In Nature today, Julia Rosen gives an inspiring overview of scientists around the world who are innovating to reduce the climate impact of their work, with a special focus on flying less.
The article begins with the experience of Stephanie and Fraser Januchowski-Hartley, who traveled from the UK by bicycle and train to the International Congress for Conservation Biology in France:
By eschewing air travel, the pair prevented carbon dioxide emissions of roughly one-half of a metric tonne, and received the Swarovski Optik Green Travel Award from the Society for Conservation Biology, which hosted the meeting.
Rosen reviews the research of #flyingless supporter Shahzeen Attari, whose work shows that “walking the walk” enhances credibility for scientists speaking about environmental issues. She also has thoughtful reflections from one of our founding supporters, Alexandra Ponette-González, who contemplates the distinct challenges for early career researchers.
In the article, Rosen covers our #flyingless initiative at some length. If you arrived to this page through a link from Nature, let me take a brief digression to welcome you and tell a bit about our project. A group of university researchers around the world, including Joseph Nevins (at Vassar College) and myself (Parke Wilde at Tufts University) and many others, started this project in 2015 to encourage university communities to make sharp changes in the carbon footprint of their flying. We have an FAQ page with extensive information about scientific questions (how much does flying matter?) and personal questions (how can I change my flying without ruining my career?). We have a general petition page and a list more specifically of more than 430 wonderful academic supporters. We have an active Twitter feed @flyingless, which provides a good introduction to the work of other people on this topic. Our philosophy places high value on combining personal change with collective action and advocacy. The most important things you can do to help us are (1) if you are a scientist or academic who recognizes the importance of vigorous action toward flying less (even if you still fly yourself), please email us to be added to this list; and (2) please share the flyingless.org site as widely as possible.
In my own comments, quoted in Rosen’s article, I tried to communicate the value of flyingless for people at diverse stages of change, ranging from enthusiastic to reluctant. I noted that university communities can make a huge difference by flying drastically less, even if many academics are not yet ready to give up flying altogether. Still, on reflection, I may have spoken too mildly in this article. Climate change is an exceptional global challenge. Through self-experimentation, we have learned much about how to maintain a vibrant academic life while flying rarely. Several of us have not flown for years. If you are ready for this, don’t hold back and limit yourself to small steps!
