emissions as one benefit.

Now, there are more online events and to some extent it is possible to participate in the community online. However, in-person events have resumed, and many people are eager to get back to normal. I have seen little enthusiasm for "online by default".

My sense is that you would have a lot of support if you reduce your travel -- if you pick and choose what in-person conferences you attend, with a preference for those without long plane trips.

If you eliminate all conference travel, people might admire your principled stance, but in practice you might gradually lose some of your ties to the community, or not forge them in the first place -- leading to fewer opportunities to talk and collaborate with others. This could be harmful, especially early in your career.

So my advice, if you want an academic career, is to travel at least a little bit but you certainly don't need to spend all of your time on airplanes.

Answer 2

This question is research-community-specific and opinion-based, so you likely will not receive a canonical answer.

but it works

I can report what I observe within my own community (in computer science): enthusiasm for switching to hybrid or online conferences has significantly declined during the COVID pandemic, due to weaknesses in the online model that were revealed when theory was put into practice. In particular,

• an in-person conference forces you to disengage from your everyday life: you stop answering emails, cancel your classes and meetings, ask your partner or other caretaker to handle childcare, etc. While in principle you could do all of these things also when attending a virtual conference, in practice doing so is currently much less socially acceptable. As a consequence engagement at virtual conferences is typically poor.
• serendipitous conversations---the kind that happen in the hallways or at meals of in-person conferences and often lead to new research collaborations---are difficult to replicate in a virtual environment. I've seen conference try to organize virtual social events but I've found these to be poorly-attended and ineffective (see previous bullet).
• even when meeting with existing collaborators, working together online (on Jamboard, Mira, etc.) has significantly higher friction than working in-person around a table or at a whiteboard.
• many find that N hours of Zoom is significantly more draining than an equivalent N hours of in-person meetings.

Note that none of these weaknesses are insurmountable; but it seems significant additional cultural shifts and technological innovations are needed before virtual conferences become as effective as in-person conferences.

All that being said, I know some researchers in my field who have made a principled decision to stop attending in-person conferences, and their reputation has not suffered negatively as a consequence. But they've lost out on opportunities to network, build new collaborations, and strengthen existing ones. You'll need to make a personal decision about the tradeoffs.

Answer 3

In my university there is an effort to reduce the amount of flights to conferences. Going to conferences if you can get there by train seems like a more reasonable alternative to not going at all. This ofcourse depends on the availability of train infrastructure near you.