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I've got a friend who's currently travelling around the US visiting collaborators, attending conferences, giving talks, and building a giant carbon footprint. Considering our planet is on the verge of a climate apocalypse, a part of me is genuinely annoyed at him - there is no way the Earth can accommodate 8 billion people who lives like he does, which burdens the rest of us have to compensate for his lifestyle.

On the other hand, these things are kind of integral to the academic experience, and they are very helpful (necessary?) to getting a job/funding. In fact, other academics might very well expect you to do these things, e.g. Shinichi Mochizuki was criticized for not visiting other institutions to convince the world his proof of the abc conjecture is correct.

Is there a way to be an academic without also helping push our planet over the climate cliff?

Allure
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  • Even if all your premises are all taken to hold, this does not seem like a predicament specific to academia (and hence likely to be closed). – Ben May 26 '23 at 08:34
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    @Ben most non-academic jobs do not involve heavy travel. – Allure May 26 '23 at 08:44
  • Related, different focus: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/43387/how-much-travel-is-too-much-travel/43391#43391 – Sursula May 26 '23 at 08:45
  • https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/125446/what-practicable-alternative-do-i-have-to-not-fly-around-the-globe-to-present-a?noredirect=1&lq=1 – Sursula May 26 '23 at 08:45
  • https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/188809/im-not-comfortable-traveling-for-routine-events-anymore?noredirect=1&lq=1 – Sursula May 26 '23 at 08:46
  • see also e.g. https://www.space.com/astronomy-observatories-carbon-footprint-climate-change - travelling alone is not the problem – Sursula May 26 '23 at 08:51
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    Have you heard of the "traveling salesman problem"? The traveling salesman was not an academic job :). In the end all of this depends on the transport infrastructure, like high speed electric railways. – Dr. Snoopy May 26 '23 at 09:21
  • I think this is a classic pitfall of ecology aware people: believing that it is them who can do anything about the real problem. This is equivalent of doing your job on cleaning the planet by grabbing 1 bottle of plastic from the streets. Yeah, its good you do it, but don't think that whatever you do will really, really make a difference. If all academics stop traveling, will it have a measurable impact in global warming? almost surely no. If instead e.g. most short trips are replaced by train travel, then that would make a difference. – Ander Biguri May 26 '23 at 10:38
  • So as an academic, what to do? I guess use cleaner modes of travel whenever you can, if your project pays for it. But honestly, the most impact you can do as an academic, is vote smart and campaign for cleaner society-level solutions. – Ander Biguri May 26 '23 at 10:39
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    @AnderBiguri People who reduce their CO2 footprint realize that their actions on their own will not make a difference, but they hope that it will show others that it is possible, and encourage others to do the same. They often do vote and campaign like you say as well. If they were campaigning to reduce air travel while using air travel all the time themselves, people would not be convinced by them. – gib May 29 '23 at 08:35
  • @gib agree, but then that kidna fits more into campaigning for a cleaner society rather than actually having a direct impact. We should indeed do this, I don't disagree. – Ander Biguri May 29 '23 at 09:23
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    @AnderBiguri "If all academics stop traveling, will it have a measurable impact in global warming? almost surely no". Well, if all academic travel stopped tomorrow, it would certainly have an impact: not for the direct emissions, but for the media exposure and the other changes that it would inspire. – a3nm Sep 22 '23 at 06:50

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